30 years after his state-administered execution, serial killer Ted Bundy is getting a lot of 2019 airtime — and some seriously concerning audience reactions have Netflix stepping in.
Last Thursday, on the anniversary of Bundy's death, the streaming giant released director Joe Berlinger's four-part docuseries, Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes, to a captive and eager audience. Two days later, Berlinger's Bundy biopic starring Zac Efron, titled Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile, premiered to a divided audience at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.
The combined publicity of Berlinger's two projects quickly elevated Bundy's status from archived atrocity to trending topic on social media. Then, things started to get really out of hand.
There's a lot to learn about Ted Bundy—but for those of you new to the conversation, here's an ultra-short summary. Bundy was a vicious, horrendous, brutal, disgusting mass murderer, kidnapper, rapist, and necrophile responsible for upwards of 30 deaths during the 1970s. He was also considered by many to be quite attractive and charming.
Of course, the emphasis should be on that first part: that whole serial killer thing. However, a number of self-proclaimed "Bundy stans" have taken to Twitter to praise the murderer's appearance and charisma ad nauseam. At present, a quick social search will turn up a few hundred tweets idolizing Bundy's perceived hunkiness and scripting out fictitious seduction scenarios starring the killer. (Fair warning: the phrase "kill me daddy" arises more than once.)
Responding to this deeply problematic social trend, Netflix is now using its official Twitter account to remind everyone what's what.
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When one commenter attempted to debate the topic at hand, Netflix swiftly hit back.
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Notably, this is the second time in recent memory that the streaming platform has had to cope with bizarre audience reactions to a threatening male figure on one of its programs.
Joe Goldberg, a dangerous but also very handsome fictitious stalker in Netflix's runaway hit YOU, gained similar attention from streamers earlier this month. The actor who plays Joe, Penn Badgley, also took to Twitter to combat the troublesome audience response.
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Only time will tell if Netflix's gentle reminder about Ted Bundy's reprehensible crimes resonates with its viewers. In the meantime, let's all queue up something else.
