Netflix released all seven episodes of Baby Reindeer on 11 April 2024. Richard Gadd created the series, wrote it, and stars as Donny Dunn, a struggling comedian who tends bar at a London pub.
The show is adapted from Gadd’s autobiographical one-man stage show. Weronika Tofilska and Josephine Bornebusch directed. Jessica Gunning plays Martha Scott, Nava Mau plays Teri, and Tom Goodman-Hill also stars.
The premise is simple and then it isn’t. Donny offers a weeping customer a free cup of tea. Martha attaches herself to him. She stalks him in person and online, and the stalking eats his life.
Trailer, via Netflix.
A Cup of Tea at the Pub
That one act of kindness is the whole engine of Baby Reindeer. Donny isn’t a hero and Martha isn’t a monster in a costume. He feels fear, sympathy and revulsion at once, and the show refuses to sort those feelings into a tidy order.
The series is billed as black comedy, drama and thriller. All three are doing work. The pub scenes play light. The stalking turns. By the end the comedy has drained out and what’s left is a man forced to look at his own behavior.
That’s what separates Baby Reindeer from a standard stalker story. Martha is the threat, but Donny’s passivity is the subject. The show asks why he doesn’t cut her off, and it doesn’t accept an easy answer.
Donny Dunn Confronts His Past
As Donny tries to build a comedy career, the stalking reaches into every part of his life. The series has him confront his sexuality and come to terms with the trauma of a past sexual assault.
That assault is the load-bearing wall of Baby Reindeer. It explains Donny without excusing him. It also makes the Martha plot something other than a chase. He isn’t only running from her. He’s running from what he already carries.
Gadd wrote himself into this. He plays Donny, and the autobiography is the point. The performance has a rawness a fictionalized version would lose. Whether that rawness is craft or exposure is the open question, and the show is smart enough not to settle it.
Martha Scott and Teri
Gunning’s Martha is the performance the series will be remembered for. She is needy, funny, frightening and pathetic, often in the same scene. The show never lets her become a punchline.
Mau’s Teri gives Donny a second relationship to fail at. She is a real person with her own stakes, not a plot device, and the series treats her that way.
| Element | Detail |
|---|---|
| Creator and lead | Richard Gadd |
| Donny Dunn | Richard Gadd |
| Martha Scott | Jessica Gunning |
| Teri | Nava Mau |
| Directors | Weronika Tofilska, Josephine Bornebusch |
| Network | Netflix |
| Episodes | 7 |
| Release date | 11 April 2024 |
Emmy Wins and Golden Globes
Baby Reindeer won six Primetime Emmy Awards. Those included Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series, Outstanding Writing for Gadd, Outstanding Lead Actor for Gadd, and Outstanding Supporting Actress for Gunning.
It also won two Golden Globes: Best Limited or Anthology Series and Best Supporting Actress for Gunning. The IMDb score sits at 7.9/10.
The awards haul matters less than what it signals. A seven-episode British series built on one man’s worst years became the limited series of its season. That doesn’t happen to shows that are merely well made. It happens to shows that hit a nerve.
What the Series Earns
The direction keeps the camera close and the episodes short. Seven is the right number. The series doesn’t pad, and it doesn’t repeat a beat to fill time. Each episode moves Donny further into the trap he half-built himself.
Where it slips is in the back half. The show’s need to explain Donny’s trauma can turn into a need to explain everything. Some scenes tell you what the performance already showed. The final stretch reaches for a resolution the material doesn’t quite earn.
That’s a real cost, and it’s why this isn’t a perfect series. But the flaws are the flaws of ambition, not of laziness. Baby Reindeer tries to hold fear and sympathy in the same frame for seven hours, and it mostly does.
- Created by and starring Richard Gadd
- 1 season, 7 episodes
- Released 11 April 2024 on Netflix
- Genres: drama, black comedy, thriller
- Adapted from Gadd’s autobiographical one-man show
- 6 Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series
- 2 Golden Globes: Best Limited or Anthology Series, Best Supporting Actress for Jessica Gunning
- IMDb score: 7.9/10
Baby Reindeer is the rare series where the subject and the maker are the same person, and that’s the source of both its power and its limits. Gadd’s willingness to make Donny unflattering is what keeps the show honest. The stalking is the hook, but the self-examination is the story.
What lingers is Gunning. Martha could have been a caricature, and she isn’t. The show gives her a full interior life, which makes her scarier and sadder at once. That’s the hardest trick in the series, and it lands.
The back half overexplains, and the ending reaches past what the show built. Those are the reasons this sits below the top tier. Still, Baby Reindeer is one of the most discussed and most awarded limited series of 2024, and the attention is deserved.
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