New Netflix series based on chilling true story gets 100% Rotten Tomatoes score

A new Netflix series has landed a perfect 100% Rotten Tomatoes score — and it’ll likely be the most harrowing TV show you’ll watch in 2024.

While Unlocked: A Jail Experiment remains top of Netflix’s top 10 chart, a new limited series arrived on the platform just before the weekend, and it’s mounted a steady climb to third place (and top of the podium in other countries).

Baby Reindeer stars Richard Gadd (who also wrote and directed it) as Donny, an aspiring, struggling comedian who spends most of his time behind a London bar. One fateful day, a Scottish woman (Jessica Gunning) comes into the pub alone, crying, and skint. He offers her a cup of tea on the house — an innocent, friendly gesture, but little does he know that he’s just signed up for the worst year of his life.

It’s based on Gadd’s real experience with a stalker and sexual assault, and across seven episodes, he explores (and often re-enacts, with visceral detail) his traumatic past. It’s extraordinarily powerful, sometimes funny, and emotionally grueling television that follows in the footsteps of Fleabag and I May Destroy You — arguably, it’s even more brutal.

The series has arrived to unanimous critical acclaim, currently rated 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. “Gadd confronts and processes his real-life trauma in a brave, moving, and often disturbing watch that’s rooted in comedy, yet the tears you’ll shed won’t be tears of joy or laughter,” Empire wrote in its five-star review.

The Independent also heaped on praise, describing it as “twisty, mature, self-interrogating stuff that will leave you more troubled than tickled.” The Guardian also warned it has the “most chilling episode of the year” — a claim that’s definitely accurate (it’s Episode 4, and there are warnings beforehand).

Viewers have echoed the plaudits, with one tweeting: “#BabyReindeer is the best thing I’ve watched on TV for years. Absolutely insane, so much happens, and the fact it is a true story played by the REAL man?! I don’t know how he was able to put himself in the place he was to make this. Unbelievable.”

“#BabyReindeer is possibly one of the most heart-wrenching, moving, thrilling, brilliant pieces of writing I’ve ever seen, the fact Richard Gadd reenacted his own trauma and experience, insane. He deserves every award,” another posted.

Baby Reindeer is streaming now. You can find out what other shows are coming to streaming in April, and true crime documentaries you should add to your watch list.