Forget Fatal Attraction, the 1987 film, with Michael Douglas victim of Glenn Close who wants to ruin his life and marriage, after a night of clandestine passion and a great refusal to continue. Here we are in England, in London, in the present day with the miniseries Baby Reindeer, available on Netflix, which is something totally different, unexpected and shocking. This time, in fact, the madness, malice and mental illness belong to a female stalker against a man. A surprising situation with a dramaturgical strength that emerges thanks to a story that does not give any reference points as a genre (light, dramatic, comic), but which leaves you dumbfounded. There are all the narrative characteristics of a stalking case: a toxic relationship and continuous moral and physical abuse (in the fourth episode there is also the classic warning: be careful, scenes of violence will be broadcast, you have been warned), but this time to suffer everything he is a man with all the consequences of the case.
LITTLE REINDEER
This, and much more, is Baby Reindeer which is among the most watched series on Netflix, surprisingly too, given that the streaming platform itself has not advertised it that much. But through word of mouth it has become the story that everyone now needs to see. It is a miniseries (seven episodes of approximately 30 minutes each) created, written and starring Richard Gadd, a Scottish actor and comedian who based it on his theater show (Monkey See Monkey Do, which won the award for best in 2017 comedy at the Edinburgh Fringe, one of the largest theater festivals in the world) based on some of his real life experiences. Donny (Gadd himself) is a bartender who dreams of being a stand-up comedian who befriends Martha (Jessica Gunning) in the pub where he works. A liking is born between the two and the woman becomes a regular customer of the place. And so far it has the appearance of a potential romantic comedy. But the somewhat more astute viewer suspects that something strange is brewing. Donny is engaged (to a trans girl) and Martha is a “chubby” girl who is too talkative about her business, but also very curious and insistent with the bartender himself who immediately notices that there is something strange about his new friend, but However, he decides to continue with his knowledge. But it is the atmosphere, always balanced between drama and comedy, that suggests that the protagonists are not exactly balanced people. «Many are afraid to admit their mistakes, and I believe that many are made to please others. We remain in the lie because it is easier to lower the tension that way. And I would never have wanted to upset someone who seemed so vulnerable”, explained Gadd himself, giving a possible key to everything that will then happen in the miniseries.
DESCENT TO HELL
As the episodes go by, the register changes: the story becomes darker and is basically a descent into hell that spares no one. «When a man is being persecuted, his experience is sometimes portrayed in films as something sexy. The stalker is often represented in a sexy version as a femme fatale who then becomes increasingly sinister. There isn’t the same threat of physical violence, but in my case I was still physically scared, because I didn’t know how far it could go”, reveals Gadd, introducing another theme which is also somewhat of a key to understanding success of the series. In four years, as happened in real life to Gadd himself, the woman sent him more than 41,071 emails, over 350 hours of voice messages and several unusual gifts. And the messages, which in the series the woman writes to the bartender, were chosen from those actually received by the author. An odyssey that makes him reflect, but which he excites like a great thriller.
