Not long after I returned from visiting my daughter in Madrid in April, I logged on to Netflix to see what I had missed while I was overseas. Now, it’s not altogether unusual that a glance at the platform’s “Top 10 TV shows in the U.S. Today” row yields some unfamiliar results. “Too Hot to Handle,” on the list as I write this, is now in its sixth season, and for all I know, it’s a reality series about testing cookware.
Seeing a series titled “Baby Reindeer” at the No. 1 spot piqued my interest. Strange title. Maybe a reality show following a caribou breeder in Alaska? Could be a cute nature program. Who doesn’t want to see a bunch of adorable baby reindeer learning to walk?
The next day, a publicist called.
Have you seen “Baby Reindeer”? No. But I see it’s the No. 1 show on Netflix. I’ll have to check it out.
The next day, the same publicist rang again.
“Did you watch ‘Baby Reindeer’?” Dude. It’s been one night.
The next day, I watched “Baby Reindeer.” And the day after that, I finished watching “Baby Reindeer.” Seven episodes, most of them running about a half-hour. Initially, it looks like a horror story about a stalker hounding Donny, a sad-sack bartender who harbors dreams of becoming a comic. But it quickly becomes deeper and more complex, as Donny’s own behavior becomes erratic, fueled by self-loathing and neediness rooted in shame.
And then you get to that fourth episode and you find out why it took Donny so long to report the stalker. Watching it was the closest I’ve ever come to pausing or flat-out stopping a TV show because what I was seeing was so horrifying and painful to witness. It makes the Christmas Eve dinner flashback episode of “The Bear” feel like a Hallmark holiday movie.
And yet, nearly everyone I know watched “Baby Reindeer.” I have neighbors who have seen it twice. And they weren’t alone. “Baby Reindeer” reached Netflix’s top 10 TV charts in 92 countries. Three months after its premiere, it had racked up 88.4 million views.
Have you seen “Baby Reindeer”? Do I even need to ask? Certainly, if you’re one of the 24,000 Television Academy members voting for the Emmys, it’s a rhetorical question. Even with the headlines surrounding the self-proclaimed real-life stalker suing Netflix for defamation, the show is poised to win big at the Emmys this year. For a niche series that wasn’t on anyone’s radar four months ago, that’s a remarkable story.
