BANGOR, ME - SEPTEMBER 06: Stephen King attends a special screening of "IT" at Bangor Mall Cinemas ... [+]
Baby Reindeer fan Stephen King loves the Netflix stalker series so much that he’s gone from posting about it on X to writing an essay on it for a major publication.
The legendary horror author became a huge proponent of the series — based on comedian Richard Gadd’s one-man stage play about his encounter with a stalker he dubbed “Martha” — with a post on X on April 28. In it, the Carrie, IT and Misery author simply wrote, “BABY REINDEER. Holy s—t.”
A blazing success on Netflix, Baby Reindeer is based on Gadd’s harrowing real-life encounter with a stalker. For legal reasons and privacy purposes, Gadd plays a fictionalized version of himself named Donny Dunn for the limited series, while he dubs his stalker “Martha” (Jessica Gunning).
As to the validity of the story, Gadd has said during publicity rounds for the film, “Emotionally, it’s all 100% true.” Gadd also revealed that throughout his stalker ordeal, Martha sent him more than 41,000 emails and left him more than 350 hours of voicemails, among other alarming actions.
King writes in a recent essay for The Times of London that he didn’t start watching Baby Reindeer right away but once he tuned in, he couldn’t stop.
“Here, less than two minutes into the first episode, we can see what sets Baby Reindeer apart from so many dramas, dramedies and psychodramas that populate the occasional richness (and more common mediocrity) of streaming TV, we’ve been given the essential nature of two pivotal characters in less than two minutes,” King writes in the Times.
The nature of Donny and Martha, King adds, is that “they are both psychologically needy.”
“But it’s Martha who is mentally unstable and manipulative,” King writes in the Times. “Yet Donny — in spite of googly, hopeful eyes that continually say don’t hurt me — has the unusual and rather heroic ability to see into himself. His comedy routine bombs because ‘don’t hurt me’ rarely gets laughs.”
Because Baby Reindeer has become such a global spectacle, viewers have tried to track “Martha” down, which alarmed Gunning. After that, a woman claiming to be the real Martha came forward in an interview with The Daily Mail, which did not identify her by name.
In the interview, “Martha” said she was considering legal action against Gadd over the harm Baby Reindeer has allegedly caused her.
Kathy Bates watches over James Caan in a scene from the film 'Misery', 1990. (Photo by Columbia ... [+]
King Says ‘Baby Reindeer’ Reminded Him Of His ‘Misery’
Of course, many of Stephen King’s novels have been turned into television miniseries like The Stand — twice — while others like Carrie, The Dead Zone, IT and Pet Sematary — twice — have been adapted into feature films.
One of King’s novels-turned-film adaptations even went on to Oscar greatness, as 1990’s Misery earned Kathy Bates an Oscar for Best Actress. In the film, Bates stars as Annie Wilkes, a nurse who saves a famous romance novelist, Paul Sheldon (James Caan), after he crashes his car during a blizzard in a remote area of Colorado.
Bedridden with two broken legs and a damaged shoulder in the nurse’s home, Paul soon discovers Annie’s unhealthy obsession with him and his work, which leads the woman to resort to violent measures to keep the author to herself.
While Baby Reindeer takes place in a much different setting, the stalker element of Richard Gadd’s true-life tale has some parallels. After he started watching Baby Reindeer, King had some revelations, first about his and Gadd’s work, and then another about the unique title of the Netflix series.
“My first thought was to thank God my novel [Misery] came first, or people would assume I’d stolen it from Richard Gadd, who wrote and produced the seven-episode series and also stars in it,” King writes in The Times of London essay. “My second thought was that Donny Dunn (Gadd) actually looks like a baby reindeer, with his big eyes and timid manner. The scruffy beard adds to this impression rather than distracting from it.”
In addition to his praise for Gadd’s work on the series, King is high on the performance of his co-star who plays Martha in the limited series. In Baby Reindeer, Martha's obsession with Donny begins after the struggling comedian shows the woman kindness at an establishment where he’s a bartender.
“Then comes Martha Scott (Jessica Gunning), who appears one day in the pub where Donny works. It’s a showstopper of an entrance, hands down the equal of our introduction (‘I’m your No 1 fan’) to Misery’s Annie Wilkes,” King writes in the Times. “We take Martha’s measure before she has said a single word: overweight, slump-shouldered, frowsy-haired; her pillocky pink sweater turned up on one side, her colorful bag hanging dispiritedly from her hand.”
After delving into the stories of Gadd’s Baby Reindeer and his Misery, King also notes in his Times essay that he not only feels empathy for Donny but for Martha as well.
All seven episodes of Baby Reindeer are streaming on Netflix.
