Baby Reindeer

Shocking, hilarious, painful and devastating, “Baby Reindeer” is a rare gem on television, reminding us of what is possible in the medium.

Richard Gadd confronts and processes his real-life trauma in a brave, moving, and often disturbing watch that's rooted in comedy, yet the tears you'll shed won't be tears of joy or laughter.

One of the show's greatest strengths is how it's able to balance such challenging subject matter with inspired flashes of humour. .... This is an early contender for show of 2024.

Baby Reindeer is rewardingly complex, challenging our perceptions of what a victim looks like, and asking urgent questions about the support available to both mentally ill people and victims of stalking. It dwells in pockets of moral ambiguity and cuts even deeper into Gadd’s own shame and psyche than the stage original.

“Baby Reindeer” might sometimes be a difficult, exhausting watch. Still, the unforeseen, often wounding journey is nonetheless unbelievably gripping in its confrontational exploration of all the destructive, harmful things we do in the name of self-approbation, even if it’s as simple as seeking a gratifying laugh. Gadd’s courageous, unflinching decision to reexamine the suffering of this excruciating time and ferociously interrogate it, his shame, guilt, remorse, and self-reproach, is essential and ultimately healing stuff.

This new Netflix series phenom that viewers can’t stop talking about stars an astonishing Richard Gadd as a struggling Scottish comic who shapes his life as the victim of a stalker (a dynamite Jessica Gunning) into a twisted spellbinder that deserves serious Emmy love.

Baby Reindeer is a nerve-wracking voyage that's hard to watch head-on. It doesn't pull any punches when it comes to heady topics like stalking, sexual abuse, and victimization, and it is an invaluable window into the experience of someone who has experienced these things in real life. .... This is one of 2024's must-watch shows, and it raises the bar for Netflix originals.

That Baby Reindeer is able to get from its familiar premiere to this place of emotional honesty and profound insight, while bringing such a large audience along for the ride, is remarkable.

While it's a difficult story, it's also one that is both beautifully told and important.

Fine import with not just one, but three emotional payoffs.

What a vivid watch: a veritable operetta of trauma. While Gadd holds his own, Gunning is stunning: in her hands, Martha is as vulnerable as she is terrifying.

Intense and compelling. .... There is nothing pat or simplistic in the way Gadd lays it all out across seven half-hour episodes, and, most interestingly, there is very little self-righteousness afoot.

It’s very good and very horrible, and a lot less of a comedy than its comic lead might suggest.

Baby Reindeer is a very bingeable show because it’s funny while being incredibly dark, and it doesn’t take the easy way out when it comes to its characters. So, while we cringed every time Martha further wheedled her way into Donny’s life, we also wanted to know what would happen next. That’s not something we’ve said about a lot of shows lately.

Over the series, the sheer onslaught of pain is difficult to endure, and what it gains in scope, it loses in focus. .... Eventually, this makes for frustrating viewing. Yet at the same time, it is original, compelling, and unforgettable.

This is twisty, mature, self-interrogating stuff that will leave you more troubled than tickled.