The new Netflix show “Baby Reindeer”, following the stalking of the main character, has stirred up strong emotions among viewers. The show which aired on April 11 is based on a true story that takes place in London and Edinburgh in 2015.
With 22 million viewers, the show has gained a lot of attention for its out-of-the ordinary story and plot line.
“I was just kind of shocked (about the show,) to be honest,” said Talia Herr, a first-year psychology student at Oregon State University. “Because I’ve never seen anything like that, especially considering it says it’s a true story.”
According to Netflix, the show follows a struggling male comedian who starts being stalked by a female after he does a kind deed for her. Throughout the show, he is also trying to figure out his sexuality and what he wants out of a relationship. It also presents examples of unhealthy and toxic relationships.
“Going into it I, and I’m guessing many people also, just thought it’d be about some ‘down on his luck guy’ who had a serious stalker,” said Liam Murphy, a fifth-year civil engineering and creative writing student. “And yeah that’s definitely technically true, but it’s also about so much more trauma than that.”
Murphy watched the show with friends for entertainment but others claim to have watched it for other reasons.
“The title, baby reindeer, that is so random,” said Emily Heffernan, a fourth-year student studying biology. “I had to watch it to figure out why.”
While the show is a true story, Herr emphasized how she watched it for entertainment but feels the director was also trying to convey some sort of a greater message about society.
“There were just so many decisions that were made by all of the characters, like the amount of all of the poor choices that were made, like not going to the police, letting the stalking go on for that long,” Heffernan said. “It was just so interesting to me that everything kind of fell into place, like something that could have been an open and shut case.”
Murphy described it as when you know a friend is making poor decisions, but you can’t stop them. They expressed frustration over the main character for his decisions throughout the whole show.
In addition, there have been some topics surrounding the fact that the show presents these issues in ways that aren’t normally discussed.
“So often, stalking and that kind of harassment is targeted towards women, seeing it in a different light is definitely important because shit like that does happen, and it’s just obviously less talked about,” Herr said.
According to Murphy, they’re not sure if it’s actually widening important conversations, or if it’s just entertaining to watch.
“That’s in part because I’m probably not in the right social media circles on TikTok or Twitter (also known as X) to see the discourse surrounding the show, but also in my conversations with others about it, we tend to focus more on the insanity of what he went through and less on the systems that made it so hard for him to get out of it,” Murphy said.
