My little reindeer took everyone by surprise. Released in complete confidentiality on April 11 on Netflix, the miniseries written and performed by the Scottish comedian Richard Gadd, has already established itself in the top 10 of 13 countries. This Wednesday, it even climbs onto the second step of the podium for the most watched programs in France. However, this harassment story did not seem to be part of the major events of the month on the platform, which barely mentioned it in its program of upcoming series. A look back at a small screen phenomenon.
“This is a true story”, we can read from the introductory scene of My little reindeer, which, despite its title, is not a children’s story. Donny (Richard Gadd), waiter in a pub in Camden, London, and aspiring comedian, goes to a police station to file a complaint against Martha, a forty-year-old who has been harassing him for six months. The thirty-year-old struggles to describe the situation to the police officer. He is worried about the mental health of this woman, a law graduate and already convicted of harassment, with whom he innocently sympathized during his service.
From “Misery” to “Fatal Liaison”
Initially, nothing unusual. Martha is a “consumer” almost like any other. A little strange but funny, she shows up at the bar every day, without a penny in her pocket, to chat with Donny. She gives herself the air of a businesswoman, inventing the character of a renowned lawyer with a very busy schedule. In reality, she spends her days sitting at the counter drinking in the words of the young waiter.
A real bond arises between the two characters. Donny is touched by Martha’s eccentricities and, unconsciously, fuels her unreasonable obsession. As the days go by, she confuses politeness with seduction, welcoming the comedian’s empathy (even pity) as proof of love. Socially isolated, Martha is not used to receiving so much attention from a handsome boy. His attempts at rapprochement slowly give way to obscene and uncontrollable flirting.
Martha’s friendly laugh disappears into a roar of rage and jealousy, like Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates), the psychopathic fan of Misery who keeps his favorite writer captive. Donny tries to set limits, but the damage is done. She drowns him in a hundred daily emails, sometimes romantic, sometimes graphic. She appears by surprise in his daily life, in the middle of the public during his performances, at his home under a false identity, on the bus… There is no way out. The omnipresence of this delusional woman gradually vampirizes each (rare) moment of happiness.
Looking at the character of Martha, we can’t help but think of Alex Forest (Glenn Close) in Fatal Connection, devoured by a criminal “passion”. The only nuance is that this story is true. At the start of his career, Richard Gadd dealt with a stalker. “Sometimes, in the depths of despair, inspiration arises. I had been harassed for four years by a woman whose ability to circumvent the law alone exceeded her ability to harass me,” he described in a press release from Netflix.
The trauma within the trauma
My little reindeer explores the ambivalent relationships that develop between a victim and her attacker. Empathy coexists with fear; the feeling of guilt with hatred. Richard Gadd does not spare his character in this story. The series questions its own role in the escalation of violence. Did he like being the object of such fascination? Did his cowardice allow the trap to close on him? Human complexity overflows from the characters, by turns monstrous, fragile and immoral.
To understand the disordered emotions that run through Donny, the series revisits another trauma from his past: the repeated rapes and the controlling relationship he suffered upon his arrival in London, at the start of his career as an author. How can we denounce Martha, a sick woman who needs care, without denouncing a big name in television who manipulated and drugged her to achieve his ends? The series depicts with surgical precision the consequences of sexual violence on the lives of survivors, paralyzed by shame and walled in silence. Through the analysis of this painful episode, Richard Gadd manages to shed a sometimes benevolent light on the excesses of his harasser. We would almost end up loving it.