Whoopi Goldberg has strongly criticised Ryan Murphy’s Jeffrey Dahmer series on Netflix.
Last week, the streaming giant released the controversial series, Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.
Dahmer, who is portrayed by Evan Peters, murdered 17 men and boys between the years 1978 and 1991. He was arrested in 1991 and was murdered in prison three years later.
The series became the subject of debate during a recent episode of The View.
Co-host Goldberg argued against the show, highlighting the traumatic effect such shows can have on the families of victims.
She said: “Ryan [Murphy] is an amazing artist. If that were my family, I’d be enraged.
“Because it is being killed over and watching your child get [killed], and then you have to listen to how it went and all this other stuff that, as a person who’s lost someone like that, it’s just – you can’t imagine.”
Goldberg continued: “Over and over and over! I think, if you’re gonna tell these stories, be aware that a lot of the people who are part of these stories are still with us.”
Her co-host Sunny Hostin advocated for the series, suggesting that it would teach viewers about the “young, Black and brown gay men” who were Dahmer’s targets.
“These communities are still marginalised, and sometimes treated the same way,” Hostin said.
“There were other pieces to this story that even I didn’t know.”
Relatives of Dahmer’s victims have since spoken out against the series. Rita Isbelle, whose brother Errol was murdered by Dahmer and is portrayed in Monster.
Isbelle said seeing herself on screen felt like “reliving it all over again”.
“I feel like Netflix should’ve asked if we mind or how we felt about making it. They didn’t ask me anything. They just did it,” Isbell said.
“It’s sad that they’re just making money off of this tragedy. That’s just greed.”
The streaming giant recently removed a tag categorising the show as LGBTQ following an online backlash from viewers.
