Brutal, dark and compelling tale of two broken human beings
as a television series ever spawned a meme that went viral quite as quickly as
HI hadn’t even realised the one I’d seen was one of the lead characters until I watched episode one of this new Netflix series.
”Oh it’s her! The one off that meme!” I said rather gormlessly, pointing to the telly at Martha (Jessica Gunning), a seriously disturbing female stalker.
It’s one of the most talkedabout Netflix shows of late, largely because it’s based on Richard Gadd’s own experiences of stalking and sexual assault. And it’s dark. It’s very dark. It even looks like a horror film at times, the way it’s been shot.
Because of this, won’t be for everyone. But if you like your true stories chilling
(and can deal with Martha’s ludicrously mis-spelled text messages) then you’ll be intrigued.
It also stars Gadd himself as Donny Dunn – in fact it’s an adaptation of his one-man play based on his experiences.
Donny finds himself working in a pub in Camden and lodging at his ex-girlfriend’s mum’s house.
If you ever wondered what the butterfly effect was, it’s acted out before your very eyes. Martha walks into the bar where Donny works but can’t afford to buy a drink so, in a small act of kindness, he slips her a Diet Coke on the house.
And that’s the beginning of the end for Donny.
Soon Martha is spending entire days in the pub, chatting to him all the way through his shifts, becoming more obsessed by the day.
She christens him Baby Reindeer as he reminds her of a soft toy she had as a child; to be honest, by the end of episode one he’s more like Rabbit Trapped in the Headlights and Bricking It but it’s a bit late to change it by then.
And the stalking begins to escalate. There’s thousands of text messages and emails, all riddled with spelling mistakes, and messages on Facebook. It’s utterly overwhelming for both him and, to an extent, the viewer.
She even turns up at his digs one day and pretends to befriend his landlady by joining her cookery club.
Essentially, at this point, it seems his biggest crime is making some terrible decisions. Why does he befriend her on Facebook instead of deleting her invitation?
Why doesn’t he go to the police when he realises she’s not in fact a lawyer with highranking politicians’ numbers programmed into her vintage Nokia but a full-on stalker with previous convictions?
And for heaven’s sake, when she assaults him on a canal towpath, why doesn’t he run away? She’d lose a race to Mr
Blobby, surely he could sprint his way to safely.
Hindsight is, however, a wonderful thing and while we can sit and watch, sure that we’d have done things very differently, would we? Who knows until you’re in that situation yourself.
One situation you are unlikely to find yourself in is doing a stand-up show in a sparkly catsuit in front of four people in a pub – but that’s probably more depressing than the stalking.
It’s at this point, half way into the seven-part series, that we are taken on a flashback to five years previously when he has a pretty disastrous stint at the Edinburgh Festival – until meets a writer named Darrien (Tom GoodmanHill), that is. Darrien helps turn his show around and he’s utterly dazzled.
When the festival is over, he goes back to London where the two reconnect – and, spoiler alert, this is where things start to go horribly wrong for Donny.
I won’t give the game away but there’s drugs, grooming and sexual assault involved. It also goes a long way towards explaining why Donny made some of his poor choices in the first place. Darrien’s behaviour makes Martha look positively restrained; he really is a piece of work.
This is where what was a challenging story of a man dealing with a stalker takes a far darker turn when the sinister goings-on that have affected his decision making so far become clear.
As things progress you can sense Donny getting closer and closer to the edge and sure enough, eventually a breakdown comes. In front of his audience at a comedy show. And yes, the clip of his outpourings went viral on YouTube. Gadd is utterly compelling and somehow retains a degree of sympathy for Martha – she’s clearly unwell and needs help.
In interviews, he said he was determined not to make this a victim narrative – and
achieves this with aplomb, despite that devastating finale.