When will the flood of serial killer dramas abate? No time soon. Already this month Ryan Murphy’s latest Netflix “Monster” entry has come out — the critically trounced “The Ed Gein Story” — and wouldn’t you know there are more docuseries and dramas yet to come.
Some have worked, others are just lurid and exploitative. Peacock’s eight-part dramatization is one of the better ones, and covers the reign of terror of 1970s killer John Wayne Gacy, the infamous contractor and creepy clown lover from Iowa responsible for at least 33 murders.
It does something different by remembering Gacy’s young male victims and turning them into flesh-and-blood characters. And it goes even one step further by documenting the harrowing experiences of those left behind with gaping holes in their hearts. The multi-tiered approach makes what happens all that more gut-wrenching, poignant and powerful.
Showrunner Patrick Macmanus’ steadfast commitment to respecting victims — and their family members and friends — doesn’t mean that he skimps on the squirm-inducing grisly details about the killer’s crimes. But he refrains, for the most part, from showing the gore.
Macmanus chooses to direct most of his attention to one case, the disappearance of 15-year-old Robert Piest. He went missing in 1978 during the Christmas season and his vanishing led police to crack open the case, and discover a nauseating graveyard buried beneath Gacy’s house of horrors.
Since this is indeed challenging material that could become unbearable to watch it’s a must that its real-life characters come across vividly. All the actors make that happen, even those given smaller roles, such as Marin Ireland. In her portrayal of Rob’s mom Elizabeth, she but turns into a walking zombie and clings to the unlikely hope that her son survived. It’s a performance that tears you up and haunts you, as will “Severance’s” Michael Chernus’ depiction of a complex and predatory Gacy, an unrepentant killing machine who boasts about his upstanding civic accomplishments and can switch in an instant from expressing concern about the prosecutor Sam Amirante’s (Michael Angarano) sick child to recounting how he searched for young prey at bus stops. It is chilling.
While “Devil in Disguise” does temper in showing Gacy’s grisly acts, one episode is graphic and focuses on Gacy’s own confession, and his crimes. Most episodes are largely devoted to those he killed.
Macmanus expertly weaves in how Gacy was brought to justice and highlights both the dogged determination of those involved with the law — detective Rafael Tover (Gabriel Luna) and prosecutor Bill Kunkle (Chris Sullivan) — as well as how the system failed to stop Gacy before. It adds depth and context, but it is the overwhelming sadness over how Gacy robbed these boys and young men of their futures that hits the hardest.
Contact Randy Myers at spoitsrandy@gmail.com.
‘DEVIL IN DISGUISE: JOHN WAYNE GACY’
3½ stars out of 4
WHEN & WHERE: 8 episodes, streaming on Peacock and other platforms beginning Oct. 16.