On April 11th, 2024, the compelling and slightly chilling mini-series, ‘Baby Reindeer’ was released. It tells the story of Donny Dunn, and his stalker, Martha Scott. This seven-episode thriller is a real and raw depiction of the effects that sexual harassment and abuse can have on one’s mental health. Writer, creator, and actor, Richard Gadd made ‘Baby Reindeer’ based off of his experience of being stalked and surviving an abusive relationship. Its accurate portrayal of emotions creates an entire experience for the audience, fully emerging them into the mind and hardships of Donny Dunn, played by Gadd.
The series opens in a somewhat reverse chronological manner. We watch a nervous 20 year old Donny report his stalker to the police. “Why did it take you so long to report this?” The screen turns black and leaves the audience wondering the same thing. Immediately after, we watch the scene when the two characters (Martha and Donny) first meet. Martha, a woman in her 40’s, comes into the bar where Donny works looking hopeless which in turn leads to Donny offering her a cup of tea on the house. Once he showed her kindness she immediately opened up and became extremely talkative and a little eccentric.
From this scene, we learn that Martha claims she is a lawyer and owns her own law firm. Donny listens to her ramble on, but then poses the question. “If all this was true, why couldn’t she afford a cup of tea?”
This confusion lasts throughout the series as we watch Donny make many questionable decisions that seem to contradict logic. At the end of the first episode, Donny sees a follow request from Martha on Facebook. He decides to look her up and realizes she is a convicted stalker. His inner monologue repeats, “I had a convicted stalker stalking me. I had a convicted stalker stalking ME…” even with this realization, he proceeds to accept her follow request, essentially letting her in.
This is only the beginning of Donny sabotaging himself throughout the story. We start to realize that this seems to be a habit and become curious as to why he is putting himself through this.
The series has a variety of subtle elements that add to the uniqueness and intensity of it. One example of this is the simple intro of each episode. Due to the show revolving around the thousands of emails that Martha floods Donny with, each episode begins by showing one of these emails. Immediately, they strike you a little due to Martha’s signature typos and misspelled words which quickly become a trademark of the character. But as the series goes on, you can really seem to understand Martha’s mental state and Donny’s fear through these emails.
Throughout the seven episodes, we come to understand that this show is not just about a stalker, but it is about trauma. We care for all these characters and at the same time we dislike them, resulting in a very emotional piece.
While speaking to fans of the show, I got more insight on how the show made people feel. “There was a lot of humor woven in through difficult emotional material throughout the show, so there were mixed emotions as a viewer,” Julie Park, concluded, when asked why this series evoked such complex emotions.
In an interview with Richard Gadd, Gadd explained how comedy played a part in this story. “I really wanted the humor to provide a sort of release… with a show like this that goes to the territory it goes to.” The need for comedic relief when telling a story such as his own is very telling throughout the show itself. At his heart, Donny (and Gadd) is a comedian. He came to London to begin his comedy career which led to the sexual assault that he faced.
Comedy was Donny’s outlet, just as Gadd allows it to be the audience’s. It was an escape from how unhappy he was ,but it was also the way he let Martha satisfy him. Martha would go to all of his comedy shows, laugh at all his jokes, and undeniably boosted his confidence.
But comedy was also the reason for all of Donny’s self-hatred as it led him to meet Darrien O’Connor, a writer who believed in Donny’s comedy act and promised to help him develop it. While we learn about Darrien in episode 4, it provides necessary backstory as to why Donny is like this in the present time. The show builds suspense and adds more of a shock value by waiting until later into the series to reveal such an important moment in Donny’s life.
Both of Donny’s abusers had something crucial in common: they believed in him. Even though the regular person was not a huge fan of his comedy, both Darrien and Martha gave him a newfound confidence that he craved.
The series includes skits of Donny’s comedy shows where we could see in real time how unsuccessful his comedy actually was. This helps us understand even more why their support meant so much to him. When Martha starts coming to his shows and laughing, it seems to be the only good thing in his life.
The abuse Donny faced from a man not only led to trauma, but confused him sexually. Since he was surrounded by heterosexual men, the idea of homosexuality or bisexuality was never really a thought to him until the abuse.
He tries to figure out his sexuality in private, keeping it secret from everyone including his parents. In episode two, we are introduced to Donny’s love interest, Teri. Donny met Teri on a transgender dating site in which he signed up under a fake name and identity. He finds himself slowly starting to fall in love with Teri but is too embarrassed to be seen with her in public because she is trans. This develops the character’s self hatred as he is ruining his own love life because of it.
In the last episode, Donny goes on a rant in the middle of his comedy act telling his abuse story to the audience. This scene was probably one of the most powerful scenes, as Richard Gadd (the actor who plays Donny) sitting in a room full of people and discussing his trauma. Knowing that this is a true story and actually happened to Gadd makes this scene heart wrenching and tear jerking as you watch Gadd cry.
Interestingly, Baby Reindeer was originally a one-man show in which Gadd would talk to a live audience very similarly to how his character did in the series.
A quote from Donny’s monologue that left the most impact on me was “I hated myself so much more than I loved her [Teri]. And I loved her so very much.” For viewers, this quote encompasses Donny’s emotions throughout the series and gives an explanation for a lot of his seemingly destructive behavior.
“I think I had more empathy for him at the end of the show once you saw how his past trauma informed his actions and self loathing,” viewer Julie Park said.
But this self inflicting pain begs the question: who really was the villain of this story?
While Martha was indeed a stalker, it is safe to assume that she had a mental illness of some sort and did not seem to realize the effects of what she was really doing until much too late. Although she sent thousands of voicemails, emails, letters, and messages, one voicemail seemed to particularly stick out.
Donny listens to this voicemail in the last episode. It gives us an answer to one of our many questions and that is why she calls him ‘baby reindeer.’ The story behind it shows us another side of Martha. As she explains the baby reindeer toy she grew up with, she describes how Donny’s features resembled the doll. Not only did Martha give us insight into her possibly traumatic childhood, she hints that Donny may have been a comfort to her as he symbolized a time in her life when things were innocent.
The series does not tell us anything about Martha’s history but it is obvious she was a very troubled person who did not intend to be so harmful. Richard Gadd conveys this by ending the series the same way it started. In the first scene, Donny sees a distressed Martha and offers her a cup of tea. In the last scene, Donny is offered a cup of tea for the same reason.
Some people might interpret this differently but I saw this full circle resolution as an allusion to the fact that Martha and Donny had more in common than previously thought.
“By the end, it was clear he, too, played a large role in the situation and contributed to its severity,” Alexander Mason ’26 reflected, providing a perspective that puts some blame onto Donny.
Baby Reindeer is a complex series that evokes countless emotions and is like no other. It touches on issues such as sexual abuse and mental illness in a new and innovative way.