Overview

• The Netflix season has rapidly become the platform’s most-watched program worldwide, according to UK coverage citing viewership data.
• Journalists note the drama mixes documented events with invented scenes, with no evidence Gein contacted Ted Bundy or Richard Speck or aided the FBI.
• Professor Paul E. Mullen told Reach Screen Time that some offenders may have been aware of Gein, though clear cause-and-effect influence is uncertain.
• Mullen said knowledge of past killers can be part of a broader fascination with death and horror rather than straightforward imitation.
• He added that preventing a case like Gein’s would have been difficult and cautioned that increasingly immersive media may blur reality for at-risk individuals.