"Dark, But Very Bingeable": New Netflix Series Just Became Its Best Show of 2024

Summary

• Netflix has managed to launch a whole lot of great big-budget TV series in the first 4 months of 2024.
• However, not every one of them is getting rave reviews from critics and audiences.
• There is one new series that has a perfect 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Netflix keeps expanding with more expensive, high-profile and intriguing movies and series each year, and 2024 is already emerging as a prolific one for the company. In just four months of 2024, the streaming service has released such notable projects as the US-produced Griselda, Italy's Supersex, Germany's The Signal, South Korea's Queen of Tears and Parasyte: The Grey and, of course, the final season of Sweden's Young Royals.

Moreover, each of these projects pales in comparison to Netflix's three new flagships: the live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Guy Ritchie 's The Gentlemen, and, of course, the project that Netflix seems to have spent the most money promoting, the sci-fi series 3 Body Problem, based on the famous books by Liu Cixin.

All in all, it just goes to show that Netflix remains a trendsetter in the streaming market, many times ahead of its competitors. And while all of this investment by Netflix is certainly paying off commercially, it raises an important question: is there anything truly culturally relevant left after Netflix's aggressive marketing?

After all, despite the hype and ratings of the aforementioned series, not all of them have left critics and audiences with an unambiguously positive impression, and a number of these projects have already fallen into oblivion.

In such a context, a new sinister British drama-thriller based on real events stands out. Why is it so remarkable? Because even though it was only released less than a week ago, it has already managed to get a perfect 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes, something no other new Netflix release has been able to achieve.

What Is the Series That Has Critics Raving?

Fear of being watched and stalked has often been explored in media, posing questions about privacy, consent, and delusional obsessiveness. But this is all fiction most of the time, though. Far more terrifying are the stories that are based on true events, as they demonstrate that any seemingly pleasant stranger can prove to be a horrifying lunatic and predator.

And now, on April 11, 2024, all seven episodes of a new miniseries dramatizing the harrowing ordeal of popular Scottish comedian Richard Gadd have been added to Netflix.

The new show is titled Baby Reindeer, and it is created by Gadd himself. It is a bold dramatization of Gadd's very personal experience of being harassed by a female fan (portrayed by Jessica Gunning) who for years kept him paranoid, collected his phone numbers and mailing addresses, bombarded him with constant text messages, threatened his family and friends, and was never charged by the authorities, effectively evading the law.

At the time, Gadd was doing a show called Monkey See Monkey Do, which ironically was about the very sexual abuse he was experiencing in the industry. And that's when he met his new abuser, who is called Martha on the show.

'I was met with a whole gamut of Martha's emotions from hurled insults to deep expressions of love and longing. It was too much for anyone to bear,' Gadd told Netflix.

Notably, for all the many dark, unsettling, and downright terrifying moments in which Martha skillfully terrorizes Richard (called Donny in the show), Gadd is good at looking at life with a positive outlook, diluting the tone of the show with easy jokes and self-deprecation.

This is a big part of what makes Baby Reindeer so profound, because despite all the horrific experiences of abuse and harassment, Richard also evaluates his own actions, including those that led him to get close to Martha in the first place.

Source: Netflix.