Baby Reindeer

Call me deranged for watching this a second time, sure, but anyone who knows me is probably aware I love shocking movies/media and this is certainly a shocking one. But regardless of how absurdly intense the themes are, this show is so weirdly personal to me in that it’s one of the very few things I’ve seen (along with Mysterious Skin) that have been able to validate how scary and confusing sex is for a character who simultaneously craves and is terrified of sexual intimacy. Not only that, but the way it deals with queer identity persisting in a heteronormative world is something of which I was only able to put comprehensive thoughts to on the second watch - it is horrifyingly realistic to the story of a man only being able to admit to queerness after being literally forced into it by circumstance. The intensity of the questions of sexuality and sexual identity are as disgustingly messy and confronting as they are to anyone whose suffered through the extent of being straight purely from societal assumption to only then push the boundaries after living a whole life of being allowed to love only who you are told to based on your assigned at birth gender which is such a horrible experience that I know many people have gone through. This show was also the first time I’d seen a trans person not only depicted on screen but depicted as a healthy functional person who we are able to see be the victim to the dysfunctional of the people around her. It lets us actually empathise with her with is just such an amazing thing to see from a mainstream show in this era of television. While I’m sure it was exaggerated and hyperbolised at parts, Richard Gadd begins it with “this is a true story” and has the boldness to reveal such a repugnant journey of navigating the brutal world he has lived, often being able to admit to being at fault for many of the domino effects he is essentially self-inflicted by. I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone who can’t handle this kind of subject material but to anyone who can I couldn’t recommend it enough.