Isolation, obsession, and self-loathing: 10 movies and TV shows like ‘Baby Reindeer’
Needless to say, there’s nothing quite like Baby Reindeer to have come along and shaken the cultural conversation to its core, with Richard Gadd’s semi-autobiographical Netflix miniseries a heart-wrenching and often harrowing dramatised account of his own experiences.
The comedian was forced to contend with the unwanted affections of a stalker who bombarded him with text messages, emails, and voicemails numbering into the thousands, all while navigating the personal and professional pitfalls that threatened to tear him apart from the inside out.
It makes for uncomfortable viewing, but based on the fact Baby Reindeer has been one of the most talked-about TV shows to premiere in a long time, it’s evident that audiences are willing to persevere through the darkest moments to share the journey, even if it’s an experience that doesn’t relent even after the credits come up on the final episode.
Being uniquely reflective of its creator’s own life, there are no movies or TV shows completely identical to Baby Reindeer, but there are still many spiritual companion pieces that deal in many of the same themes, dynamics, and even origins as Gadd’s unflinching introspective.
Movies like Baby Reindeer
Arguably the most famous movie about what can happen when an infatuation becomes an obsession with dangerous consequences, Kathy Bates’ Academy Award-winning performance in Misery highlights how a connection that was once entirely non-existent can quickly spiral out of control when one party becomes a great deal more invested than the other.
Along similar lines, Michael Haneke’s chilling Caché follows a couple who receive videos indicating they’re stalking victims, with the husband a public figure. As the screws continue to tighten, his wife becomes convinced there’s something he’s hiding from her that led to their current predicament, similar to the way Donny’s double life in Baby Reindeer often comes back to haunt him.
It might be a historical drama, but The Story of Adele H. invokes shades of Baby Reindeer by revolving around a woman who falls so madly in love with a man who doesn’t reciprocate her feelings that she follows him everywhere he goes and assumes a new identity in order to try and manufacture their love, while Joanna Hogg’s Souvenir takes a similar semi-autobiographical route by detailing an aspiring filmmaker’s intense relationship with an older man who doesn’t harbour the best of intentions.
Donny’s personal life in Baby Reindeer is also an exploration of the pressures that come with adhering to society’s preferred concept of modern masculinity, making emotionally-charged and complex revenge thriller Femme a fitting feature-length continuation for those seeking some familiar thematic echoes.
TV shows like Baby Reindeer
It might lean heavier into the comedic side of the equation, but just like Baby Reindeer, Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag originated as a one-woman stage show, so it’s impossible not to see the parallels between them despite their vastly different approaches to the subject matter.
Michaela Coel’s I May Destroy You finds the creator’s Arabella Essiedu struggling to move forward with her life after the aspiring TV writer is drugged and sexually assaulted, mirroring the way Gadd processed his own trauma and used it as the basis for an uncompromising, haunting, and powerful drama that wasn’t afraid of balancing the discomforting with the blackly humorous.
Having openly struggled with mental health and substance abuse issues, Pete Davidson reflected on his own struggles with the ups and downs of life by using it as the basis for heightened and exaggerated but still only semi-fictionalised comedy Bupkis. As well as hailing from the same production company as Baby Reindeer, The End of the F***ing World explores the boundaries between sex and consent, the complexities of gender, and the lingering effects of personal trauma.
It might be decidedly more fantastical, but Dominique Fishback’s intoxicating performance in Swarm as the superfan of a world-famous pop star who won’t let anything stand in the way of her dreams of meeting her idol face-to-face nonetheless trades in obsession, grief, self-loathing, and the dangers of dedicating too much time to curating the perfect online existence.
10 movies and TV shows like Baby Reindeer:
- Misery (Rob Reiner, 1990)
- Caché (Michael Haneke, 2005)
- The Story of Adele H. (François Truffaut, 1975)
- The Souvenir (Joanna Hogg, 2019)
- Femme (Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping, 2023)
- I May Destroy You (Michaela Coel, 2020)
- Fleabag (Phoebe Waller-Bridge, 2016-2019)
- Bupkis (Pete Davidson, 2023)
- The End of the F***ing World (Jonathan Entwistle, 2017-2019)
- Swarm (Janine Nabers and Donald Glover, 2023)