Baby Reindeer is a British dramedy series created by Richard Gadd, adapted from his autobiographical solo performance show of the same name. The series was directed by Weronika Tofilska and Josephine Bornebusch and premiered on Netflix in April this year.
The seven-part series is autographical in the sense that it is a dramatized version of Gadd’s real-life experience, as a victim of stalking, as well as other extremely traumatic events which I won’t detail here for fear of spoiling the show for anybody who hasn’t yet tuned in.
The film stars creator Gadd in the lead role as Donny Dunn, an aspiring comedian and bartender at a Camden pub. He soon meets Martha [Jessica Gunning], a strange woman with a shrill laugh. After offering her a cup of tea, she soon develops a strong attachment to Donny, who she refers to as the titular Baby Reindeer, and begins appearing in his daily life more and more frequently. The first episode begins with a sad kind of comedy that, by the end, transforms into something altogether quite unnerving, and this downward spiral continues as the series progresses, where that sense of unease shifts into the realm of distressing.
The series manages to maintain a careful balancing act between Donny and Martha. Instead of entirely focusing on Dunn as the victim, the show highlights the fact that Martha is unwell, and that Dunn doesn’t always make the best decisions when encountering his stalker. Obviously, it’s not Dunn’s fault that he has acquired a stalker, but it makes the feel show more realistic that he’s a character who openly discusses his moral dilemmas and frantic decision-making with the viewer.
Gunning’s performance as Martha is outstanding, and a highlight of the whole series. Her portrayal is eminently watchable, and the sheer range of emotions she is able to convey in such a short amount of time is as frightening as it is impressive. Previously, I had only seen Gunning in The Outlaws (2021) as very much a comedic, caricature of a character, but she absolutely shines in the dramatic moments of Baby Reindeer.
The series is delivered in the form of a first-person narrative, with Dunn recounting his experience to the audience, which works well and makes sense based off of its one-man show origin. There are a number of filming techniques used to great effect, creating a disorientation that resonates with the emotion of the series. The series does turn a corner in episode four which contains a number of disturbing scenes, and I would recommend anybody who is thinking of watching but is alarmed by the content warnings to research before making the decision.
As the series progresses, more characters and places are introduced and the story does become a little bit muddled, however, I acknowledge that with an autobiographical show such as this one, there may be a certain reluctance to reorganise the events. As the audience, we can only really accept what we are shown, so it’s difficult to say whether the dramatization of Gadd’s experience was the best way it could have been portrayed. As the scope widened, it felt like too much information and too little at the same time. There were moments when I thought, shouldn’t there be something said about this? At other times, Dunn recited streams of consciousness that felt like an onslaught of inner-monologue I didn’t know what to do with.
The significance of this series so far is undeniable, with the statistic emerging recently that since airing, male sexual abuse charity We Are Survivors have seen an 80% increase in calls. Not all of Baby Reindeer’s impact has been positive, following controversy over sleuthing for the real-life identities of the series’ characters, raising questions about exploitation and the extent to which a writer can use their own experience in this medium. It’s a rarity that a series such as this should spark so many conversations and that is perhaps the greatest indication of how successfully the show was created.
All in all, Baby Reindeer is thought-provoking on and off the screen, and it is definitely worth watching this highly impactful cultural phenomenon that will leave you feeling frustrated, disturbed, and scared, with the occasional chuckle thrown in.
Final rating: 8/10
Screen Waffle 