"Baby Reindeer" as Trauma Porn
Some thoughts regarding the recent Netflix miniseries
The Netflix miniseries Baby Reindeer, written and created by Scottish comedian Richard Gadd, has been the subject of a $170 million lawsuit. The series, which is a semi-autobiographical account of Gadd’s experience as a victim of stalking and sexual assault, quickly gained popularity amongst Netflix subscribers and those possessing morbid curiosity. In the wake of its popularity, Fiona Harvey, a Scottish woman who claims to have been the inspiration for the stalker character, filed a lawsuit against the streaming giant. Harvey’s alleged on-screen counterpart, a woman named Martha, was convicted of stalking, harassing and assaulting Gadd’s character, an aspiring comedian named Donny, for a period of six months.
Netflix’s new miniseries starts with an audacious claim: “this is a true story.” For the creator of Baby Reindeer, this isn’t merely art or entertainment - it is his chance to tell his traumatic experience via the screen. Unfortunately, the result is some of the most nauseating, revolting and unclean hours of television one could ever stomach. This is, however, not the prevailing opinion dictated by the critical tastemakers. Rotten Tomatoes, which awarded the series a score of 98%, states that it “can be a punishing watch but richly rewards viewers with its emotional complexity and excellent performances.” Film critic Peter Travers, one of the many who gives Baby Reindeer a glowing review, calls it “one of the best and most audaciously original series of the year, the kind you never forget.”
Nevertheless, a review by Kat Rosenfeld in The Free Press questions the intentions behind Gadd’s making of the series: “Did [he] simply make the best of a bad situation by refashioning it into a narrative? Or did he also make a bad thing worse, on purpose, because it made for a better story?” Following this, it is important that fans of the show and its creators take the lawsuit by Fiona Harvey seriously.
At heart, Baby Reindeer is about the consequences of not properly dealing with trauma. Gadd’s character, Donny, carries deep-seated post-traumatic stress from being sexually exploited by a mentor figure in the comedy scene (played by Tom Goodman-Hill). As a result, he is unable to connect with another person romantically or sexually. When the series begin, Donny lives with the mother of his ex-girlfriend in London, where they moved together as he tries to start a comedy career. His act, if you can call it that, consists of gimmicky props and sound effects. After a roughly a year and a half living in London, Donny now works as a bartender while still trying for a big break in show business. The mother, Liz (played by Nina Sosanya), lost her son to a skiing accident, and as a result sees Donny as an extension of her deceased child. Following the break-up, he assumes a false identity in a transgender dating site, eventually starting a romance with a male-to-female trans therapist named Teri (played by Nava Mau).
All of this baggage had existed before the emergence of the stalker, Martha (played by Jessica Gunning). She, of course, carries enormous troubles of her own. Despite claiming to be a high-powered lawyer, she only has a Bachelor of Law to her name, and lives in public housing. She grew up in a turbulent household, where her parents fought routinely. “Baby Reindeer”, one of the many nicknames she gives to Donny, refers to a stuffed reindeer she'd hold as a child whenever her parents were quarrelling. Additionally, she had been convicted of stalking and harassment before the series began. So when Martha stumbles upon the bar which Donny works at, it is inevitable that something poisonous will arise.
The problem is, as much as I am scared for our protagonist and his travails, never once do I find him sympathetic or likeable. He is at best pitiful, and at worst loathsome. It is easy to hate the woman who stalks him, of course, but that in turn makes the audience sees Donny as an innocent victim, which he is not. He is a liar who takes advantage of a vulnerable transgender woman. He is a careerist who craves validation, even from people who is willing to harm him and his loved ones. Indeed, he fails to take all available measures to remove Martha from his life, because she makes him feel like a legitimately funny comedian. Rather than pursuing therapy to alleviate his trauma, he chooses to use his experience to further his comedic career.
This brings me to the title of this piece. A good definition of “trauma porn” is “media that showcases a group’s pain and trauma in excessive amounts for the sake of entertainment.” At heart, pornography is produced with the sole purpose of titillation. In conventional pornographic media, simulated scenes of sexual activity is shown to arouse the consumer’s desires. Per Marshall McLuhan, this intended effect renders pornography a “hot” rather than a “cold” medium. Baby Reindeer exploits the true story of one man’s harrowing experience with stalking and sexual assault to bring fame to its creator, and entertainment to Netflix subscribers. Almost immediately after the show’s release, fans have taken to the Internet to find out the characters’ real-world counterparts, instead of reflecting on the nightmarish effects of digital media on human relationships. Fiona Harvey, then, turned from an alleged victimizer to the victim of an online bullying campaign, which led her to sue Netflix for damages. Richard Gadd, rather than realizing the real-world implications of his story, chooses to continue on with his prosperous career as a comedian and writer. This leads me to conclude that there are no heroes or villains in his convoluted, distasteful and exploitative Netflix drama, just profoundly troubled people who are stuck living the same traumatic experience over and over again, like a disturbed version of Groundhog Day.