S01.E08: Lionel

[PrincessPurrsALot]

Quote

As Jeff awaits trial, his father deals with his own demons, the Milwaukee police try to save face and the victims' families share their stories

Original streaming date 2022.09.21

[Chaos Theory]

This did a good job of painting a picture of Lionel Dahmer.   Someone who loved his son but was an absent parent when it mattered.   Of course the big scenes were the impact statements from the victims.   But I liked how it focused on Lionel’s reaction to events and him coming to terms with who his son was.

”I left you alone.  I can’t believe I left you alone.”  

Edited September 26, 2022 by Chaos Theory

[gesundheit]

I don't know if it was real, but I did like the show depicting the shift from Lionel's early reactions to his wife's suicide attempts as opposed to his later one. But from his wife's reaction, it was still just shy of "normal."

[gesundheit]

Anyone familiar with the real-life story know anything about that one very peculiar guy who spoke in court about how much he loved everyone and thanking them?

[Scarlett45]

I understand how Lionel could have guilt. ALL parents have guilt about something, and when your child ends up like Jeffrey Dahmer, of course you wonder if you could’ve done something to prevent it.

I don’t think how Jeff ended up was the fault of his parents, THOUGHTS about stuff like that is not the same as doing it- every great fiction writer has an active imagination but the vast majority of humans would never do the things they think about. 

“Cause I was black out drunk, Dad. That’s why I couldn’t remember what I was doing.” Again, let’s give Evan Peters the Emmy now. 

I believe Lionel did love his son, and he did what he thought was best, he stuck by him and tried to right his mistakes. I don’t think anyone could’ve predicted Jeff would’ve ended up as a serial killer. 
 

On 9/29/2022 at 2:03 PM, gesundheit said:

I don't know if it was real, but I did like the show depicting the shift from Lionel's early reactions to his wife's suicide attempts as opposed to his later one. But from his wife's reaction, it was still just shy of "normal."

I think Joyce was quite sick and wasn’t well enough to be a primary caregiver to anyone when Jeffrey was small. From the looks of things she was better able to take care of David. I don’t think Lionel was cut out to be a partner to someone with those kinds of mental health problems; and I think he was exhausted by Joyce. He seemed to think she acting out for attention rather than it being a health problem- that may have been ignorance, social norms, his own personality flaws etc.

If David did not exist he would’ve been so glad to forget she existed. But when you have kids with people you are always stuck with them (unlike a divorce with no kids).