It’s been a while since I’ve watched a streaming show that has truly shocked and entertained me. Perhaps that’s why my reviews have been few and far between these days — most shows I watch are fine, but aren’t worth commenting on.
Richard Gadd’s dark comedy “Baby Reindeer” breaks the mold. The twisted and highly experimental series is based on an autobiographical one-man show of the same name that delves deep into disturbing scenarios Gadd allegedly found himself in real-life, touching upon sensitive issues like sexual assault and psychological abuse.
As such, Gadd plays Donny Dunn, a fictionalized version of him trying to break into Britain’s comedy scene. We get introduced to him through his work at a London pub, where he makes the unfortunate mistake of being kind to a woman down on her luck named Martha Scott (Jessica Gunning), who is a former lawyer with a dark past.
Martha takes a joke the wrong way and ends up fancying Donny, who is too nervous and polite to turn her down. Her advances soon divulge into stalking — she sends hundreds of thousands of emails to him over the course of a few years and eventually harasses his friends and family. She is a very dangerous and unwell individual who has been previously incarcerated for stalking and knows how to play the legal system to avoid getting in trouble.
Meanwhile, Donny’s mental health declines. He tries to have a relationship with an American therapist named Teri (Nava Mau), but Martha and his own past prevent him from allowing himself to be happy.
Speaking of that, the show takes one of the hardest turns I have ever seen a show take in Episode 4. There’s no preparing for it — it throws you into his demented history of trying to make it as a comedian, during which he’s thrown a lifeline by television Darrien O’Connor (Tom Goodman-Hill), who grooms him and eventually does almost unspeakable things to him.
This show breaks almost every rule they’ll tell you in screenwriting class, especially in regards to Donny’s abuse. But it leans so far into those angles that the show becomes grotesque, interesting and unique. This will either come off as one of the best or worst shows you’ve ever watched (possibly even both).
I still am not sure if I like or hate it — or if I like it because of how I hate it. Its depictions of sexual assault are horrifyingly sober as is its depictions of mental illness in Martha, who is someone who definitely needs help and is responsible for immense harm.
She’s a character that will stay with me. To what extent is she responsible for her excessive harassment? To what extent is she herself a victim of her own circumstances and isolation?
The same can be said of Donny. Gadd does not portray himself in a positive light by any means — he lies, he exacerbates Martha’s harassment and he puts himself and others in danger because of his lack of self esteem and narcissistic need to be loved by strangers on stage. Yet he’s also a broken person subject to some of the worst torments a person can endure, brought on by his own need for companionship.
“Baby Reindeer” is both disturbing and brilliant. I can’t say I want to watch a show like this again, but it undoubtedly left an impact on me.
“Baby Reindeer” gets a 9/10
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