Osgood Perkins Slams ‘Monster’ For “Netflix-ization Of Real Pain”

Not that I’ve watched it, but from what my friends have said, this is another series that has unnecessary sex scenes. What makes it worse is that this is a dramatization of real people and the sex scenes they portray never happened in real life. I feel bad for the victims families who have to see this.

I also agree with him that true crime has become glamorized. I do enjoy a story or two, but it is a lot. And if you’re making a dramatized version of it, it can get worse if the victims and their families are still alive and are not part of the show.

Oh gross, I didn’t realise this had a focus on Anthony Perkins. Seems very unnecessary when he was just an actor who happened to play one of the many characters inspired by Ed Gein.

I mean the whole things is unnecessary but this seems particularly bad

Ryan Murphy is trash. Literal human garbage

I mean it’s not like Osgood is making hard hitting explorations of the grief brought on by crime. The guy makes campy b movies. I call projection.

And there’s plenty of very serious and very well made “real pain” on Netflix. The recent Perfect Neighbor being a good example.

I studied Gein’s crimes and impact on media for a Queer History course during my master’s program (wanted to write a paper on how Hollywood has an obsession with using trans/queer people as a tool for horror), and this show was so offensive that I wound up giving up on it after the 3rd episode. Not offensive because of the crimes, those I already knew about, but offensive because they repeatedly compared living as a queer person (like Perkins) to being somehow equal to the disturbing double life of Gein. The part when Gein’s “girlfriend” shows him something about Christine Jorgensen and there’s ominous music when she mentions “transsexuality” was borderline laughable, but also insane given the current political climate towards queer people in the US at the moment.

Even without the demonization of queer people, the show doesn’t even function as an accurate portrayal of real history and the depiction of real murder victims is comically offensive in a way that I’m surprised was even allowed. The moment that got me to stop watching was when they falsely portrayed the murder of Evelyn Hartley as being committed by Gein all just to fit their “Gein inspired these movies” narrative. She was a real person who went missing from the area, but because she has a slight connection to Gein (just because people did actually try to connect him to her disappearance after he was arrested, but the police cleared him as a suspect), then that means it’s okay to use her as a prop to fit their story. Same could be said about how they portray Adeline Watkins, Gein’s “girlfriend”, as knowing about his crimes and being supportive of them to a fetishistic degree. Once again, was a real person who had a possible connection to Gein in real life so the show used that as a justification for trashing her as a person.

From what I’ve heard about the rest of the show, they wind up going in a “it could be all in his head” direction, but tacking that onto the end is such a gross way to avoid accountability for disrespecting the memory of real people (especially after how they portray Bernice Worden). I hate that Murphy and his buddies seem to have a monopoly on crime shows at the moment because they have no respect for the real people or history involved with these cases and seem to outright revel in glorifying the killer just to make it “sexy”. Sure, a lot of killers have weird sex shit going on in their heads, but why do we need to portray that in any way other than disgusting? I dread the day they let them do a John Wayne Gacy or Dean Corll show.

Also, unrelated, but I hate that they apparently tried to copy the formula of Mindhunter at the end of the show. That’s one of the shows that I felt truly respected the history/victims portrayed in the show and it’s just lame that Monster tried to tag that onto this show as well, especially when it’s a documented fact that Gein was basically useless as an interviewee because of how far gone he was.

He’s right, and on that note I also recently learned that Osgood Perkins was Dorky David in Legally Blonde.

I’m sick of Ryan Murphy and his exploitive waves. Also I’m the furthest from a prude but I’m sick of the unnecessary nude scenes he manages to somehow have in everything he does

I used to watch and listen to true crime, but I stopped about five years ago — it just started feeling too dark. People’s lives and tragedies shouldn’t be turned into entertainment. I always think, how would you feel if that was your family member they were making a show about?