Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy (Series)

So, there’ve been a bunch of movies and shows about the whole John Gacy nightmare—that serial killer who raped and murdered over 33 young guys in Des Plaines, IL. This version is eight episodes, an hour each, and it really digs into one of the worst spree killers and sexual predators we've ever seen in America. What’s wild is that the violence you see on screen is almost totally psychological. The show doesn’t really get into the weeds of the court case; it’s way more interested in how they actually caught him after that last missing person report came in. It spends a ton of time on the victims, their personal stories, their families, and just how much this whole thing wrecked the people left behind.

It all starts with the frantic search for Rob Piest after his parents tell the cops he’s missing. Gacy is the guy everyone points to since he was the last one seen with him, but the cops find nothing at first. They decide to shadow him for a few days, and slowly, the truth starts bubbling up. By the end of the first episode, the investigation flips from just watching a contractor go about his day to the absolute horror of what’s hidden in the crawlspace of his house. From there, every episode is named after one of Gacy’s victims and uses flashbacks to show who they were as people before they got trapped by him. While that’s happening, we see the lawyers on both sides just doing their jobs, trying to figure out if they can get him the death penalty or prove he’s legally insane. You don’t actually see the killings here. Instead, it’s mostly about the investigators, the lawyers, and the massive trauma they all dealt with. As Gacy tries to claim he only killed people in self-defense, we watch the lives of the officers and attorneys change forever. Honestly, focusing on the victims and their families really hits you with what could have been. The show also points out the massive gaps in how the police handled missing kids back then and the huge stigma against gay people that basically let Gacy keep killing without being stopped.

Michael Chernus is easily the best Gacy I’ve ever seen, but the whole cast playing the victims, families, and cops really levels up the show. You can tell the writers did their homework to make those missing boys feel real. Besides the small stuff about their moms and families, they show us kids who might’ve been growing up on the "wrong side of the tracks." Some characters are real people, but others are fictionalized to show what life was like for the poor, troubled, and vulnerable young men—a lot of them LGBTQ+—that he preyed on. It also tackles the systemic mess in Chicago law enforcement that let him live in plain sight, like how they didn't share his criminal past with other departments or how they just ignored male sexual assault victims and missing person reports because of their age, criminal record, or sexuality. It’s definitely less "flashy" than other serial killer dramas, but it still uses detailed talk about the violence and some gross imagery to show how much of a psychopath he was. Seeing the suffering of the families and the photos of the victims was definitely the hardest part to sit through. If you like fast-paced dramas, you might be let down, but the goal here was just different. I’ll be honest, the show tested my patience a few times; I really wanted it to speed up and show the court proceedings, but that’s on me and my taste, not the makers. They went with a more humane, empathetic vibe that’ll work for most people, even if it doesn't for everyone. It’s way more respectful to the victims and their families than most other shows like this.

It’s a heavy, empathetic look at the people Gacy destroyed rather than just a show about a monster, highlighting the police failures that let it happen. It’s a slow, tough watch that really cares about the human side of the tragedy. (7/10)