It might not have had the most succinct title but DAHMER: Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story became a massive success on Netflix. In its first 28 days on the streaming service, subscribers watched 856 million hours of the series, which starred Evan Peters as the notorious serial killer. That’s the second-biggest season of a show in the history of Netflix — behind only Stranger Things 4 and ahead of other mega-hits like Bridgerton Seasons 1 and 2, Stranger Things 3, and The Witcher Season 1. Netflix estimates that in the next few weeks, DAHMER will cross 1 billion hours viewed.
Dahmer’s story doesn’t necessarily lend itself to additional seasons — but the concept of shows about terrible people does. Today, Netflix announced they were ordering two additional seasons of what they’re now just calling Monster, from creators Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan. These seasons, the claim, “will tell the stories of other monstrous figures who have impacted society.” They have not yet revealed who those monsters will be. At the same time they also renewed Murphy and Brennan’s other recent Netflix series, The Watcher.
Here was Netflix head of global TV Bela Bajaria on the news:
Audiences can’t take their eyes off Monster and The Watcher. The creative team of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan on Monster along with Eric Newman on The Watcher are masterful storytellers who captivated audiences all over the world. The back-to-back force of these two series is due to Ryan’s distinct original voice which created cultural sensations and we are thrilled to continue telling stories in the Monster and Watcher universes.
So what made DAHMER such a massive hit with viewers? Was it Dahmer himself? If so, Monster might not last longer than those two additional seasons. Of course, there’s seemingly no end to the monsters in our world, so it could be a franchise on Netflix for a very long time to come.
