Baby Reindeer

Over my 25 years working in health care i have met a lot of mentally ill patients. Just because someone is mentally ill doesn´t automatically mean they are dangerous, there are many different levels of mental illness where some people might be able to have an ordinary family life and have an ordinary job. I think some people should read more on this subject before they are judgemental, because i have seen this myself where people believe each mentally ill patient might be dangerous in society. Unless you know their medical condition or diagnoses you can not assume things without real facts. Each patient deserves to be treated respectfully and get the help they need to live a normal life. I have met really dangerous patients and it is very important to know exactly what you say, how to interract with the patient while being professional. I can not talk about any specific case but i think it is very fascinating to meet people with different diagnoses to learn how humans may behave, how they think and why they function the way they do. There are several movies and TV series that have brought up mental illness and one of my personal favourite films that really show a very disturbing personality is the 1990 psychological thriller Misery from director Rob Reiner. Based on the novel by legendary author Stephen King, this film tells the story of autor Paul Sheldon ( a strong performance by legendary actor James Caan ) who crashes his car in a blizzard on his way to New York City. A nurse named Annie Watts ( brilliant performance by actress Kathy Bates) finds him and bring him to her home so he is able to recover. Annie is a huge fan of Paul Sheldon´s famous Victorian romance novels of a character named Misery Chastain. What Paul doesn´t know is that Annie is more than an ordinary fan, she wants Paul to rewrite his latest novel where Misty dies, she can not accept this ending and it must be changed. Misery manage to cleverly tell a story of a very disturbed woman in a very powerful way, while actress Kathy Bates manage to capture so many details that fits with a very disturbed personality through facial expressions, emotional expressions and especially her loosing control of herself. If you have not seen Misery on streaming or physical media you simply have to. Speaking of mentally ill people you might have heard of a Netflix mini series called Baby Reindeer in social media or in newspapers. Where a woman seems to be struggling with her mental illness, a subject i am always interested in. I decided to give this mini series a chance since it´s been extremely popular. Is this a must watch on Netflix or is Baby Reindeer not worth all the hype and not that great after all?

Aspiring comedian Donny Dunn ( Richard Garr ) works as a bartender in a London pub. One day he notice a woman sitting in one of the bar seats looking depressed, a woman named Martha Scott ( Jessica Gunning ). Since she can´t afford anything to drink Donny feel sorry for her and offer a cup of tea for free. This made Martha´s day feel special and she fall in love with Donny instantly. Everyday she head into the same pub just to spend time with Donny, until he feel that she´s getting too personal and too close to him. It all becomes even worse when she even begin stalking him to the point where he doesn´t know how far she would go just to see him.

I know a lot of people are very divided if Baby Reindeer is actually based on true events or if everything is simply all made up regarding the real woman known as Fiona Harvey. I personally don´t know what is true about Richard Gadd either so i choose to view this mini series strictly for what is presented for us. One of the things that becomes very clear is that the character Martha is a woman who have no control at all regarding herself. She may say shes met all the famous people but the truth of the matter is all of this is just an illusion. When we see her home and the way she lives where she doesn´t seem to have cleaned for many years, that alone is a sign she doesn´t seem to understand what might happen if she doesn´t clean the dishes or removing old food. Another warning signal is when she visit Donny´s pub each day as if shes having a very busy day. She sits there for hours, never works anything or live an ordinary life. Her angry outbreaks is another sign shes mentally unstable. Actress Jessica Gunning give a fantastic performance as Martha and she have really worked hard to capture the personality of this mentally ill woman. I wonder if Jessica did a lot of research for this role because she seems to capture certain behavior patterns with facial expressions, anger outbreaks and completely shutting herself off from the ordinary world. Actor Richard Gadd also deliver a very strong performance as the comedian Donny Dunn, especially in the scenes where you can clearly see how affected he is by being raped by a man he trusted in the past. There is also a beautiful love story that´s not connected to Martha but Donny´s girlfriend Teri ( played by actress Nava Mau ) who clearly make Donny feel appreciated. Baby Reindeer bring up some very difficult issues that may affect you as a viewer, especially if you know someone who is stuggling with mental health or have been sexually molested. Directors Weronika Tofilska and Josephine Bornebusch deliver a mini series that´s not only powerful but feels very disturbing and fascinating as well from a psychological perspective. Baby Reindeer show the audience that you really don´t know someone until you see their real personality. A must watch on Netflix, even if evrything may not be completely true.

Rating: DDDD