Baby Reindeer

 I'm only three episodes in, but wow! This is really a stellar piece of drama. It's disturbing to watch, and even more disturbing is its power to resonate within myself. I sat through the first three episodes shouting at the screen whenever I saw Donny making the kind or nice decisions that would inevitably lead him into ever deepening and disastrous situations.

We are all born naive. Our attitudes are formed and influenced by the environment we grow up in. For me, that meant a typical upper working-class, small 'c' conservative family. My mother, bless her, had exceptional potential for a far more bohemian artistic life, but that never got to see the light of day that would allow mum to flourish. Mum was kept locked up in a "housewife" existence by economic necessity controlled by a fairly 1950s patriarchal system. The remainder of my childhood environment was still stuck in a yesteryear antagonism and disgust of anything other than straighten-up-and-fly-right heterosexuality.

Anything else was "poofters" and "nancy boys". The influences of my youth were Benny Hill chasing dolly birds, and my school form teacher sharing page 3 of the Sun with the lads in the class so we could ogle, giggle, and rate the girls' assets.

Baby Reindeer struck chords with me. My own, to this day, shame of ghosting the first girl I snogged because I was unable to confront her properly and end the relationship honestly. It was a teenager's confusing maelstrom of emotions, knowing that the right way of handling things would upset someone and being too much of a coward about it. So when in the first episodes Donny weakly caves into being "nice" rather than honest with Martha, I am there shouting at the screen.

Donny's complicated relationship with transgender Teri opens another door to self-examination on our acquired attitudes towards sexuality. Baby Reindeer makes for groundbreaking viewing that rightly prompts us, or at least me, to question our own inner prejudices.

I watched the first three episodes last night and thought it was good. This morning, upon more reflection, I know it is great.

The scripting, dialogue, acting, and directing are superb. It made what sometimes seems improbable entirely credible.