S01.E03: Doin' a Dahmer

[PrincessPurrsALot]

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Left to live alone after his parents' turbulent divorce, high school senior Jeff breaks routine when he invites a hitchhiker into his home.

Original streaming date 2022.09.21

[ShadowHunter]

How different it was in 1959 no way in Hell today any Doctor would allow a pregnant woman to take that many pills and morphine. Jesus. Honestly even a non pregnant person should be taking as many pills a day as it seems she was taking.  I like how the first murder was presented here. Evan played it as shocked, scared, worried, and confused. As in 1991 it is very cold and calculated as we see how he learned and sadly evolved. Had those cops who pulled him over not let him go who knows what could have happened. 

[Schweedie]

6 hours ago, ShadowHunter said:

How different it was in 1959 no way in Hell today any Doctor would allow a pregnant woman to take that many pills and morphine. Jesus.

They also didn't take her seriously - she was just a hysterical woman, with extra hysteria blamed on pregnancy hormones. She certainly did need medication, the *right* medication, but instead of actually treating her they basically just aimed to calm her down. When she said "I just want to know why I'm feeling this way" and the doctor brushed her off, I felt that.

[PrincessPurrsALot]

The doctor listened to her husband and not to her.  It was assumed that as a woman she was more of a child than an adult.  Trusted to raise children but not trusted to know her own mind, experiences or how she felt.  It's hard to know what her actual issues were given the number of different types of meds she was on.

[GiuliettaMasina]

3 hours ago, PrincessPurrsALot said:

The doctor listened to her husband and not to her.  It was assumed that as a woman she was more of a child than an adult.  Trusted to raise children but not trusted to know her own mind, experiences or how she felt.  It's hard to know what her actual issues were given the number of different types of meds she was on.

I had the same thought, at least on the part of the tv-makers (not sure how true it was to real life). I think they left it open as to whether she truly had issues understanding reality, or whether she was just responding to the rampant misogyny around her (under the influence of narcotics). The most outlandish thing we hear her believe in is the reality of UFOs, which is not a belief limited to "crazy" people. I'm not one of them, but lots of otherwise rational people believe in them.

Either way, she was a piece-of-shit for abandoning her 17-year-old child and telling him that it was his fault.

[gaPeach]

On 9/24/2022 at 9:07 PM, GiuliettaMasina said:

Either way, she was a piece-of-shit for abandoning her 17-year-old child and telling him that it was his fault.

I totally agree with this.  But I don't think she was much of a mother to Jeff.  I did not know he had a brother, and they did not show the mom interacting with him, so I am assuming he turned out ok?  And I have seen interviews with Jeffrey's dad and he came across as a good parent, dealing with the Jeffrey's weirdness.  I think he donated Jeffrey's brain so they could see if there was something different about it from a normal person's brain.  And a poster commented on Jeffrey's life being somewhat normal but he became a monster.  Well Ted Bundy even said his upbringing was normal and he was well loved.  He was just a monster.  

The cops' comments, which were unnecessary, about showering after they left Jeffrey's apartment were probably a combination of the rank smell (probably got in their clothes) and the real fear of AIDS.  Even though I think by 91 they knew more about it than they did when it first came out in the late 80s.  People were terrified of getting it because it had no cure.  And the cops were being dicks too, so there's that.
 

[sugarbaker design]

On 9/26/2022 at 5:45 PM, gaPeach said:

The cops' comments, which were unnecessary, about showering after they left Jeffrey's apartment were probably a combination of the rank smell (probably got in their clothes) and the real fear of AIDS.  

The cops' comments were not only cruel, they were homophobic, aidsphobic and racist.  In '91 everyone knew that HIV was transmitted through body fluids, not walking in an apartment.  So their "fear" wasn't real as much as it was homophobia.

[Kristi800]

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The cops' comments were not only cruel, they were homophobic, aidsphobic and racist.  In '91 everyone knew that HIV was transmitted through body fluids, not walking in an apartment.  So their "fear" wasn't real as much as it was homophobia.

I was living with a woman (sharing a house) in '90 (I was 22 and she was in her 30s) and she thought you could get AIDS from toilet seats. It depended on who you talked to back then.

[sugarbaker design]

11 hours ago, Kristi800 said:

I was living with a woman (sharing a house) in '90 (I was 22 and she was in her 30s) and she thought you could get AIDS from toilet seats. It depended on who you talked to back then.

Perhaps my point wasn't clear.  We all knew people who ignored science and acted irrationally, back in the 90s and even today.  Like your roomie some of the fear was ignorance based, they didn't know any better.  The cops did know better, they were trained.  Their irrational fear, not a real fear, was stoked by homophobia.

[gaPeach]

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15 hours ago, Kristi800 said:

I was living with a woman (sharing a house) in '90 (I was 22 and she was in her 30s) and she thought you could get AIDS from toilet seats. It depended on who you talked to back then.

I have never heard that one before.  It was rather crazy there for a while before they could determine how contagious it was.  Until then, it was a death sentence to get AIDS.  Surprising they haven't come up with a cure. I know there is a treatment but no cure.  

I think this is just as good of an explanation to the comments made by cops.  This is all speculation, as we do not know what is in another person's head.  The cops did lose their jobs but were hired back years later and went on to do some good things so there's that.

Edited September 28, 2022 by gaPeach

[Cinnabon]

On 9/28/2022 at 1:21 PM, gaPeach said:

I have never heard that one before.  It was rather crazy there for a while before they could determine how contagious it was.  Until then, it was a death sentence to get AIDS.  Surprising they haven't come up with a cure. I know there is a treatment but no cure.  

I think this is just as good of an explanation to the comments made by cops.  This is all speculation, as we do not know what is in another person's head.  The cops did lose their jobs but were hired back years later and went on to do some good things so there's that.

In 1991, cops absolutely knew HIV was not airborne. No excuses. 

[Scarlett45]

Evan Peters’ physicality in the scene with the hitch hiker was interesting to watch. He plays Dahmer as awkward at first, then angry (the smashing his head JB with the plate seemed spontaneous) and then angry again as the victim struggled. He was kissing on him with glee not realizing he was dead? What did he think would happen after he smashed his head in with a plate and strangled him. 

[Blakeston]

Having read more about Dahmer's life, I really don't like how the scene with Steven Hicks (the hitchhiker) was portrayed.

This episode made it seem like Dahmer had no intention of killing Steven, and he just snapped when Steven insulted him and his sexuality, and he hit him harder than intended. (Very reminiscent of the first killing in The Talented Mr. Ripley.)

In reality, Dahmer coldly decided to kill him once he mentioned being attracted to women, and talked about wanting to leave Dahmer's home. Dahmer smashed an unsuspecting Steven's head in with a weight, from behind, to make sure he could never leave.

That might not sound like too drastic a change, but I think it makes a real difference. The series makes it seem like he got into killing accidentally, and if only things had gone a little differently, maybe he would never have developed a taste for it. When in reality, he was already a cold-blooded killer.

[Scarlett45]

On 10/17/2022 at 7:47 PM, Blakeston said:

That might not sound like too drastic a change, but I think it makes a real difference. The series makes it seem like he got into killing accidentally, and if only things had gone a little differently, maybe he would never have developed a taste for it. When in reality, he was already a cold-blooded killer.

I get what you’re saying, but I didn’t quite see it that way. Well adjusted people don’t get into killing “accidentally”. IF it was just an accident, even if Jeff hid the body and didn’t confess, I doubt he would’ve ever killed anyone ever again. 

Jeffrey picked up a rock and bashed him in the back of the head. This wasn’t a fist fight where someone got hit too hard or tripped and hit their head. I thought Evan Peters played it that Jeffrey was clearly unhinged and possessive over this guy, he wanted to “own him” and got excited when he was laying there unresponsive. 

If anything I thought being able to hide the hitch hiker’s body made Jeffrey think that he could do it again and not get caught. THAT may have egged him on, but if the cops had searched the car none of the other murders would’ve happened. 

[Blakeston]

On 10/23/2022 at 1:39 PM, Scarlett45 said:

I get what you’re saying, but I didn’t quite see it that way. Well adjusted people don’t get into killing “accidentally”. IF it was just an accident, even if Jeff hid the body and didn’t confess, I doubt he would’ve ever killed anyone ever again. 

Jeffrey picked up a rock and bashed him in the back of the head. This wasn’t a fist fight where someone got hit too hard or tripped and hit their head. I thought Evan Peters played it that Jeffrey was clearly unhinged and possessive over this guy, he wanted to “own him” and got excited when he was laying there unresponsive. 

Dahmer was definitely a dangerous psycho either way. I just don't see why they felt the need to invent a conflict where the hitchhiker calls Jeff the f-slur, and then show Jeff reacting with surprise that the hitchhiker was dead. I don't think it adds anything dramatically, and it makes the whole thing seem less cold-blooded than it actually was.