Baby Reindeer (2024) Review: A Confession With No Hero

Is Baby Reindeer worth watching?

Yes. Baby Reindeer is one of the most daring British dramas of recent years, a confessional series in which Richard Gadd refuses to make himself the hero of his own story. Gadd’s writing is fearless and Jessica Gunning’s performance as his stalker is extraordinary, human and frightening in the same breath. The reservation is not about craft but about ethics: a drama presented as a true story about real people carries responsibilities, and the show’s handling of them has been fairly questioned.

What is Baby Reindeer about?

Donny Dunn (Richard Gadd) is a struggling stand-up comedian in London, working behind the bar of a pub to get by. One day a woman named Martha (Jessica Gunning) comes in, clearly in distress, and he offers her a free cup of tea. It is a small kindness, and she seizes on it. Martha becomes a fixture at the bar, then a presence in his inbox, then an inescapable part of his life. As the stalking escalates, Donny’s refusal to shut it down, and the reasons behind it, become the real subject of the series, forcing him to confront a buried trauma of his own. Nava Mau co-stars as Teri, a woman Donny becomes involved with.

Baby Reindeer was created and written by Gadd, adapted from his own acclaimed one-man stage show and based on his experiences. It is a British production in English. This review covers the complete limited series: seven episodes of roughly half an hour each, and the story is finished.

A narrator who will not let himself off

What sets Baby Reindeer apart from true-crime drama is its refusal of a clean narrative. Donny narrates his story directly, and he is often a harsh judge of himself: needy, evasive, flattered by attention he knows is dangerous. The series is less interested in the crime than in the question of why he could not simply walk away, and it answers with a frankness about shame and self-loathing that few writers would put on screen about themselves.

That self-scrutiny gives the drama an unusual texture. Scenes that begin as dark comedy curdle into dread, and the audience is invited to laugh and then to question the laugh. The fourth episode, a long reckoning with Donny’s past, is among the most courageous half-hours of recent television and reframes everything around it.

Jessica Gunning’s unforgettable Martha

Gunning’s performance is the series’ great achievement. Martha is funny, chaotic and alarmingly quick with a cutting line, and Gunning never plays her as a cartoon villain. Her loneliness is palpable, and the show’s most unsettling idea is that she and Donny share the same hunger to be seen. It is a portrait of isolation on both sides of the bar. Gadd, Gunning and the series won major Emmys, and the recognition feels deserved.

Nava Mau brings warmth and grounded intelligence to Teri, offering a glimpse of a healthier connection and making the damage Donny carries all the more visible.

The ethics of a true story

The show’s success came with an uncomfortable afterlife. Because it was framed as a true story, some viewers set out to identify the real people behind the characters, raising questions about privacy, fairness and how much of another person’s life a memoir can claim. Those concerns do not diminish the craft, but they are a legitimate part of the conversation, and the series itself does little to guard against them. Viewers should hold that unease alongside their admiration.

Who should watch Baby Reindeer?

It is for adults who appreciate raw, character-driven drama and can handle intense material. Seven short episodes on Netflix is a quick watch, but not an easy one. The series includes a depiction of sexual assault, drug use, harassment and sustained psychological distress, so viewers with related experiences should approach with care.

If it grips you, try these next:

• Fleabag, for another British confessional drama that talks to the audience and hides its pain inside comedy.
• Adolescence, a later Netflix drama that is equally uncomfortable by design and just as hard to shake.
• Inside No. 9, for British storytelling that swerves from laughter to horror in a single scene.

Browse more drama series if you want to stay in this register.

The verdict

Baby Reindeer is a bruising, singular piece of autobiographical drama, unflinching about trauma and the murk of complicity, and lifted by two remarkable performances. Its true-story framing leaves genuine ethical questions, but as television it is fearless and impossible to forget.

Rating: 4.5/5