The Nightingale Reviews

Genre: Black Comedy, Psychological Thriller

I read and watch a lot of the things that Stephen King recommends. I follow him on Twitter and he consumes quite a lot of media, so if you’re wondering what the King of horror’s watching or reading at the moment, I suggest you give him a follow. He tweeted about the series just a few days ago (Apr 26), and I quote, “BABY REINDEER: Holy shit.” Only my computer screen knows how fast I pulled up Netflix!

I jumped into the series without even reading the blurb, I admit. I like going in blind most times so that I’m more likely to give it a go and immerse myself fully without any preconceived ideas or tropes.

But for the sake of this review, Baby Reindeer is the biographical series, written and starring comedian Richard Gadd. It follows the story of struggling comedian Donny Dunn as he is relentlessly harassed and stalked by Martha Scott for more than four years. He’s then forced to face his dark, buried trauma as her obsession with him takes a terrible turn.

I am big on films and books that delve into psychological aspects of human behaviour. It scratches a part of my brain that no other genre can. The premise of Baby Reindeer can be reduced to just a single statement – ‘It all starts with an act of kindness’. While most people would take this line positively, Baby Reindeer took it by the reigns and spun it into something dark and sinister¹. The plot is kind of non-linear, jumping back and forth between Donny’s past and the present, and I would go so far as to say that he’s kind of a unreliable narrator since he’s dealing with so much emotional baggage and trauma.

I have read that nosy viewers have been trying to unearth the real identity of Martha Scott, since this is based on Gadd’s real life experience with a stalker. I completely agree with him that that wasn’t the point of the series. Throughout the 7 episodes, Gadd writes about very real societal issues regarding gender prejudices, LGBTQI+ violence, mental health issues, sexual abuse and sexual grooming. There is so much more to unpack and talk about than the real identity of a stalker.

I highly recommend this series. It’s thought provoking and just a bloody good, original series after all that Joe Goldberg nonsense. Baby Reindeer is streaming now on Netflix!

Highly Recommended!

1. I do believe that the ending is a full circle moment. Donny finally cracked Martha’s obsession with him – she was clinging on to the one thing that was good in her life from her childhood. Likewise with Donny, who is self-destructive by nature, clung onto Martha even though he knew she was dangerous because she made him feel good about himself. Martha becomes a sort of affirmation mule for him. ↩︎