There is something about viewing “Baby Reindeer” that tends to go against the grain of other audiovisual products. Netflix’s unexpected hit is as appealing as it is difficult to chew. Its content is distressing, and it requires a certain process that prevents you from watching it in one sitting beyond the fact that its seven episodes that range between 27 and 45 minutes in length invite you to do so. A marathonable series, impossible to marathon. Or at least if as viewers, we don’t want to get too hurt.
It is a British series that since its premiere in April has remained among the most watched on the popular Netlfix platform. The truth is that he has done it without much press and with a title that, even for search engines, is not too seductive. Quite a surprise that managed to take hold after good reviews and word of mouth from the public.
We are talking about a powerful comedy-drama created, produced, written and starring the Scottish artist, today almost a celebrity, Richard Gadd. The genesis of “Baby Reindeer” (Baby Reindeer in its original language) has to do with terrifying events that Gadd experienced firsthand for more than two years. That is one of its main attractions.
In 2019, Gadd initially expressed his work in theater, leading a monologue through which he revealed the constant pressure he experienced as a victim of harassment from a woman twenty years older than him. The work was acclaimed and nominated for prestigious awards, including the Olivier (one of the most important in England).
A couple of years later it began its adaptation in miniseries format with the premise of replicating the intimate character achieved on stage. The numbers don’t lie and they say so: with more than two and a half million views in its first week, “Reindeer Baby” is one of the biggest hits of the year in terms of streaming.
“Baby Reindeer” does not go unnoticed. In less than four hours she navigates numerous dimensions finding the best fit for him as Gadd describes the various sorrows of his character. He does it honestly, as a kind of catharsis. The series escalates and what at first seemed like a regular comedy portraying the misadventures of a frustrated stand-up comedian, begins to become dense, dark and disturbing as the minutes pass.
“Based on the hit, award-winning solo play from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Reindeer Baby follows struggling comedian Donny Dunn’s (Richard Gadd) twisted relationship with his stalker, exploring how this situation affects him as he is forced to confront trauma. buried in the depths of his being,” advances the official synopsis of the series.
The captivating story also stars Jessica Gunning as Martha, Nava Mau as Teri and Tom Goodman-Hill as Darrien.
The Serie
Donny Dunn (Gadd) is a young man who dreams of devoting himself to stand-up comedy. He is not doing well at all, his style, which he calls anti-comedy, is strange to say the least, a humor in many cases physical that accompanies the use of objects that he usually takes out of a suitcase. While he waits for his big opportunity, he works behind the counter of a pub in Camden (London) serving drinks and beers. One day Martha (Jessica Gunning) enters, a middle-aged woman, apparently sad, who sits at the bar with no money to pay for anything. As she cries, Donny gives her a smile and buys her a hot tea. That simple and supportive gesture will be the starting point of a sick and incessant harassment on her part.
From that moment on, Martha will go to the bar every day, tell him crazy stories about her brushes with celebrities, and appear at Donny’s different shows. She will comment on each post on her social networks, she will perceive herself as her partner and she will write provocative and uncomfortable things to a protagonist who, vulnerable, will not find the necessary emotional tools to escape from it. Donny even has difficulty formalizing his relationship with a trans girl, scared not only by what Martha could do to him when she finds out about her, but also overwhelmed by an event from the past that will be revealed as the chapters go by.
Martha’s obsessive behavior can be measured thanks to figures revealed by the platform: in real life Gadd received between 2015 and 2017 a total of 41,071 emails, 350 hours of voice messages, 744 tweets, 46 messages, four fake Facebook accounts and 106 letters.
Despite this, it is necessary to highlight that “Baby Reindeer” is much more than a story of harassment. Even as a portrait of an obsession, it draws parallels with “Misery” (1990), the film with Kathy Bates and James Caan based on the novel by Stephen King. The series has an agile montage, functional to a script that does not waste time. Gadd establishes the conflict and then goes deeper into the frailties of the human being and the psychology of his character. It is a story about trauma, frustration, relapses and lack of self-esteem. A story of internal and external demons.
The fourth episode works as a break in the plot. Through the use of flashbacks that place the protagonist at the beginning of his career, a series of situations that explain his way of acting are presented in a crude and violent way. Donny is weak and insecure, characteristics that underpin the treatment that both Martha and others have with him. In his attempt to be loved, how not to give in to flattery?
The performances of the leading duo are among the best in the series. While Jessica Gunning’s role as Martha is truly consecrated, the commitment shown by Richard Gadd takes all the honors. It is up to the artist to relive, almost as if it were a spiral, each of the traumatic situations he went through. He sincerely describes and interprets them to finally transform them into art. He undoubtedly found acting the best method to chase away his ghosts. Its composition is cathartic and healing.
“Baby Reindeer” is a great miniseries in which the humor gradually disappears and approaches horror. Donny, with all the difficulties that he brings and his lukewarm handling of crises, is, after all, an ordinary human being, someone who does what he can. His character and Martha’s (whose psychological condition is treated with great respect) do nothing more than externalize his cries of despair. With this they make the viewer empathize and identify with the series. There are no happy endings, no restorative closures. We are facing a complex work, full of gray tones, where the limits between victims, perpetrators, innocent or guilty; They are totally diffuse.
Data sheet
Baby Reindeer (Baby Reindeer, United Kingdom, 2024). Comedy drama. Direction: Weronika Tofilska (E1, 2, 3 and 4) and Josephine Bornebusch (E5, 6 and 7). Screenplay: Richard Gadd. Cast: Richard Gadd, Jessica Gunning, Nava Mau, Danny Kirrane, Thomas Coombes, Shalom Brune-Franklin, Tom Goodman-Hill, Nina Sosanya, Hugh Coles and Michael Wildman. Music: Evgueni Galperine and Sacha Galperine. Suitable for over 18 years. On Netflix.
CULTURE
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