Movies - TV
Richard Gadd Actually Lived The Nightmare Of Netflix’s Baby Reindeer
By BJ COLANGELO
Content Warning
The following story contains discussions of stalking, grooming, and sexual assault.
In “Baby Reindeer,” Richard Gadd plays a fictionalized version of himself named Donny Gunn. He meets a woman named Martha (Jessica Gunning) at a pub, who then stalks him for years.
Martha’s harassment starts after Donny has endured countless traumas, including being groomed and repeatedly raped by his television industry mentor, Darrien (Tom Goodman-Hill).
"Baby Reindeer" is a complicated, nuanced, and deeply uncomfortable watch, but it also possesses a brutal honesty that could only come from an autobiographical story — and it is.
The Netflix miniseries is based on true events that happened to Gadd, and this piece is his artistic therapy in processing and making sense of it all.
"I can't emphasize enough how much of a victim she is in all this," he said to the Independent. "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," Gadd added. "Baby Reindeer" is streaming on Netflix.