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.

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.

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.

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

What a vivid watch: a veritable operetta of trauma. While Gadd holds his own, Gunning is stunning: in her hands, Martha is as vulnerable as she is terrifying.

This is twisty, mature, self-interrogating stuff that will leave you more troubled than tickled.

It’s a complex, at times self-defeating portrait of a mind eating itself alive. It’s not fun and it’s not meant to be – that’s admirable as art, perhaps less so as entertainment.