Based on Richard Gadd’s autobiographical one-man show of the same name, Netflix’s Baby Reindeer is based on Gadd’s real-life experience of being stalked by a woman named Martha. The series has surpassed expectations to become one of Netflix’s most popular TV shows of all time, taking its place on the streaming service’s Top 10 list.
With a total of 84.5 million views since its release on April 11th, Baby Reindeer is sitting pretty at the #10 spot, which means that it has bumped the first season of The Witcher off the list entirely. Sorry, Geralt. The list tracks how many views a show gets within its first 91 days on Netflix, and as Baby Reindeer still has a month to go before it reaches that limit, it could very well jump up a few positions.
Here’s the full list of Netflix’s Most Popular TV Shows (English):
The series has also been making waves for the real-life figures behind the series. Although Richard Gadd had asked fans not to try to identify the real-life people behind the characters, it didn’t take long for interview sleuths to track down Gadd’s alleged stalker, Scottish lawyer Fiona Harvey. In an interview with Piers Morgan, the real-life Martha said that the entire Baby Reindeer series is a work of “hyperbole” and “fiction.” She has since moved forward with legal action against Netflix.
Chris Daw KC, a barrister working with Harvey, said that the series also grossly misrepresented her persona and past and has profited from false portrayals. “Portraying someone as a convicted criminal who has done time in prison, when that is not true, is a pretty clear cut case of defamation, as it is bound to cause serious harm to that person’s reputation,” Daw said. “There are strict laws on the use of a person’s image for commercial gain, particularly in the U.S., which do not seem to have been considered.“