Is Monster woke?
TV Show · 2022
Monster has a wokeness score of 8/10, which we rate as Strongly Ideological. Woke messaging is very prominent and often feels forced or shoehorned in. Characters and plot are primarily shaped to serve the ideology. Many viewers feel the agenda overshadows the entertainment.
Key points
- Emphasizes police racial and homophobic bias as primary enabler of Dahmer's crimes against minority victims.
- Features explicit social commentary via Jesse Jackson character linking murders to systemic undervaluing of Black and gay lives.
- Centers Black neighbor Glenda Cleveland and victim perspectives to highlight ignored marginalized voices over killer's story.
Wokeness analysis
The Netflix anthology series Monster (2022), primarily known through its first season Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, heavily incorporates progressive social and political messaging centered on systemic racism, police bias against minorities and LGBTQ individuals, and societal failures to protect marginalized communities. Created by Ryan Murphy, known for identity-focused content, the series dramatizes the Dahmer case not just as true crime but as a vehicle to highlight how prejudice against Black, Latino, Asian, and gay victims enabled the crimes. Key elements include extended focus on neighbor Glenda Cleveland (Niecy Nash), a Black woman whose warnings are ignored due to racial and class biases; scenes of police dismissing concerns from victims' families with accents or backgrounds; and a cameo by Jesse Jackson explicitly framing the murders as a metaphor for national social ills like bad policing and undervaluing of young Black and brown gay men. Later episodes shift into courtroom and community reactions emphasizing these themes, with critics noting the agenda often overshadows the horror narrative. Netflix initially tagged it LGBTQ before backlash, underscoring the intentional framing. While rooted in some historical facts about victim demographics, the execution feels message-driven, shoehorning contemporary identity politics into a 1990s story to deliver commentary on prejudice, making entertainment secondary to ideological critique. Subsequent seasons on Menendez brothers and others continue the anthology format but the core Dahmer season sets the heavily ideological tone.
Plot
Monster is an American biographical crime drama anthology series created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan for Netflix, premiering September 21, 2022. Each season focuses on a different notorious killer from American history. The inaugural season, Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, stars Evan Peters as serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer and examines his 1978-1991 murders of 17 mostly young Black, Latino, Asian, and gay men in Wisconsin and Ohio. It dramatizes the crimes, failed police investigations, and impacts on victims and communities, with supporting cast including Richard Jenkins as Lionel Dahmer, Niecy Nash as neighbor Glenda Cleveland, and Molly Ringwald as Shari Dahmer. The series explores Dahmer's background alongside societal factors. Later seasons cover the Menendez brothers (2024), Ed Gein (2025), and upcoming Lizzie Borden (2026).
Analyzed by AI on September 3, 2026