The obsession with ‘Baby Reindeer’ isn’t about ‘nuance’

Welcome to Screen Gab, the newsletter for everyone who’s been feeling “Baby Reindeer�-curious the last few weeks.

There are surely algorithmic reasons for the British miniseries’ meteoric rise to the top of the Netflix charts, but in this week’s Catch Up, editor Matt Brennan grapples with the artistic reasons why it’s drawn viewers in — and takes issue with one of the most frequently cited.

Also in Screen Gab No. 131, “Grey’s Anatomy’s� Camilla Luddington stops by to discuss her own TV obsession, plus streaming recommendations for your weekend from the experts at The Times.

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Turn on

Recommendations from the film and TV experts at The Times

Conan O’Brien in “Conan O’Brien Must Go.�

(Conaco / Max)

“Conan O’Brien Must Go� (Max)

This weirdo travel show, something of a stranger, less journalistic, more aggressively comic successor to the “Conan Without Borders� specials from O’Brien’s TBS talk show days, sits somewhere between Eugene Levy’s “The Reluctant Traveler� and Anthony Bourdain’s “Parts Unknown.� Norway, Thailand, Argentina and Ireland make up the itinerary, and in each country, O’Brien visits one or more ordinary person who has called in to his podcast, “Conan O’Brien Needs a Fan.� He records and performs with a Norwegian hip-hop group, consorts with Viking cosplayers and Argentine football players, “hallucinates� from spicy Thai food, dances the tango and visits the home of his ancestors, which is to say, the absence where that home once stood. He appears in costume often and once as a horse. A man always ready to play the fool, he is both mocker and mocked (even in Ireland, he’s ridiculed as a ginger), and everywhere gets as good as he gives. — Robert Lloyd

Talking Heads in “Stop Making Sense.�

(Richard E. Aaron / Redferns)

“Stop Making Sense� (Max)

When a remastered version of Jonathan Demme’s 1984 concert film “Stop Making Sense� was re-released last year, there were widespread reports of spontaneous dance parties breaking out in theaters. Now the document of Talking Heads at Hollywood’s Pantages Theatre is available at home for anyone who may have been too shy to let loose in public. As the musicians onstage expand from one to nine, the music grows too, building to ecstatic, funky workouts such as “Burning Down the House,� “Girlfriend Is Better� and “Once in a Lifetime.� The movie’s reputation as one of the greatest concert films ever is entirely earned, and having this sparkling edition so readily available (including on Blu-ray and 4k UHD) may actually be a way to achieve joy and happiness with just the push of a few buttons. — Mark Olsen

Catch up

Everything you need to know about the film or TV series everyone’s talking about

Richard Gadd in “Baby Reindeer.�

(Ed Miller / Netflix)

A scumbag and his stalker walk into a bar: If the premise of Richard Gadd’s thoroughly unsettling miniseries sounds like the setup to an off-color joke, the punchline is that “Baby Reindeer� — with no stars, seemingly no marketing and no care for the viewer’s comfort — has become Netflix’s latest left-field sensation. In seven episodes punctuated by blistering laughter and bitter recriminations, a seemingly innocuous encounter between Donny (Gadd), a failed comedian, and Martha (Jessica Gunning), an eccentric customer at his London pub, spins into a life-altering crisis.

What “Baby Reindeer� most certainly is not is “nuanced.� This repeated explanation for its unforeseen rise to the top of the streamer’s most-watched chart — often pitched against the platform’s preference for broad, bombastic television — doesn’t square with the series’ embrace of extremity. On a moment-to-moment basis, scenes and sequences have a penchant for getting lost in the blizzard of emails, Facebook messages and hectoring comments Martha sends Donny, and which Donny occasionally solicits in return; the penultimate episode, the season’s weakest, goes so far as to devote its ostensibly show-stopping cri de coeur to recapitulating developments handled more deftly, and with more emotional resonance, in the five entries prior.

On a structural level, at least, Gadd’s self-lacerating commitment to undermining every epiphany as swiftly as it’s built up is rather ingenious, viscerally communicating the inner whirlpool of shame and doubt that’s always threatening to pull us under. And by explaining Donny’s questionable choices without softening them to make him more likable, the series does stand out from the mindless background noise that passes for so much streaming output these days. Still, the word that came to my mind watching “Baby Reindeer� is the distinctly unsubtle “flayed�: With each new discovery about Donny, after all, another of his layers is torn violently away, before finally reaching the exposed nerve endings at his traumatized center. As for Martha, she turns out to be more object than subject, the hacksaw with which the series performs open heart surgery on its troubled protagonist. Whatever nuance there is in that they must be saving for a second season. — Matt Brennan

READ MORE: Who is the real Martha from ‘Baby Reindeer’? Jessica Gunning says she didn’t need to know

READ MORE: Woman claiming to be real Martha tells Piers Morgan ‘Baby Reindeer’ is ‘hyperbole’

Guest spot

A weekly chat with actors, writers, directors and more about what they’re working on — and what they’re watching

Camilla Luddington in Season 20 of “Grey’s Anatomy.�

(Anne Marie Fox / ABC)

Like many longtime staffers at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital, Jo Wilson has been through the wringer. Maybe not marooned-in-the-wilderness-after-a-deadly-plane-crash dire, but dramatic nonetheless: In 12 seasons on “Grey’s Anatomy,� she has been abandoned by her husband (via letter, no less), diagnosed with depression and faced personally and professionally with the trauma of sexual assault and domestic violence. So far this season, though, ABC’s medical drama has given the OB/GYN resident, played by Camilla Luddington, a bit of a reprieve, allowing her to (mostly) enjoy her new specialty and her relationship with partner Atticus “Link� Lincoln (Chris Carmack). As the series’ strike-shortened 20th season heads toward its conclusion, Luddington stopped by Screen Gab to talk about what she’s watching, the “Grey’s� bottle episode of her dreams and more. — Matt Brennan

What have you watched recently that you are recommending to everyone you know?

Recently, I’ve been re-watching “PEN15� on Hulu. It’s just such a fantastic coming-of-age comedy series, and so many people still haven’t seen it. I absolutely love Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle, who wrote it. I think they’re geniuses, and I watch every episode and their commitment to these characters in awe. Comedy is not easy, and they nail every. single. moment.

By the time this interview runs, I will have seen all 427 episodes of “Grey’s Anatomy� aired to date. Is there anything in pop culture, whether TV series, film franchise, artist, etc., you’ve gotten perhaps unreasonably obsessed with?

I think the first series I ever became totally obsessed with was “Dawson’s Creek� [Prime Video, Hulu]. It helped that I had just moved to the U.S. for the first time as a freshman in high school when it aired. It was my first introduction to life stateside, and I remember feeling like this was my life. I was one of them. It was also the first TV series where I remember buying the CDs of the soundtracks. I actually still have the soundtrack to one season on my phone. It for sure takes me back.

Jo’s OB-GYN specialty gives her an opportunity to work more closely with Arizona Robbins, played by Jessica Capshaw, who returns to the series this season after six years. What do Arizona/Jessica bring back to the show that was missing in their absence?

Jessica is one of my closest friends, and so I had always missed her energy on set. But during the table read, hearing her back as Arizona Robbins, it just really brought home that that character brings so much sunshine. Every actor on our show is so different, and that’s what makes our ensemble so much fun. But Arizona just exudes all the charm in the world. It was a seamless reintroduction, and the fans absolutely loved it. I’m crossing all my fingers for some kind of return next year.

This is your 12th season on the show. What’s one ambition you have as an actor, or have for Jo as a character, that you still want to achieve?

I would personally love to do a comedy. I’m ready for a “Bridesmaids� or a rom-com. I’m putting that out there into the universe.

And as for Jo Wilson, I want her to achieve all the success [as an] OB-GYN. She’s still a resident, but I can see her being the most incredible attending and getting to teach. I also want that girl to take a vacation. Please. Can all the doctors take one group vacation? We’ve never seen them all out, cocktail in hand, being forced to “relax.� The drama.