A stand-up comedian sits in a chair up on a stage as an intimate audience listens to him tearfully explain, “I really don’t know where it’s gonna end. I think one of us is gonna have to die now.” And, as he finishes his sentence, the anxiety-laden words bubbling in his gut and catching in his throat, a woman laughs from the shadows. He looks up as fear travels across his face. And so begins the trailer for Baby Reindeer.
The next scene jumps forward to the man reporting a stalker, telling the officer that a strange woman has been following him around for months — she comes to his work and his house, and she sends him emails. The trailer also dabbles with a bit of dark comedy when the officer asks if the woman has sent any threatening messages, to which the victim shares his phone, which reads “I jusst had an egg” (just misspelled).
For some reason though, he keeps her around. Is it what she gives him, inquires one of his friends. She compliments him — his chiseled jaw and manly hands. Does he, to some extent, enjoy the attention? It’s all innocent until she grabs his hand a little too tight. Until she screams at him with vicious, fear-inducing fervor. Who is this woman? Who is this stalker who seems to believe she’s found a partner in a man who views her as a predator? No matter how much he hides, she’s there. No matter how much he tries to avoid her, she’s there…at his shows, at his work, at the bus stop he passes frequently. The question is: did he indulge her just enough to get her to this limit or is she fully to blame?
From the makers of The End of the F*cking World, the series from directors Weronika Tofilska and Josephine Bournebusch is based on writer-creator Richard Gadd’s real-life experience with a stalker. Jessica Gunning of Pride, White Heat, and What Remains plays stalker Martha with Gadd stepping in to play the protagonist in a dramatized account of his former personal nightmare.
The series is an adaptation of Gadd’s award-winning play of the same name. He first spoke about his experience at the 2019 Edinburg Fringe Festival before his show moved to London. According to The Independent, “The woman, “Martha”…sent him 41,071 emails, 350 hours of voicemail, 744 tweets, 46 Facebook messages, 106 pages of letters, sleeping pills, a woolly hat, a pair of brand new boxer shorts and a cuddly reindeer toy.”
While the trailer makes it clear that the comedian has a stalker, it also suggests that he isn’t “totally innocent.” Gadd told The Independent,
I certainly egged the situation on before I realised that it was as dangerous as it was,” he sighs now. “I behaved like a prick at times.” Gadd went on to explain,“I can’t emphasise enough how much of a victim she is in all this,” he says. “When we think of stalkers, we always think of films like Misery and Fatal Attraction, where the stalker is a monstrous figure in the night down an alleyway. But usually, it’s a prior relationship or someone you know or a work colleague. Stalking and harassment is a form of mental illness. It would have been wrong to paint her as a monster, because she’s unwell, and the system’s failed her…”
Hopefully, the eight-episode series manages to accomplish the degree of complexity inherent to Gadd’s experience and lays the groundwork for stalker-based productions that challenge the existing somewhat one-note notions attached to the genre. The series premieres on Netflix on April 11, 2024.
