I was kind of surprised to have finished watching this series to look over at the reviews and found out that almost all professional reviewers of this series gave it very low marks.
Despite being a fan of horror films for a very long time I had never heard of Ed Gein who apparently was the inspiration behind Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and other films as well. Unlike those stories though, Ed Gein was a real person who did cut skin off of people and "wear them."
He was an unusual criminal in that he didn't see anything wrong with what he was doing and when busted by the police he didn't run, didn't fight, didn't do anything other than tell them exactly what had happened. Along the way though, he was a very violent person at times but also very kind in others. A true psychopath if you will.
The series does a pretty decent job showcasing this and how his relationship with his mother is what got it all started, or at least that is what the story would have us believe.
While Ed is a bit strange, he is polite and even generously helpful to other people in his small Wisconsin town. I think the idea here is that when someone would go missing, the last person that anyone would suspect is the mild-mannered farm boy who for the most part keeps to himself, is always very well-groomed, and will help people in need.
The fact that he shot people and dragged them off to his barn so that he could remove their body parts to wear as masks was something that of course is truly awful and difficult to understand the mind of a person that would do that. But to Gein, this was just a hobby and for whatever reason, it never registered to him that this is something that you definitely shouldn't do.
While I found the show to be very tense and entertaining, I guess I can understand why some of the critics would state that it was overly graphic and bordered on being a cheesy slasher gore flick rather than some sort of dramatic representation of a truly awful person. Towards the end of it they almost seem to romanticize his life and maybe that is what ticked off many of the professional critics.
Critics also stated that the number of side stories, such as how his life inspired many film-makers, were a distraction from the actual story of his life. Most of them would admit that they did enjoy that part of the series, but could have done without the extra stuff such as an entire episode where Alfred Hitchcock has more screentime than Ed Gein does.
As is often the case though, the critics and regular viewers differ quite a lot in their opines but overall it seems as though most people didn't enjoy this series nearly as much as I did.
perhaps I enjoyed it so much more than the average person because I had no idea that Ed Gein was a real person and I knew nothing of his existence or history. At one point I had to look up to make sure that this wasn't another "true story" the likes what the Coens did to me with the Fargo series.
But if we are looking at reviews it is worth noting that on IMDB this series has a 7.8 out of 10 so what gives? I know that both of these sites are rigged to some degree but this is the first time I have seen a discrepancy this high between the two big ones.
At first I was upset at Charlie Hunnam's portrayal of Ed Gein because his voice is so high pitched and difficult to hear that I had to turn on the subtitles, but then I later found out that this is actually how the real Ed Gein sounded, so I guess I can say, well done to you Charlie.
Critics claimed that the series was too long and I'm not going to argue with that. Like a lot of things that Netflix does, this thing was more than double the length that it actually needed to be. For me though this was actually fine because again, I had no idea about the man's life and to me it was kind of surprising the very high level of freedom that he had at the mental institution including having unsupervised access to things that definitely could be considered weapons such as scissors and not the plastic edged ones that you would let children use in elementary school either.
Should I watch it?
It depends. If you enjoyed the jeffrey Dahmer Story that was made by the same people I think you will like this one too. It does move a bit slower and just like the critics said, it focuses on the impact that Gein had on horror cinema culture a bit too much but I guess that was just a creative decision that didn't go over too well. If there is one way to piss off a self-absorbed movie-critic it would be to make definitive statements about the origin of cinema.
I liked it, but the gore factor is definitely there and there are some very shocking and gross moments in it as well. This is definitely not something you want to watch with the kiddos because it is of a very depraved sexual nature as well.
I found it entertaining and informative although I can kind of agree with the critics that the "side missions" detract from the real story here which should be the actual life of the actual person in question. Perhaps it is because not a great deal is actually known about Ed Gein that they decided to go this route.
I say give it a shot (if you are an adult) and let the first couple of episodes make that choice for you.
currently, the only legal way to watch this is with a standard Netflix subscription
