Baby Reindeer: Netflix’s Latest Masterpiece

Aside from boasting a rare 100% Rotten Tomatoes score and being a harrowing true story that shines a flood light into the psyche of a complex protagonist and his stalker, Baby Reindeer is one of those masterpieces that graces our TV screens every once in a blue moon. So… join me while I sum up why Baby Reindeer deserves all the praise it's currently receiving and why it will go down as a Netflix masterpiece.

Baby Reindeer is an autobiographical play by Richard Gadd, recently adapted into an 8-episode Netflix limited series. The narrative centres around the complex relationship between Donny Dunn (Richard Gadd) and his stalker Martha Scott (Jessica Gunning). It retells the real-life story of how a barman’s kind gesture spiraled into a decade-long stalker and victim relationship; resulting in Donny receiving 41,071 emails, 350hrs of voicemail, 744 tweets, 46 Facebook messages, and 106 pages worth of letters. All precipitated by one cup of tea “on the house”.

To briefly recap, in 2015 Martha Scott, whose real name had been changed to protect her identity, began stalking aspiring comedian Donny after he offered her a free cup of tea at the bar where he was working. This one act of kindness stirred up a perverted obsession within Martha, which led to her spending countless hours at the bar incessantly pestering Donny with fictitious stories about her personal life, and suffocating him with an array of awkward compliments.

CREDIT: NETFLIX

After getting hold of his email, she barrages him with an onslaught of obscene and unhinged messages, poorly misspelled and appended with sent from iPhone, despite her not having an iPhone at the time… a detail I hadn’t noticed until she had misspelt “sent from iPhone” in an email sent from her laptop. Her obsession begins to manifest into something more sinister and she eventually begins to infiltrate every crevice of Donny’s life; cropping up at his comedy sets, showing up at his house under false identities, and skulking around various routes, alleyways, and passages near his home.

Although from the outset Baby Reindeer seems like the all-so-familiar story of a maniacal stalker and their helpless victim, as the show progresses, Gadd chooses to divert from the stereotypical stalker/victim archetypes. He instead depicts Donny and Martha as multi-dimensional individuals: “…it [the series] shows in my opinion the messy side of stalking, the side of stalking which isn’t necessarily black and white.”. Choosing moral ambiguity over clear-cut moral binaries, there are instances in the show where Donny himself, as well as supporting characters implicitly and outright ask if there were actions he could’ve taken to resolve the situation quicker. Teri, Donny’s girlfriend at the time, provides a brief psychoanalysis of Donny’s complicit behaviour in a heated argument between the two about Martha:

“She’s mentally ill Donny and you indulged her. I think you love it. I think it fits you perfectly having her in your life. Seeing you as the thing you try so hard to be. She’s the embodiment of all your nasty repressions, bottled up into one human being.”.

Given that the series is Gadd’s personal story exploring the intricacies of trauma and victimhood, he occupies a unique position as both the creator and star of the series that allows him to interrogate his victimhood without backlash or resistance. Gadd goes on to admit that although he was stalked by Martha, he acknowledges that he allowed himself to be drip-fed adoration by someone who believed in his dreams and reaffirmed his fractured sense of masculinity. Something with which he had struggled with throughout his adult life. This in turn, only fed Martha’s obsession, resulting in him being partly responsible for his own torment. Gadd’s complete ownership over the traumas explored in the series, paired with his creative direction gives him the right and freedom to dissect his actions and hold himself accountable in a way the average person can't. 

Aside from secondary characters highlighting Donny’s problematic behaviour, viewers of the show are given access to Donny’s most inner thoughts and insecurities via internal monologues provided by Gadd himself. Rather than walking viewers through certain scenes or over-explaining complex thought processes, Donny’s internal commentary provides a constant interrogative pressure that refuses to position him as a wholly innocent character: “Having someone at the end of the bar who was pure unadulterated adoration is kind of what I needed. But… but it was foolish of me and it was using someone, and I guess I was punished for that in an extreme sort of way.”. Ambivalent characters, blurred lines, and constant wrong decisions are what make Baby Reindeer so compelling. As a viewer, your loyalty and sympathy are constantly shifting between all of the central characters, and Gadd gives you the space and freedom to realign your alliances constantly: “… I like to think it [Baby Reindeer] doesn’t form an opinion or ram a set of morals down people’s throat.”, Gadd comments in his behind the scenes episode of Baby Reindeer. Gadd’s broadening of what it means to be a victim or perpetrator, and unrefined exploration of personal trauma is what transforms this series from being just another stalker thriller into a revolutionary self-expressive piece of television.  

CREDIT: AMAZON PRIME

The profoundly introspective monologues of Baby Reindeer were, for me at least, somewhat reminiscent of the inner monologues from Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s hit series Fleabag. At the epicenter of these two series, are ambivalent characters splintered by traumatic events that prompt them to interrogate and sometimes punish themselves, their decisions, and their responses to past traumas. All while providing existential and provocative commentary wrapped up in witty and self-deprecating dark humor.  

What both shows so cleverly articulate is that introspective and self-reflexive thinking aren’t synonymous with “good” decision-making. This is most notably apparent in the series when Donny begins to masturbate to semi-nude images of Martha as well as the thought of sleeping with her: “There was just something so awful yet thrilling about doing something that would devastate my life even further.”. Despite knowing that masturbating over Martha was doing more harm than good, Donny does little to avoid these temptations.

Although scenes and others like these may result in some viewers being extremely uncomfortable (as pointed out by many X users) there is something cynically reassuring about seeing a protagonist consciously engage in self-destructive behaviours. Donny is aware that he is engaging in self-destructive tendencies, yet is unwilling or unable to stop himself. The series illustrates how past traumas, old habits, and insecurities can sometimes resurface and make it difficult for us to do what is “right” or “appropriate”. Obvious courses of action (like Donny going to the police after Martha assaults Terri) become obscured, and we find ourselves (much like Donny) engaging in counter-productive behaviours. Behaviours that instead of forcing us to be better people or at the very least confront our realities, temporarily pacify our feelings of discomfort. However, this pattern of continuously doing the wrong thing is what humanises Donny. He isn’t an unrealistically flaw-free main-character who immediately overcomes his traumas and insecurities, but a real tangible person: a person who we can all probably relate to at some point or another. The series offers very little in the way of idealism or escapism and instead forces us as viewers to think of the times we have done what was easy over what was right. I’m not arguing that the series attempts to justify making wrong or cowardly decisions but explain that it reminds us that making those poor choices is human.

CREDIT: NETFLIX

Dissatisfied with the ending of Baby Reindeer in which Donny finds himself in a position similar to Martha (relying on the kindness of a stranger) some viewers complained that the ending was too “on the nose”. However, the ending (albeit a tad poetic) encapsulates the complex relationship between the two characters. Whereas most viewers may have walked away from Baby Reindeer with a deep disdain for Martha, Donny was left with an undeniably sympathetic view of his once-stalker which is clear through his characterisation of Martha. To me, the ending tells us that Gadd doesn’t want us to walk away from this series with overwhelming hate for Martha (as that would be a reductive interpretation of the show), but to understand the complexity of victimhood and the cyclical nature of abuse and trauma.

As of now, Baby Reindeer has become a study on the universal anxieties we all experience yet are ironically too scared to talk about. Sexuality, shame, abuse, trauma, and masculinity are explored with a raw and unfiltered lens. Viewers writhe and clench their jaws as they’re forced to watch scenes of Donny repeatedly suffering sexual abuse, harassment, and embarrassment.

This is what makes Baby Reindeer a masterpiece. It doesn’t shy away from asking difficult questions, nor does it apologise for visually assaulting viewers with the devastatingly tragic and disturbing parts of trauma. Characters blur the line between victim and perpetrator, and painful topics are handled with nuance and care. Although this type of quality isn’t something I would’ve expected from a Netflix original, it has proved that with the right direction Netflix is capable of producing something truly remarkable… a masterpiece even.

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