For a few days now, it has been in first place among the most watched series on Netflix in Italy Baby Reindeera 7-episode autobiographical miniseries written, created and starring Scottish comedian Richard Gadd but anything but comical.
Baby Reindeer it was released on April 11, but initially it was little promoted by Netflix in Italy and therefore little considered by specialized magazines, sites and social accounts that deal with TV series. In the last ten days, however, interest has increased thanks to the enthusiastic reviews published in Anglo-Saxon countries, word of mouth and positive reviews published by various users on social media. It’s a rather unusual thing: on the one hand because these days potentially successful new releases are usually anticipated by a big promotion and by the expectations of viewers, on the other because it has become increasingly rare for Netflix to offer high-quality new releases that can be appreciated both by both the general public and critics.
Baby Reindeer is presented as a story of stalking: it begins when the aspiring comedian Donny (Gadd) begins to be stalked by Martha (Jessica Gunning), a woman he meets in the London bar where he works. Gadd was indeed stalked by a stalker between 2015 and 2018, when he was at the beginning of his acting career. She said that, in that period, the woman showed up at all of his comedy shows, sent him thousands of emails and also harassed the loved ones around him (we won’t say more so as not to give spoilers).
The story of Baby Reindeer (which in Italian means “little reindeer”, the nickname with which the stalker called Gadd) however is more complex than that, and is notable above all for the accuracy with which it describes the psychological dynamics – often difficult to understand and justify – behind to the relationship between Donny and Martha, as well as those between Donny and other characters.
Before making it the screenplay for a television series, Gadd told his story in a theater show, Monkey See Monkey Do, which in 2017 won the Edinburgh Award for best comedy during the Edinburgh Fringe, Scotland, one of the largest theater festivals in the world. It was a much appreciated show, also for how it was staged: during the show, among other things, Gadd projected onto a screen the screenshots of the many messages with which he was persecuted.
Gadd said to GQ that he had taken all the necessary precautions to prevent the identity of the person who persecuted him from being traced and that, even if most of the events told in the series actually happened, he never revealed his name to the press. Gadd also recounted the difficulties he encountered before reporting the harassment he suffered to the police, and how he was initially not believed: all things that are also seen in the series. “Generally we look for a concrete reason to proceed with an arrest… but sometimes the situations are more subtle,” he said.
Until now Baby Reindeer received very positive reviews from critics. On Variety Aramide Tinubu wrote that the series «a rare gem for television seriality, which reminds us of what is possible with this medium», and which brilliantly addresses gender prejudices, «since the roles of male and female in this history of harassment are reversed.” Film criticism of Guardian Rebecca Nicholson instead wrote that «Baby Reindeer it is shot extraordinarily well. It looks like a horror movie. There are uncomfortable close-ups; disturbing, slightly tilted angles; a disorienting restlessness inherent in its aesthetics. Sometimes it’s scary, other times terrifying.”
In some ways it fits into a trend of dramatic series written and starring comedians that have been released in recent years and have been very well received by critics and the public, such as Fleabag by Phoebe Waller Bridge, I May Destroy You by Michaela Coel, Ramy by Ramy Youssef e Feel Good by Mae Martin.
In fact, Nicholson also highlighted how the dramatic aspects of Baby Reindeer far surpass the comic ones, and he wrote something that suggests that not only in Italy (where it was placed in the “comedy” category) the series was misunderstood by its own production and distribution company: «when they describe it as “extraordinarily funny“Netflix’s marketers are the only ones laughing.”
Tags: Baby Reindeer rare series
