Netflix
Due to its combination of intense and intriguing subject matter, sublimely tight writing, and a deeply felt lead performance from creator Richard Gadd, the new Netflix series Baby Reindeer, released on the streaming service earlier this year, is one of the biggest TV shows of 2024.
That show, however, may include some inaccuracies, as Netflix has admitted that the real-life Martha, the stalker in the series, was not actually convicted of stalking in real life.
Netflix’s admission comes as Fiona Harvey, the Scottish lawyer that the character of Martha is purportedly based, sued the streamer for $170 million, alleging defamation.
“The admission came in a letter to British Parliament’s Culture, Media and Sport Committee after a lawmaker questioned evidence Netflix supplied MPs during a hearing earlier this year.”
“Appearing before the committee in May, Benjamin King, Netflix’s senior UK director of public policy, said Baby Reindeer was a ‘true story of the horrific abuse’ suffered by Gadd ‘at the hands of a convicted stalker.'”
“[Later] King said, ‘I wanted to clarify our understanding that the person on whom the show is based — who we have at no point sought to identify — was subject to a court order rather than a conviction.'” [via Deadline]
In Baby Reindeer, Martha is a twice-convicted stalker who’s eventually sentenced to five years in prison. Harvey, however, says the story is “the biggest lie in television history.”
As a defense, Gadd — who wrote and starred in the one-man play that the series is based on — said that Martha is a fictional character and not meant to specifically reflect Harvey.
“I never intended the series to identify any real person as Martha Scott, including Harvey,” he said in a 21-page-long court declaration. “Like all characters in the series, Martha is a fictional character with fictional personality traits that are very different than Harvey’s.”
One of the most-watched shows of the year so far, Baby Reindeer has been nominated for 11 Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series for Gadd, Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series (for both Martha actress Jessica Gunning and Nava Mau), and more.
All the episodes of Baby Reindeer are now streaming on Netflix.