15 TV Shows like Dahmer
David
David has been watching TV outside of his home country for over 12 years. In addition to his streaming expertise, he has a wealth of experience in watching sports and documentaries, having spent many years following these genres. He is an avid fan of The Detectorists and Blue Planet, and also has a keen interest in English football.
Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story has been one of Netflix’s more unexpected hit shows.
It tells the tale of one of the world’s most notorious serial killers, Jeffrey Dahmer, who committed some of the most gruesome murders ever recorded. He was convicted for the murder of seventeen men and boys, but his crimes went further and included necrophilia, cannibalism, and the grotesque preservation of body parts.
The show, which stars Evan Peters as Dahmer and features the likes of Molly Ringwald, Richard Jenkins, Niecy Nash, and Michael Learned, flew to the top of the Netflix rankings and is currently the ninth most popular Netflix English language show.
It consists of ten episodes and has been lauded by critics too, with one stating that the show is “rewriting what a crime drama can look like if we stop glorifying murderers and start focusing more on systematic failures.”
If you enjoyed Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story as much as I did and want to watch something similar, keep on reading as I have outlined the top 15 TV shows like Dahmer for you to enjoy:
Dexter
Dexter was a smash hit show about a vigilante serial killer who was trained to use his bloodlust for good rather than evil.
Dexter, portrayed superbly by Michael C. Hall, is a forensic analyst for the Miami Police Department. He is disgusted that so many criminals and killers that he identifies get away with their crimes because of police corruption and institutional failings.
So, he sets about ensuring that they receive their rightful punishments in a brutal and bloody way.
The show looks at the morality around what Dexter does. Is it a good thing to murder someone evil? It’s also packed with drama and action too. A top-notch look into the mind of a serial killer.
Conversation with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes
Another hugely popular Netflix series looking at one of the world’s most prolific serial killers, Conversation with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes, features several hours of archived materials about the man himself.
It also included new interviews with the families of his victims, survivors, and those detectives who investigated his crimes.
Bundy was responsible for the murder of at least thirty young women and girls, quite possibly many more. This show gave a chilling and compelling insight into his crimes and the suffering he brought to the communities he touched.
Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer
Another Netflix series, this time telling the series of Richard Ramirez, known as the Night Stalker, and how he was tracked down and brought to justice.
Ramirez was a burglar who frequently killed while stealing to fund his drug habits. He terrorised the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas in the late 1980s.
He was eventually caught in 1989 and convicted of thirteen counts of murder, five attempted murders, eleven sexual assaults, and fourteen burglaries. He died on death row.
Unlike Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer is a documentary interviewing those affected by Ramirez’s crimes and those who helped bring him to justice. A compelling watch.
I am a Killer
This innovative series sees each episode focus on a different death row inmate and look at the crimes they have committed.
It features previously unheard-of access to the felons with interviews with law enforcement offers, people whose lives were affected by their crimes, and the inmates themselves.
It is powerful stuff as the inmates reflect on the crimes that they have committed and how they have affected both their own lives and the lives of their victims and the families and friends of those they harmed.
Some shows, including Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, have been accused of glamourising murder and crime.
I am a Killer does exactly the opposite and reveals what it is really like to live on death row. Incredibly powerful documentary film-making at its best, with more than 25 episodes currently available on Netflix.
Black Bird
Black Bird is a drama written by crime novelist Dennis Lehane that sees Taron Egerton play Jimmy Keane, a charismatic and charming convicted drug dealer who agrees to be moved to a maximum security prison to try and help Federal Officers get serial killer Larry Hall (Paul Walter Hauser) to confess to more crimes to keep him behind bars.
Keane is an arch manipulator and perfect for the job, but as he gets to know Hall, he realises his own womanising comes from a similar place to Hall’s murderous tendencies.
There is also a fun side story which sees Greg Kinnear and Sepideh Moafi as two cops also working on more information about Hall. But it is the behind-bars relationship that really drives this excellent Apple TV drama.
I’ll be Gone in the Dark
A six-part documentary series from HBO on one of the USA’s most infamous criminal cases; the Golden State Killer.
This show frames the story through the experiences of Michelle McNamara, an amateur detective who has worked on the case for years.
The show cleverly weaves the tale of detective and killer, and while it does unveil the outcome, it also shows in stark detail the impact the case has on McNamara’s own personal life and mental health.
White House Farm
This ITV drama tells the story of infamous British killer Jeremy Bamber who was convicted in 1985 of killing five members of his own family at the family farmhouse.
Bamber initially claimed that his schizophrenic sister, Shiela, had got hold of a shotgun and killed their parents and her two children before committing suicide.
But as the show powerfully reveals, there is motive and suspicion that this is a cover story for Bamber’s own greed and ambition.
This impressive period drama features an all-star British cast, including Stephen Graham, Freddie Fox, Cressida Bonas, Mark Addy, Gemma Whelan, and Alfie Allen.
Hannibal
Hannibal Lecter is best known as a character in movies including the Silence of the Lambs. But from 2013-15, he was the subject of a superb NBC series starring Mads Mikkelsen and Hugh Dancy.
The twist in this clever series is to place Hannibal within law enforcement, with the role of evaluating their profiler, Will Graham, who loses it a little more with every appalling crime he evaluates.
Needless to say, Hannibal uses Graham for his own ends, and viewers get to see some macabre scenes and even some of his favourite recipes. Grotesque, but in a good way.
Rillington Place
Few would argue with the idea that Tim Roth is one of the best actors in the business today, so you know, when he takes on the role of a serial killer, it is going to be worth watching.
In the BBC series Rillington Place, that is exactly what he does. Roth plays John Christie, a post-World War Two serial killer who was guilty of murdering at least eight different women.
Roth is superb but is ably supported by excellent turns from the likes of Samantha Morton and Jodie Comer. This show does a great job of revealing the realities of life for women in this period when, despite playing their part in the war effort, they were still effectively second-class citizens.
Christie lures young women with the promises of an abortion, which was still illegal in the UK at the time. The dangers of marginalising abortion is also a topic of great relevance in certain parts of the world today as well.
Killing Eve
Following up on the Jodie Comer connection, her portrayal of Villanelle in Killing Eve is also one that fans of Dahmer are likely to enjoy.
Killing Eve is primarily a spy series with Sandra Oh playing Eve Polastri, a British intelligence officer on the trail of Villanelle.
Comer’s character is a psychopathic assassin, and while professionally Eve’s work ebbs and flows, she quickly becomes obsessed with Villanelle on a personal level leading to a complex and challenging relationship between the pair.
An impressive cast which features Fiona Shaw, Steve Pemberton. David Haig, Harriett Walter, and Gemma Whelan and an awards list that includes BAFTAs and Golden Globes reveal what a terrific and compelling show Killing Eve really is.
Prodigal Son
This Fox crime procedural with a difference tells the tale of Malcolm Bright (Tom Payne), a disgraced former FBI profiler who has the unique ability to put himself inside the mind of a killer.
This makes him a good investigator and stems from turning in his own father, Martin Whitly (played by Michael Sheen), who was convicted of 23 murders himself.
Bright has to live with the fear that he might one day go the same way as his father. But he has no choice but to turn to his father for help when a copycat of his grisly crimes emerges.
The show ran for two series and features an impressive cast that includes Lou Diamond Phillips, Halston Sage, Keiko Agena, and Bellamy Young.
Mindhunter
Back to Netflix for Mindhunter, a show that is much better than its title suggests.
It is set in the late 1970s and early 1980s when the science of criminal profiling was still young. The show tells the story of Agents Holden Ford and Bill Tench, early pioneers in the Behavioural Science Unit at the FBI.
We learn how they work with psychologist Wendy Carr to track down current criminals and develop the skills to catch future ones, including through interviews with a number of convicted serial killers such as Charles Manson, Ed Kemper, and Dennis Rader (BTK).
The Alienist
Crime is not just a modern phenomenon, and in The Alienist, we go back to 19th Century New York.
Teddy Roosevelt has just been appointed Police Commissioner and is on the trail of the perpetrator of a series of gruesome child murders.
He approaches Dr Laszlo Kreizler, an alienist who would today be called a criminal psychologist. He uses his knowledge and expertise of children with mental health issues to solve the crime and bring the killer to justice, but not without some objections from a Police Department reluctant to embrace the new techniques.
The show stars Dakota Fanning, Luke Evans, Daniel Brühl, and an excellent ensemble cast. It only ran for two series, but they are both well worth watching.
The Following
A serial killer alone is scary enough. But a serial killer and a cult are doubly scary. Fortunately, Kevin Bacon is on hand to help in this gripping and highly entertaining thriller.
It tells the fictional tale of Joe Carroll, a serial killer who escapes from prison and begins to establish a cult around himself. He is grooming a cult of killers, but Bacon is on hand as former FBI agent Ryan Hardy to try and recapture them.
There are three series of drama, action, and gripping performances from a terrific all-star cast. Bacon steals the show, as he always does, but this is all great TV.
Fans of Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story may miss a bit of the gruesome detail, there is still lots to keep you watching. One critic said of The Following that it was “one of the most violent, and certainly the most frightening, series ever made by a commercial broadcast network.”
If that doesn’t lure fans of Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story in, I don’t know what will.
What’s your favourite show similar to The Jeffrey Dahmer Story? I would love to know so please pop a comment below.
