Streaming's Newest Serial Killer Series Is Doing Something Completely Unheard of for the True Crime Genre
Published on Collider.com
In 'Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy,' the Victims Come First
News of yet another John Wayne Gacy series could prompt some eyerolls. At this point, there is nothing new about the man or his heinous, evil crimes to learn, so how do you make something new about someone whose entire life has seen more airtime than already warranted? By not talking about him at all, or at least pushing him to the background, as Peacock's Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy, which has captivated streaming audiences, does — effectively breaking new ground for the true-crime genre.
Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy honors the titular serial killer's victims, named and unnamed, by detailing the events as realistically and authentically as possible. But what's refreshing, and rare, is how the series also chronicles the lives, not the horrifying deaths, of the young men, with seven of its eight episodes named after one of Gacy's victims. Michael Chernus, who delivers an absolutely chilling performance as Gacy, had this to say:
"All of these young men and boys whose lives were lost became very real for me. So often we know the names of these awful serial killers, but we can't name a single victim of theirs. So I hope we start to shed some light on who some of these young men were."
It's a sad reality, with victims almost always taking a back seat in these true-crime projects, existing as little more than a name and photograph while talking about a serial killer's timeline of terror, like an item on a morbid checklist that has to be checked off. In the case of Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy, Gacy exists largely to tie his victims' stories together, frequently pushed to the background as the investigation and judicial proceedings play out. In one of the series' most sickening moments, the two intersect when Jeffrey Rignal (Augustus Prew), after surviving an encounter with Gacy, reports it to the police, who find Gacy but refuse to press charges, believing him when he says that gay men "regularly torture each other in this way."
Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy Finds Favor with Victim's Families
In the first episode, Elizabeth Piest (Marin Ireland) walks into a pharmacy, looking to find her son, Rob, who works there. He hadn't come home in some time, but the last time anyone saw Rob, he was on his way to meet Gacy about a potential job. It's the search for Rob that would eventually lead to Gacy's arrest in December 1978. The incident played out in real life the same way, with Gacy confessing to a seven-year reign of murder, forcing young men to perform sex acts before strangling them and burying their bodies, 26 in a crawl space beneath his house, one under his dining room, and two in his backyard, with the remaining four, including Rob Piest, dumped in the river.
For victims' families, revisiting moments like these and vivid reminders of their loved ones would be emotionally wrenching, but it was important for showrunner Patrick McManus to gain the blessing of these families before even entertaining the notion of taking on the project. To that end, his team reached out to 30 of the families, to which five responded (McManus believes the lack of response has more to do with expired contact information). In fact, both McManus and Chernus turned down the project multiple times; Chernus was reluctant to take on the role of such an infamous figure, not wanting to be involved in a project that glossed over the victims in favor of showing gratuitous, graphic violence or sexual assault, while McManus turned down Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy twice in recent years, for similar reasons, until he was allowed to refocus the narrative on the victims.
Beyond the episode titles and their victim-centric storylines, the series goes even further, ending each episode with photos of the victims, intending to remind the viewer that what they just watched "was a story of a very real boy or a very real young man." The names of each victim of Gacy, all 33, are listed off individually in the series finale, and each episode includes links to the Regarding Youth ImpACT campaign, designed to protect at-risk youth. It's ambitious – some would say foolish – to flip the script of the conventional serial killer series by focusing on the victims, but the success of Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy would suggest that maybe, just maybe, the era of admiring serial killers over those they murdered is coming to an end.