The Culture

Four Reasons Why You Need to Watch Netflix's 'Baby Reindeer'

By H. Alan Scott

Sometimes, a show comes along, and it just explodes in a way nobody saw coming. Netflix's Baby Reindeer is exactly that show. For a show to go viral like Baby Reindeer has, you would expect it to have some big celebrity—it doesn't—or perhaps a story connected to something bigger happening in the world—it also doesn't have that—instead Baby Reindeer is that perfect example of a show that finds that sweet spot between a great story and even greater performances.

Baby Reindeer is about a young British comic, Donny (played by Richard Gadd), living in London and dealing with an obsessive stalker and his own trauma from a sexual assault. It's based on Gadd's Fringe Festival award-winning one man show called Monkey See Monkey Do, which recounted Gadd's true story of the stalking. His stalker, Martha Scott, is played brilliantly by Jessica Gunning. (The name of the series stems from a nickname Martha calls Donny throughout the stalking ordeal.)

The series has gone viral since it was released on April 11th. This has naturally led to online speculation about Gadd's story, particularly the real people behind the characters of Martha and the writer who sexually assaulted Gadd. But Gadd cautioned fans on a recent Instagram story from getting too lost in the details.

Here are four reasons why you need to watch Baby Reindeer.