INDIANAPOLIS — More than 40,000 emails and hundreds of hours of voicemails.
Actor, writer and comedian Richard Gadd had a stalker, and he's retelling his story in a Netflix limited series, peculiarly titled "Baby Reindeer."
According to FlixPatrol, the limited series has reached No. 1 in nearly every country around the world two weeks after its debut.
What is "Baby Reindeer" about?
Donny Dunn (Gadd, playing a fictionalized version of himself) is an aspiring – yet struggling – comedian who works at a pub in London.
One day, a distraught customer named Martha Scott (Jessica Gunning) comes to the pub, and Dunn offers her a free drink to lift her spirits.
His simple act of kindness ignites her obsession, as Scott then shows up each day, becoming flirtatious and giving him the titular nickname.
Critical acclaim
As of Friday, April 26, "Baby Reindeer" has a perfect 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, as well as an impressive 87 score on Metacritic.
Gadd first retold his traumatic story in a one-man show at the 2019 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, which later transferred to London's West End and won an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre.
"People came up to me at the end and would tell me things like, 'I didn’t know whether to punch you or hug you,' and 'I felt sorry for you, then I hated her, then I hated you and I felt sorry for her,' and to me, that was the biggest compliment the show could get," Gadd said in an interview with Netflix.
There's already early buzz about the show's chances at the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards, where it should be competitive for main categories like Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie (Gadd), Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie (Gunning, Nava Mau), Outstanding Directing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie, and Outstanding Writing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie.
Meet the cast
Obviously, a show with this much acclaim comes with outstanding performances from its cast. Here are the characters you need to know about — while avoiding spoilers:
- Richard Gadd as Donny Dunn, a fictionalized version of himself as an aspiring comedian who works at a pub in the meantime
- Jessica Gunning as Martha Scott, a former lawyer with a criminal past who becomes attached to Donny
- Nava Mau as Teri, a therapist from America who meets Donny through a trans dating site
- Shalom Brune-Franklin as Keeley, Donny's ex-girlfriend
- Nina Sosanya as Liz, Keeley's mother and Donny's landlady
- Tom Goodman-Hill as Darrien O'Connor, a television writer and potential mentor to Donny
- Amanda Root as Elle, Donny's mother
- Mark Lewis Jones as Gerry, Donny's father
"I didn’t want it to be a victim narrative," Gadd said in an interview with Netflix. "I think there was a version of the show where I hid from my own mistakes a bit, and I offered her this cup of tea and I’m a perfect, nice guy. But I made mistakes."
A plea from the creator
A title card in the first episode confirms "Baby Reindeer" is a true story — although the characters' names have been changed.
"It’s all emotionally 100% true, if that makes sense. It’s all borrowed from instances that happened to me and real people that I met," Gadd said in an interview with Variety. "But of course, you can’t do the exact truth, for both legal and artistic reasons. I mean there’s certain protections, you can’t just copy somebody else’s life and name and put it onto television."
And with the popularity of a show comes those fans who are seeking to know more.
Unfortunately, this resulted in Gadd posting on his Instagram Stories to stop speculating who the real-life people are because "that's not the point of our show."
Director Sean Foley shared a screenshot of the post on X, formerly known as Twitter, because people have incorrectly been linking him to Goodman-Hill's character, who first appears in the fourth episode.
"Police have been informed and are investigating all defamatory abusive and threatening posts against me," Foley wrote in a follow-up post.
Variety asked Gadd why he thinks the show is connecting with people across the world.
"I think it’s just honest. We do live in an age now, whether for better or for worse, where people are afraid to admit mistakes sometimes," Gadd said in the interview with Variety. "It has these difficult themes and characters struggling to exist in the world. And the loneliness and the disassociation that people feel from life, I think it’s way more common than it’s given credence to. I think the authenticity of 'Baby Reindeer' just screams out of the television."
All seven episodes of "Baby Reindeer" are now streaming on Netflix.
