Netflix's very own Baby Reindeer has won six Emmy awards out of its eleven nominations at the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards. While the show has been recognized at the Emmy awards, it is currently amidst a lawsuit.
One of the 6 Emmy awards won by the black comedy drama series was for Outstanding Limited or Anthology series. The miniseries is written and executive produced by Richard Gadd.
Baby Reindeer is based on Gadd's autobiographical one-man show. The seven-episode long series is based on true events in Gadd's life. Richard Gadd was stalked by a woman in 2015. She would go on to stalk him for four years often calling him, Baby Reindeer.
While the plot of the series is based on events from Gadd's life, he has expressed his determination to conceal the true identities of the people involved in the events. The series is currently in the middle of a lawsuit as Gadd's 'real' stalker is suing Netflix for defamation.
Disclaimer: The following article may contain spoilers.
What is Baby Reindeer about?
The series tells the story of Donny Dunn, a character based on Richard Gadd. Donny is an aspiring stand-up comedian who works as a bartender. A woman named Martha walks into the bar that Dunn works at.
He offers her a beverage to uplift her mood. She develops an instant attraction towards Dunn. Later, Martha intensely begins to stalk Dunn online and offline. As Martha tries to flirt with Dunn, she begins to bombard him with emails, messages, and voicemails where she often refers to him as a Baby Reindeer.
The series also shows audiences Dunn's traumatic past where he meets a TV writer, Darrien O' Connor. The latter encourages Dunn to use drugs and sexually abuses him while he is unconcious due to the drugs. This ends when Dunn cuts off all communication with Darrien.
The series switches back to the present where Dunn has reported Martha to the authorities as her stalking turns violent when she threatens Dunn's family. Martha gets arrested and spends nine months in prison.
Is Baby Reindeer based on a true story?
Baby Reindeer is based on true events. In 2015, Gadd was stalked by a woman who's identity remains undisclosed. How Gadd and his stalker met is the same in the series and reality.
Gadd met the woman in a bar. She had disclosed to Gadd that she could not afford a drink, so Gadd offered her a free beverage. After getting a hold of his email, she began to stalk Gadd for four years. Gadd stated to The Times,
"At first everyone at the pub thought it was funny that I had an admirer. Then she started to invade my life, following me, turning up at my gigs, waiting outside my house, sending thousands of voicemails and emails."
She sent 41,071 emails, 744 tweets, 46 Facebook messages, 350 hours worth of voicemail, and 106 pages of letters to the real life Dunn. Upon reporting this to the police, Gadd was shocked as the authorities did not take his case up seriously as in Gadd's case, a man was being stalked by a woman.
While Baby Reindeer is based on true events, Gadd did retell some incidents differently. He told The Guardian about the reason why he did so, he stated,
"slightly to create dramatic climaxes"
He further added,
"It's very emotionally true, obviously: I was severely stalked and severely abused. But we wanted it to exist in the sphere of art, as well as protect the people it's based on"
What is the Baby Reindeer Lawsuit?
Shortly after the release of Baby Reindeer, a Scottish woman by the name of Fiona Harvey stated that Martha's character was based on her. Harvey has cited many similarites between her and Martha's character including that both are Scottish, have been students of law, are two decades older to Gadd, and write using sensual tones.
Harvey appeared on Piers Morgan Uncensored and stated the show was,
"A work of fiction, a work of hyperbole."
She has stated that while she did cross roads with Gadd multiple times and owned a baby reindeer toy, she never called Gadd as many times as Martha is shown to do in the show. In regards to the baby reindeer toy, she claimed,
"It was a joke"
In the Baby Reindeer lawsuit, Harvey is suing Netflix for $170 million dollars in a case of defamation. Harvey has asked for a jury trial in California. Harvey also states that she has never been charged of a crime or sexually abused Gadd.
According to Deadline, last week a federal judge announced May 6 as the date for the lawsuit. According to a recent filing in the lawsuit, the plantiff's statement states,
"(Harvey) was immediately identified by members of the public and recieved hate mail and death threats so intense that Harvey suffers from insomnia, panic attacks, and has a general fear of going outside."
Regarding the network's course of action, Netflix has also informed NPR,
"(Netflix intends to) defend this matter vigorously and to stand by Richard Gadd's right to tell his story"
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