Baby Reindeer, Richard Gadd’s dark tale of a comedian and his obsessive stalker, is topping the UK Netflix chart, riding high in several other territories and receiving Emmys heat, all in its first 10 days of release. But while the thriller, written by and starring Gadd, captivates audiences with the real-life story of his own stalking ordeal, some have serious concerns over the way he’s gone about it.
Viewers eager to know more have used information from the drama to track down the people they think are the real protagonists in Gadd’s story, outing them on social media and leaving several people open to online abuse and real-life threats of violence. In one case, the police have been called.
On Monday, Gadd posted a message on his Instagram stories asking audiences not to speculate about their real identities, but it all felt like too little, too late.
During promotion for the show, Gadd has been at great pains to describe his stalker as “unwell and needing help”. She is, he says, as much of a victim as he was in this awful story. But he seems to have used, verbatim, several of the real messages left by her on his social media posts, in the TV show. This trail of virtual breadcrumbs has inevitably led some to search for the woman they say is the real Martha. Yesterday, #TheRealMartha was trending on several social media platforms.
To use what appear to be this woman’s actual words in the script seems at best irresponsible and at worst, downright cynical. He must have been aware that dangling the carrot of a true story would ignite curiosity.
In addition, several men have found themselves on the receiving end of dangerous speculation that they are the real “Darrien”, the character in the show who drugs and sexually assaults Gadd’s character, Donny, on several occasions.
Gadd says he went to great lengths to disguise the real people who stalked and abused him, but some amateur detectives seemed to arrive at their conclusions, rightly or wrongly, with relative ease. You might argue that people accused of serious crimes relinquish their right to careful treatment or anonymity, but Gadd himself seems to understand the need for caution, even if he hasn’t sufficiently deployed that caution in this case.
As a storyteller, he has full control of his material and the actions of his characters. Everything is a choice – what to include, what to leave out. When he performed Baby Reindeer as a solo stand-up show in 2019, it was to small rooms of people. Putting this once intimate performance piece on a globally accessible platform changes things. In the context of a major streamer like Netflix, Baby Reindeer becomes another true crime series for audiences to pick over and discuss.
And what Gadd doesn’t have control over is a huge television audience’s reaction to what he’s made. Holding his hands up now and saying it’s a problem of other people’s making isn’t going to cut it. A social media message telling people not to speculate is as much use as a chalk line drawn on the ground to halt a stampede.
It’s too late. Which begs the question, what duty of care did Gadd and Netflix have to prevent this before the fact? What happened to the rigorous compliance all broadcasters must employ before releasing a series like this?
While the seven-part series receives worldwide acclaim, Netflix and its new star have some serious questions to answer about the apparent lack of due diligence when it comes to protecting people – one of whom Gadd insists is unwell, a victim and in need of care.