By Sophia Albertie
Gypsy Rose Blanchard is out of prison — now she gets to sit down and watch a recap of the time she killed her mom.
Blanchard is probably doing something more productive with her free time the year following her release from a 10 year sentence, but “The Act,” a dramatized retelling of her harrowing story, became one of the most successful shows in Hulu history. It stars Joey King from “The Kissing Booth.”
These successful shows are not documentaries. Oftentimes, a recognizable actor is cast to portray the subject and the supporting characters of a tragic event. Drama has always existed for fiction and tall tales, but we as a society may be ignoring a major ethical dilemma when it comes to amping up a true story: should this be revisited?
It’s safe to assume that most people who consume this kind of media are hungry for a good, scary story. It’s understandable, serial killer cases and real life testimonies can be very interesting, but for the sake of the real people involved, just stick to the documentaries.
After premiering in March of 2019, Vanity Fair argued that this depiction “might be Hulu’s most important hit yet.”
The dramatization of real life crime is not news. More recently, “The Menendez Brothers” hit Netflix and soared to the “top-watched” list in the limited series “Monsters.” The cast list includes: Javier Bardem from “No Country for Old Men,” and Chloe Sevigny from “American Psycho.”
Most viewers would agree that these limited series and biopics vary from important to mildly uncomfortable to totally unacceptable. “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,” sparked outrage across social media despite its success for its brutal reenactments of Dahmer’s murders.
Between video essays analyzing and denouncing the horrific nature of the dramatized series, one can also find “fancams” or edits made of Evan Peters in his role of Dahmer. Comments on these shorts range from praising Peter’s performance to expressing sympathy for the serial killer the show is based on. According to some, he’s just misunderstood.
It’s difficult to suggest any kind of direct correlation between making a crime story into popular media with recognizable actors and the wild cognitive dissonance that comes from learning more about a cold blooded killer. Nevertheless, something like that series becoming one of the most watched on Netflix has probably sparked morbid curiosity in viewers more times than admitted.
Serial killer fandoms are alive and kicking, and the self-proclaimed members are one of the first to watch a scene from Netflix’s “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile,” just to say that it “wasn’t gruesome enough.”
For killers who get TV shows made about them, their legacies are far from over. Ted Bundy earrings are available to buy on Amazon for true crime fans who do a simple Google search.
