Why it’s okay to feel sorry for Ed Gein after the Netflix show, and you actually should

After watching Monster: The Ed Gein Story, lots of people have been left feeling strangely sorry for the serial killer. And that’s totally normal.

“Did anyone else start to feel sorry for Ed Gein or do I need to call my therapist?” one person wrote on TikTok. Another agreed: “Not me crying at the end of Ed Gein, knowing he’s a serial killer and I shouldn’t be feeling sorry for him.”

In particular, it’s the scene where Charlie Hunnam cries in front of the psychologist after his arrest that’s making people feel sympathetic, despite his heinous crimes. People are arguing that Gein was just a “very sick man” who clearly needed help.

Others are claiming the people who feel sorry for Gein are “what’s wrong with the world” and his schizophrenia doesn’t excuse his crimes. However, for anyone who is feeling empathetic towards him after the Netflix show – it’s normal. In fact, you’re supposed to.

@kaylasanderson03

Just so you understand, I’m not condoning what he did AT ALL. What he did was horrific and should be punished but I can’t help but feel pity for him when he truly didn’t remember k*lling those people and the whole vivid hallucinations he would have would have been brutal. And his mom certainly didn’t help with that 😢 #edgein #moviereview #horrorshow #netflix

♬ original sound – audiozspeedz

Dramas like this aim to humanise serial killers in a way that connects them with the audience. Charlie Hunnam told Tudum: “This is going to be the really human, tender, unflinching, no-holds-barred exploration of who Ed was and what he did. But who he was being at the center of it, rather than what he did.”

In another interview with Entertainment Tonight, Hunnam added: “The way Ryan [Murphy] talked about it he wasn’t really interested in what Ed did. He was interested in why he did what he did and that really became more obsession was like taking apart the layers.”

“We didn’t want to sensationalise it. We certainly didn’t want to glorify it in any way. It’s really a deep exploration of mental illness and the consequence of isolation and abuse.”

@martinablach_

Imagine if Ed Gein got the help he clearly needed… #edgein #edgeinstorynetflix #fyp

♬ i miss your warm hands – i don’t like mirrors

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He continued: “And it’s not to say I really feel sorry for it because he did do some pretty despicable things. It’s just kind of a fascinating process to try to understand. It was crazy the stuff that Ed was doing, we were just really fascinated with trying to figure out as much as we could what the truth behind all of that was.”

Hunnam himself confirmed that the show is supposed to explore the deep-rooted impact that mental illness has on a person, and our bodies are made to feel empathetic towards this. However, whether you should feel sorry for him in real life is a different story.

Gein was a real person, and this is a fictional Netflix show. In reality, you feel sorry for Charlie Hunnam and the way he has portrayed the serial killer, not the real Ed Gein. Only people who have met him in person could know if they truly feel bad for him.

While the series tells a true story, it is still a TV show with fictional elements. Its main aim is entertainment, and it’s put together in a way that’s designed to make you feel certain emotions. Creating an emotional attachment to a fictional character is just the sign of a good TV show.

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Featured image by: Netflix