‘Baby Reindeer’ review round-up: Richard Gadd’s Netflix limited series is ‘chilling,’ ‘bingeable’ and a red-hot Emmy contender
On April 11, 2024, Netflix released “Baby Reindeer,” a British limited series created by and starring Richard Gadd. Reviews for the project have been astounding, holding a perfect 100% freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The story follows Donny Dunn’s (Gadd) warped relationship with his female stalker and the impact it has on him as he is ultimately forced to face a deep, dark buried trauma.
In what could be a red-hot 2024 Emmys contender, “Baby Reindeer” has officially been added to our predictions center for Best Limited Series along with Gadd for Best Movie/Limited Actor and Jessica Gunning for Best Movie/Limited Supporting Actress. An adaptation of Gadd’s autobiographical one-man show of the same name, the series is based on Gadd’s real life experience of being stalked and sexually assaulted in his 20s. Read our full review round-up below.
Rebecca Nicholson of Guardian notes, “Never have the words ‘sent from my iPhone’ been so chilling. ‘Baby Reindeer’ is an adaptation of Richard Gadd’s acclaimed one-man play, which hammered out the horrifying story of his experience of being stalked by a middle-aged woman named Martha, who he meets at the pub where he works. She gets hold of his email address, and starts to message him, incessantly, sometimes coherently, sometimes not, all through the night, every night. The emails end with, ‘sent from my iPhone.’ In the show, Gadd’s alter ego, Donny Dunn, has a realisation: Martha doesn’t have an iPhone.” Adding, “Martha is rendered real, with a knockout performance from Jessica Gunning, who manages to convey everything from pity to heartbreak to vicious and violent malice, often with a barely perceptible adjustment of her expression. It is not an easy role and she is truly fantastic in it.”
Daniel Hart of Ready Steady Cut says, “’Baby Reindeer’ is a limited series for all the right reasons. It serves its purpose by the finale. It provokes its viewers. It catches you off guard by mixing comedy with overwhelming darkness. It’s a hidden gem and a shiny one at that.”
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Joel Keller of Decider writes, “’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.” Continuing, “The darkly comedic elements, like the misspelled emails and Donny’s sardonic attempts to play off what Martha is doing, start to fall away as Martha takes a turn towards her more psychotic tendencies. But there’s still a lot of layers and humanity there, even after things come to a violent head.”
Vicky Jessop of London Evening Standard praises the series, stating, “Martha and Donny’s toxic relationship is fascinating to watch in the same way that a car crash is, spiralling out to infect everything around it even as the show digs deeper into their backstories.” Concluding, “Considering this, Gadd is bravely (or foolishly) unsparing in his depiction of Donny (aka a version of himself), whom he actually plays. A rampant coward whose life has stagnated, he still lives with his ex-girlfriend’s mother because she doesn’t charge him rent; his hangdog face and sad eyes are perfect vehicles for portraying the self-loathing he clearly feels.”
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