Baby Reindeer

Richard Gadd's Baby Reindeer launched on Netflix in April 2024 and won six Emmys including Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series, Outstanding Lead Actor (Gadd), Outstanding Supporting Actress (Jessica Gunning), and Outstanding Writing. Adapted by Gadd from his own semi-autobiographical one-man stage show (itself developed across multiple Edinburgh Fringe runs) the seven-episode series became one of the most-discussed pieces of British television of its year.

Donny Dunn (Gadd, in his television lead debut) is a struggling Edinburgh-Festival-veteran comedian working in a Camden pub when a woman named Martha (Gunning, in the role that launched her career) walks in and accepts an offer of a free cup of tea. The series follows the relationship that escalates from there across several months of escalating contact. Nava Mau and Tom Goodman-Hill anchor the supporting cast.

The series became culturally and legally consequential well beyond its viewing figures, with the real-world events behind Gadd's adaptation generating sustained press attention and a defamation case from a person who claimed to have inspired one of the characters. Gadd's commitment to a register of self-implicated honesty (the show is unsparing about Donny's own moral position) produced one of the rare prestige limited series whose ethical framework keeps redefining itself across episodes. Weiyi Lin's photography and Tom Quinn's score establish the show's distinctive uneasy register.