This is the Weirdest, Most Uncomfortable Show You Should Absolutely Be Watching

A seriously fucked up look at desire, mental health, and more

Every once in a while there comes a television show that reimagines everything you thought television could be, unreliable narrators, complicated characters, grey area protagonists, life-changing plot points, and men who are taller than six feet—for me, that was The OC—but now, it’s Baby Reindeer.

Last week Netflix released Baby Reindeer, a TV mini-series starring writer/creator and “comedian” Richard Gadd who plays “Donny” in a story about his true life warped relationship with his female stalker and other people who were detrimental to his life—I put comedian in quotes because the series is about how all of this happened to him in the midst of trying to chase a stand-up comedy career, and maybe he shoulda just been a writer all along cause chile… he’s worse than Matt Rife (oop, not him catching a stray!) anyway…

Also, now that I mention it—I do think that it’s a certain… distaste in my mouth about the “female stalker” because—and not to spoil anything—he does go to the police who are absolutely useless and he’s treated differently because the stalker is a woman and not a man. The show is very good y’all, I don’t wanna say more than that. It’s meant to make you uncomfortable.

Richard Gadd who is 6’2 - Photo: Gadd’s Instagram

Re: his relationship with his stalker, Martha played by Jessica Gunning who—by the way is NOT Scottish but does some amazing accent work here, Emma Watson and Nicole Kidman could learn a few things—is portrayed in such a nuanced way, being given empathy but also being a terrible person in a way we haven’t seen since Michaela Coel’s I May Destroy You. There is so much care taken with this character that the writing is really able to drive home the point that we are all a little fucked up and in need of some attention.

It also deals with Gadd’s owns indiscretions, and I think it’s just such a brilliant show. I won’t spoil it, but I would love to hear what you guys think about it!

Also, I just want to mention because it’s kind of already getting out of hand—he’s asked viewers to stop harassing/speculating about who people are from the show because as usual, people are insane…