Featured Image Credit: Netflix
Topics: Netflix, Film and TV
Callum Jones
A new Netflix series that subscribers just can't get enough of has a chilling true story behind it.
I don't know if it's just me, but it seems as though Netflix has released banger after banger this year.
And if you already finished another of the streaming services 'gripping' thriller series in one night, then you are probably looking for something new to watch.
Created by Richard Gadd and based on his one-man play of the same name, the new miniseries stars Gadd as Donny Dunn, The Outlaws' Jessica Gunning as Martha, Waking Hour's Nava Mau plays American therapist Teri and Humans' Tom Goodman-Hill plays TV writer Darrien.
Advert
The story being told in Baby Reindeer is a particularly chilling one, showing the shocking events which unfold after comedian Donny shows an act of kindness to the vulnerable Martha by offering her a cup of tea when she can't afford a drink.
However, things quickly take a dark turn as Donny ends up being stalked.
The seven-episode limited series tells the shocking story experienced by Gadd himself, with the writer and actor explaining to Netflix's Tudum how he lived through the 'whole ordeal'.
"At first everyone at the pub thought it was funny that I had an admirer," he added to The Times.
"Then she started to invade my life, following me, turning up at my gigs, waiting outside my house, sending thousands of voicemails and emails."
The stalking manifested in 41,071 emails, 744 tweets, 106 pages of letters and a whopping 350 hours of voicemail.
The years of stalking left Gadd suffering from PTSD, and as you'd probably expect, the ordeal began impacting his work.
Speaking to the Telegraph in 2019 about the one-man show that he wrote after the stalking, Gadd said: "It was debilitating beyond belief. I'd listen to her voicemails and just feel my eyes welling up. They were tears of frustration. Proper brain-heavy stress."
While the series tells a chilling true story behind it, Baby Reindeer sits at an impressive 100 percent Rotten Tomatoes.
And the praise for Baby Reindeer has spilled over onto social media too.
One X user said: "Absolutely inhaled #BabyReindeer dark essential viewing, nuanced and vulnerable. Incredible performances all round, but Mark Lewis Jones as the dad had my heart."
"On episode six and there’s zero chance that I don’t end this night ugly crying. Jeezus this is raw. I just want to know he’s OK. I need him to be OK," another added.
Baby Reindeer is streaming on Netflix now.