Created by comic artist Richard Gadd. The series is based on the creator’s own true story of sexual stalking, with series of Netflix ends up being an extreme form of therapy but also the scariest show of 2024 so far.
When the trailer for the new Netflix series was released, Baby Reindeer, in early April, it looked like it would be your average drama seen on the platform – a pleasant story of a comedian and an annoying stalker.
That Baby Reindeer it hits the viewer mercilessly at moments when they least expect it. And that’s what makes it special.
The plot
In 2015, a woman walked into the London pub where Gad worked, who offered her a cup of tea and struck up a conversation with her. Then, for three years, she began a “campaign of harassment” against him, starting with showing up non-stop at his work and stand-up comedy shows. She sent him more than 41,000 messages during that time, and once she found his cell phone number, she left him 350 hours of phone messages.
She sent him gifts (calling him “baby reindeer” because of a game from her childhood) and then started harassing his family as well. When Gad went to the police to report her, they initially failed to help him, he told the Guardian:
“They told me that I was unfairly bothering the police.”
Like a horror movie
Rarely any sexual harassment it has been shown so raw and starkly on television. The Baby Reindeer it almost looks like a horror movie. Gadd is courageously open and honest about this traumatic experience and a skilled creator in translating the complexities of the situation for a television audience.
Journey with the trauma
In some ways, Baby Reindeer is reminiscent of Michaela Coel’s genre-defining 2020 series I May Destroy You, in which she recounts her rape by a stranger and the terrible psychological impact that event had on her.
Both series offer a uniquely powerful perspective on having their writers participate in a story based on their experience – in a way that Coel has referred to as a “cathartic experience” and Gadd has described as “the best therapy for me, a saving event in my life.”
In both series, however, the characters’ journey with their trauma ends on an ambiguous note. We won’t say more so as not to spoil it for you. Just look at it.
