Ed Gein in 1957 in Wautoma, Wisconsin, after he's arrested when authorities were investigating the disappearance of Bernice Worden, who owned a hardware store. In his farmhouse in rural Plainfield, they discovered her mutilated body along with the body parts of several others.

Note: This column contains spoilers from "Monster: The Ed Gein Story" and references to murder and necrophilia.

Some stories are so ghoulish they don't need to be told.

This is what I thought while trying to watch Netflix's newest hit, "Monster: The Ed Gein Story." But I might be the only one.

The show debuted at No. 2 with more than 12 million views and, as of this writing, is the No. 1 TV show on Netflix. It's the third in the true-crime anthology "Monster" series, created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan. The previous two series focused on Jeffrey Dahmer and the Menendez brothers, respectively.

But "Gein" has been so popular that I wondered why and started watching the first episode. The series depicts the bizarre life of Gein, played by Charlie Hunnam, the handsome star of "Sons of Anarchy." (Thank you, series creators, for forever ruining Hunnam for me.) If you don't recognize the name Gein − I actually didn't − you might recognize other famous thrillers his life inspired, such as "Psycho," "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and even "The Silence of the Lambs."

I enjoy a good true crime story, and I understand the morbid curiosity that drives us to peek into the minds of killers from the safety of our couches. But I have to admit: I wondered why the creators of this Netflix show went to such great lengths to make us try to sympathize with Gein.

What is the value of this to us, the audience?

'Gein' is so gruesome that it's beyond entertainment

The series is gruesome, disturbing, and tells the weird story of Gein's life, dramatizing his murders and showcasing his twisted relationship with his mother.

"Ed Gein’s fairly obscure," Brennan, who wrote all eight episodes, told Tudum, a site Netflix created for fans. "You take the facts and the things that happened and then just try to get in the guy’s head and try to figure out, 'OK, if that is true, what else is true? What does this world look like?' "

After watching, I didn't want to know what Gein's world looked like or why it looked that distorted; I just wanted out of it. "The Butcher of Plainfield" confessed to killing two women in the 1950s, though he's suspected of slaughtering more victims. Gein then crafted knickknacks and clothing from the remains of his victims. I could not get through the series.

It's these lurid details that seem to beckon creators to feature Gein in the series, as opposed to any other garden-variety murderer and grave robber.

Hollywood sensationalizes murderers

Society has long had a fascination with killers, especially really odd ones.

"We as a society are interested in power. That intrigues us." John Fisher, assistant professor and coordinator for the University of Texas' Permian Basin criminal justice program, said in an interview. "And we give respect to the alpha male. ... A serial murderer is probably the epitome of that alpha domination.”

This fascination has inspired Hollywood. The show's creators go to great lengths to connect Gein's crimes and influence to pop culture phenomena. The emphasis on Hollywood's connection gives Gein's crimes and distorted mind a glamorized effect, which is a mistake.

“Who was the monster? This poor boy who was abused his whole life then left in total isolation, suffering from undiagnosed mental illness?” the actor who played Gein, Hunnam, asks Tudum. “Or the legion of people who sensationalized his life for entertainment and arguably darkened the American psyche and the global psyche in the process?”

Hunnam's question is valid, but ironic: The star, the show's creators and Netflix all participated in sensationalizing Gein's life just one more time, as if hoping to add "Monster: The Ed Gein Story" to Hollywood's lexicon of entertainment featuring murderers.

This story, and many others like it, highlight murderers over their victims, too. Gein's story was so laser-focused on his perverted mind that there was no room left for respect and sympathy for his victims. In a world awash with narcissism, this seems insulting to them and irresponsible to audiences. "Gein" crosses a line and raises ethical and moral questions: Is there value in this blurring of fact and fiction, art and life? Or are some things better left to old newspaper clippings and one's imagination?

“This whole series, it turns the camera right on us,” writer Brennan told Tudum. “It really matters what you look at and the images and stories you consume. They do stick with you, and they do have an impact.”

They really do, yet this fact didn't permeate "Gein" enough to leave it on the cutting room floor.

Toward the middle of the fictionalized series, Gein himself apparently looks at the camera and says forebodingly to us, “You shouldn’t be watching this.” I think he was right.

But millions of Americans have anyway, and I still wonder why. The answer may tell us more about ourselves than it will about the murderers featured in Hollywood hits.

Nicole Russell is an opinion columnist with USA TODAY. She lives in Texas with her four kids. Sign up for her newsletter, The Right Track, and get it delivered to your inbox.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Netflix's 'Monster: The Ed Gein Story' goes too far. Why romanticize this? | Opinion

Reporting by Nicole Russell, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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