Baby Reindeer (2024)

[spoilers?] I heard it a lot of different ways about this relatively compact Netflix miniseries (seven episodes, 235 minutes) ... hilarious! scary! triggering! cringy! how dare he! ... which motivated a peek, which immediately sucked me into the whole thing. It’s a wild ride, the true story of a comedian—Donny Dunn, played by Richard Gadd, who wrote Baby Reindeer and stars in it, based on his auto fiction stand-up routine—and the stalker who tormented him, the trans woman he loved, the industry connection who raped him, the ex-girlfriend’s mother he lives with, and just why all this was happening to him. Questions, questions. Baby Reindeer looks insanely modern to a fogy like me. I’m sure Danny Dunn has nothing to do with it, for example, but I had to think about it. It’s not likely Gadd even knows who Danny Dunn is. For me, Jessica Gunning as Martha Scott the stalker steals the whole show. She is the epitome of large and in charge, with an eerie cackling laugh and a firehose of verbiage. She is life-of-the-party funny and charming. It takes a while to notice the mania never stops or even slows down and then to notice she seems to have some aggressive agenda. In fact, one of the problems of beset-upon Donny is that many people have a hard time believing Martha is not harmless. But she is not harmless. She is not harmless at all. She is scary as hell when the mood roars up on her. Gunning often had me pinned to my seat with her various brilliant fugue states. The rape story—all due content warnings, pay attention now—is the centerpiece of the story in many ways, the central motivating trauma. The relative kid-gloves treatment of the assault, bracketed by content warnings and information about support lines, seemed overplayed to me. But I can also think of some scenes I’ve seen in my life where I might have benefited from such consideration, so kudos on balance. The show is gracefully packed to the gills with representation. Nava Mau as Teri, Donny’s trans girlfriend, is very good, a fine performance and good chemistry with Gadd. Donny’s (and Gadd’s) confusions are more understandable than I can say—more understandable than I can imagine. Baby Reindeer is thoroughly entertaining—I really liked some parts of Donny’s stand-up routines, all figuratively drenched in flop sweat. But it is not an easy show to watch, as it touches deep chords and often feels like some invasive biopsy of emotion. I recommend it enthusiastically but be sure to heed the content warnings.