My score: 5/10
Baby Reindeer is the kind of series I can respect more than I enjoy. Created, written by, and starring Richard Gadd, the seven-episode Netflix limited series grew from his one-person stage play. It follows struggling comedian Donny Dunn as an act of kindness develops into an obsessive relationship and forces him to confront trauma he has tried to bury.
This is a spoiler-light review. The series deals with stalking, sexual assault, coercion, self-destructive behavior, and mental-health distress, so it will be a difficult watch for some viewers.
A Story Built on Discomfort
What Baby Reindeer does best is refuse to make Donny’s behavior simple or flattering. He recognizes danger, but his loneliness, ambition, shame, and need for attention complicate the choices he makes. That contradiction gives the story honesty, even when it makes the experience frustrating.
The series repeatedly places the audience inside situations where empathy and alarm exist at the same time. It is not a conventional thriller about an innocent person simply trying to escape a villain. It is more interested in the emotional patterns that allow damaging relationships to continue.
That complexity is also part of why the show did not completely work for me. The discomfort is intentional, but the repetition and emotional intensity became exhausting. I understood what the series was doing without always feeling engaged by the way it did it.
Performances
Jessica Gunning gives the standout performance as Martha. She can appear funny, vulnerable, intimidating, and unpredictable within the same exchange. The performance never depends on a single emotion, which makes Martha difficult to dismiss or understand completely.
Richard Gadd gives Donny an exposed, deliberately unpolished quality. The performance works because he allows the character to look selfish, confused, passive, and deeply hurt. Nava Mau brings warmth and clarity as Teri, giving the story an important perspective beyond Donny’s spiraling self-perception.
Direction and Presentation
Directors Weronika Tofilska and Josephine Bornebusch keep the series intimate. Tight framing, screens, messages, and abrupt changes in tone create a feeling that Donny’s world is becoming smaller. The visual approach is rarely showy, but it effectively places the viewer inside his unease.
The series can shift from bleak comedy to psychological drama without warning. Sometimes that instability is effective; at other times it made the storytelling feel uneven to me.
What Worked and What Did Not
I appreciated the willingness to explore shame, trauma, and the ways victims can behave imperfectly. The show does not reduce recovery to a clean lesson, and its strongest scenes are brutally honest about how difficult it can be to explain harmful experiences.
At the same time, I found the series relentless and occasionally repetitive. Its most painful material carries genuine dramatic weight, but the cumulative effect kept me at a distance rather than drawing me further into the story. A more focused structure might have made the emotional turns hit harder.
Is Baby Reindeer Worth Watching?
It is worth considering if you are comfortable with its subject matter and want a psychologically intense limited series driven by complicated performances. Viewers looking for an easy thriller, straightforward characters, or light entertainment should approach it cautiously.
Final Verdict
Baby Reindeer is daring, uncomfortable, and impressively acted. I can see why its honesty connected strongly with many viewers, especially in the performances from Jessica Gunning, Richard Gadd, and Nava Mau. For me, however, the exhausting tone and uneven pacing outweighed its strengths.
My rating: 5/10
