If you’ve been offline over the past two weeks, you may not have heard or read all the media buzz about Netflix’s latest series. BABY REINDEER has not only been an overnight smash for the streaming giant, it has also spawned the series’ legion of fans to take to the Internet and hunt down the real people who may be portrayed in this semi-fictionalized autobiographical tale.

Donny Dunn (series producer and creator Richard Gadd) is a struggling Scottish standup comedian who works in a Camden pub during the day to make ends meet. One day, Martha Scott (Jessica Gunning, PRIDE) walks into the pub and seats herself at the bar. Clearly sad, Donny offers her a cup of tea on the house. Little does he know that with the simple act of kindness he opens up the door to nearly two years of Martha stalking him. Donny, though, is a bit curious by her behaviour and, on a strange level, he enjoys the attention that he gets from her even though Martha’s constant emailing and intrusions into his private life derails his relationships and nearly sinks his career.

Gadd has made no secret that BABY REINDEER is based on events that happened to him about 12 years ago. That has put netizens on the hunt to find some of the real people who are portrayed in the series, most notably Martha and television writer Darrien O’Connor (Tom Goodman-Hill, THE IMITATION GAME), the latter of whom comes off as a rather despicable character. Just a few days ago, Scottish law graduate Fiona Harvey went public claiming that she is the inspiration for Martha but while she acknowledges that she met Gadd when he was a bartender at The Hawley Arms in Camden and that she gave him a pair of “tartan M&S pants” as a gift (the pants and a matching jacket feature quite prominently in the story), she adamantly claims that she never stalked him. Harvey is so incensed by the portrayal that she has said she plans to sue Netflix, claiming that she will “kick their asses” in court. Me thinks the lady doth protest too much. In any case, Gadd has gone public asking the show’s fans to stop looking for the real people behind his characters.

Current off-screen drama aside, BABY REINDEER starts off funny and curiously weird but quickly moves onto bizarre when Donny, using a fake persona, starts dating Teri (Nava Mau), a therapist who is a trans woman. (Remember, this is all based on true events.) By the fifth episode, BABY REINDEER starts entering some dark territory as Martha ups her game and Donny comes to terms with something that happened to him five years earlier. Skillfully, Gadd steers the story back into humorous territory when Donny goes up to Scotland to tell his parents about Martha. Unlike Donny, his father, Gerry (Mark Lewis Jones, THE GOOD LIAR), won’t stand for Martha’s nonsense though his attempts to scare her off only serve to further embolden her.

While Gadd does a great job carrying the narrative, the real star is Gunning who seamlessly shifts from being a sympathetic loser to a complete wacko in half a heartbeat. This is the strength of the writing. We can’t completely fault Martha, nor can we completely absolve Donny. Both are lonely people who have found benefit in their unhealthy relationship. Perhaps the biggest losers in this tale are Teri and Donny’s ex-girlfriend, Keeley (Shalom Brune-Franklin), who find themselves as collateral damage due to Donny’s need for attention and validation.

All seven episodes of BABY REINDEER are streaming now on Netflix. They’re about 30 minutes each so you can binge watch the whole series in one go, if that’s your thing. (I did it over two nights.) It’s definitely worth watching.

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