Critic Reviews

Baby Reindeer is rewardingly complex, challenging our perceptions of what a victim looks like, and asking urgent questions about the support available to both mentally ill people and victims of stalking. It dwells in pockets of moral ambiguity and cuts even deeper into Gadd’s own shame and psyche than the stage original.

One of the show's greatest strengths is how it's able to balance such challenging subject matter with inspired flashes of humour. .... This is an early contender for show of 2024.

Richard Gadd confronts and processes his real-life trauma in a brave, moving, and often disturbing watch that's rooted in comedy, yet the tears you'll shed won't be tears of joy or laughter.

Shocking, hilarious, painful and devastating, “Baby Reindeer” is a rare gem on television, reminding us of what is possible in the medium.

Gunning’s performance is a large part of what makes the show the horrifying and addictively compelling thing it is. Particularly haunting is her squeal-like laugh, which perfectly encompasses the duality of Martha’s innocence and unhinged brutality. This, coupled with Gadd’s devastating portrayal of a man both traumatized by and dependent on his abusers’ approval and attention, make for a thorny but nuanced interrogation of trauma, power, and empathy.

“Baby Reindeer” might sometimes be a difficult, exhausting watch. Still, the unforeseen, often wounding journey is nonetheless unbelievably gripping in its confrontational exploration of all the destructive, harmful things we do in the name of self-approbation, even if it’s as simple as seeking a gratifying laugh. Gadd’s courageous, unflinching decision to reexamine the suffering of this excruciating time and ferociously interrogate it, his shame, guilt, remorse, and self-reproach, is essential and ultimately healing stuff.

While it's a difficult story, it's also one that is both beautifully told and important.

That Baby Reindeer is able to get from its familiar premiere to this place of emotional honesty and profound insight, while bringing such a large audience along for the ride, is remarkable.

Baby Reindeer is a nerve-wracking voyage that's hard to watch head-on. It doesn't pull any punches when it comes to heady topics like stalking, sexual abuse, and victimization, and it is an invaluable window into the experience of someone who has experienced these things in real life. .... This is one of 2024's must-watch shows, and it raises the bar for Netflix originals.

This new Netflix series phenom that viewers can’t stop talking about stars an astonishing Richard Gadd as a struggling Scottish comic who shapes his life as the victim of a stalker (a dynamite Jessica Gunning) into a twisted spellbinder that deserves serious Emmy love.