From its opening sequence, you might mistake “Baby Reindeer” for a comedy. Set in a London police station, Donny Dunn (Richard Gadd, playing a version of himself) approaches a disinterested officer to report that he’s being stalked.
This bizarre journey begins when Donny, working at a pub, offers a free cup of tea to Martha (Jessica Gunning), a woman he barely knows. What starts as an innocent act of kindness soon spirals into a relentless nightmare as Martha begins to follow him and inundate him with hundreds of emails daily.
Transitioning from its origins at the Edinburgh Fringe to the West End and now Netflix, “Baby Reindeer” stars Richard Gadd as himself, portraying a struggling comedian who strikes up a flirty friendship with Martha, a disheveled and somewhat unstable woman who claims to be a high-powered lawyer but can’t afford a Diet Coke or a cup of tea.
Donny’s candid narration reveals his initial sympathy for Martha, but this quickly turns into horror as her attention escalates into obsessive stalking. Over time, she bombards him with a staggering 41,071 emails and 350 hours of voicemail. Through this ordeal, Donny is forced to confront past traumas and question his own role in the unfolding events.
No easy answers are given, and that’s a testament to Gadd’s remarkable talent. Not only did he write the show, but he also stars in it, confronting the most challenging moments of his life with raw honesty and even a touch of self-reproach.
The narrative itself reflects this complexity, especially in the fourth episode, which diverges from Martha’s actions to unveil an even darker, more harrowing chapter from Donny’s past.
Gadd delivers a phenomenal performance, maintaining a consistently engaging presence in every scene, even during Donny’s most unlikable moments. Equally impressive is Gunning, whose powerful portrayal of Martha will leave you heartbroken one moment and terrified the next.
The real-life horror of the situation is amplified by unsettling close-ups and interstitial text cards that display the frightening messages Donny receives from Martha daily. Yet, these genre elements never overshadow the genuine human tragedy at the core of the story.
Baby Reindeer is often hard to watch. Gadd’s series shifts between hilarious, harrowing, tense, uplifting, and upsetting, defying easy categorization. The one consistent thread through its seven episodes is the pervasive discomfort it evokes.
The viewing experience is painful for several reasons.
Primarily, it’s the show’s brutal honesty. Donny’s standup performances, typical of a struggling comedian, are awkward and cringe-worthy, often met with silence or heckles.
More than once, the heckler is Martha herself, and the resulting exchanges — which feel incredibly realistic, much like the script as a whole — make you want to curl up into a ball.
What is Baby Reindeer about?
Based on the one-man play of the same name by Richard Gadd and adapted from his real-life experiences, “Baby Reindeer” is a limited series. We meet our protagonist, Donny—a fiction name used to protect the real identity of its star, Gadd—mired in a dead-end job working shifts in a London pub, all while grinding out a standup comic career.
Well, Donny’s personal life is more tangled than his professional one. He lives with the mother of his ex-girlfriend and has secretly been dating a trans woman named Teri, played by Nava Mau, all while being confused about his sexuality.
It’s hard to look away from Martha, who is so well drawn and brilliantly acted. A random act of kindness toward Martha spirals into a nightmare as she clings to Donny in a manner that swiftly shifts from endearing to terrifying.
“Baby Reindeer” shows us something we would rather not see: that truth is rarely simple, seldom as clean and satisfying as we would like it to be.
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