Performer of the Week: Richard Gadd

THE PERFORMER | Richard Gadd

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THE SHOW | Baby Reindeer

THE EPISODE | “Episode 6” (April 11, 2024)

THE PERFORMANCE | When Richard Gadd’s semi-autobiographical alter ego Donny took to the stage for a stand-up competition in Baby Reindeer‘s penultimate episode, he was a wreck — inside and out. His stalker, Martha (Jessica Gunning), had not only succeeded in destroying his relationship with girlfriend Teri (Nava Mau), but she expanded her reign of terror to include his parents. Adding injury to insult, she also smashed a glass in his face, leaving him bloodied and bruised.

So, it was no great shocker that one minute into his gag-filled set, Donny began to spiral. What was astonishing was the 11-minute emotional exorcism that followed the pivot, every complex beat of which Gadd delivered with stunning, aching beauty.

“I am so f—king naive,” Donny raged to the dumbstruck crowd, Gadd imbuing the words with a mix of anguish and terror as he began to purge his soul of his darkest, most debilitating secret: that his comedy mentor seduced and sexually assaulted him amid his desperate climb up fame’s ladder.

As Donny’s recounting of the abuse got more graphic and disturbing, Gadd — fighting back tears — layered each painful detail with astounding vulnerability. And when Donny broached the subject of his own complicity, Gadd’s titular hero became enraged.

“You know it’s wrong, deep down, what he’s making you do,” Donny confessed, Gadd’s voice cracking as if attempting to make space for both Donny’s and his pain. “But you just keep going back. And you start to think: Is my lust for success so f—king high, that I will repeatedly go back to this man’s house and let him abuse me for a little peep at fame?

“I just had to keep going,” he raged. “I just had to get f—king raped.”

Donny concluded his trauma-filled catharsis by admitting he sabotaged his relationship with Teri — aka “the most beautiful person” he’s ever met — because “I loved one thing in this world more than her. And you know what that one thing was? Hating myself.”

The heartbreaking, transformative admission — delivered with painstaking authenticity by Gadd — caused Donny to completely break down. Much like us, he was rendered speechless.

Scroll down to see who scored Honorable Mention shout-outs this week…

HONORABLE MENTION: Tadanobu Asano

Shōgun’s scruffy warlord Yabushige may not have been one of the key power players on FX’s samurai epic, but Tadanobu Asano grunted his way into our hearts as the strictly pragmatic schemer. In this week’s finale, Asano revealed a tender side to Yabushige when he expressed deep regret for his role in Mariko’s death, and then he was amusingly frantic as Yabushige tried to save his skin by striking a side bargain with Blackthorne. But his luck ran out, and Asano wore a resigned tranquility as Yabushige faced his certain death, cracking jokes to Omi about finding his wife a new husband who’s “not an idiot” and calmly shooting the breeze with Toranaga. Even his final moments, grinning at Toranaga over his shoulder before the lord beheaded him, managed to put a smile on our faces. — Dave Nemetz

HONORABLE MENTION: Jordan Calloway

Following Cara’s death, we worried that Fire Country‘s Jake would spiral. And while he lost a step at first, Jake this week regained his bearings, in wonderful scenes for Jordan Calloway. Sitting with Gen (Alix West Lefler), who’d acted out as guardianship forms swirled around her, Jake shared, “I wasn’t just your mom’s boyfriend. I was going to ask her to marry me. But part of that question was if she’d have me as a father for you. And more importantly, if you’d have m—.” Before Jake could finish, Gen hugged him, and Calloway’s eyes communicated so much joy. Then came the hard part, informing Bode, and Calloway imbued Jake with a maturity we’d not seen before. “I will need your help, but I think this needs to be me,” he explained. When “Uncle” Bode scoffed that Jake can’t know what it’s like to be jostled around by life, Jake firmly reminded, “I can. I was counting on a future with Cara, but things change in an instant.” — Matt Webb Mitovich

HONORABLE MENTION: Gary Cole

Is there a doctor in the house?! NCIS‘ Special Agent Alden Parker answered that call this week, by thrusting himself into a highly unplanned “undercover” assignment, and Gary Cole in turn got to really show off his comedic chops. The onetime Office Space boss mined the first half of this week’s episode for much physical comedy, as Parker nursed a very achy neck and beseeched team members to coddle him with held-up iPhone screens and such. But when Parker acted fast and slipped on a lab coat and Harvard-educated attitude in order to protect a kidnapped heart surgeon, Cole not only got to rattle off all kinds of TV and movie references (“Dr. Emmett Trowbridge”) and play up Parker’s aversion to needles, he shared a crackling chemistry with scene partner/guest star Christina Kirk (A to Z). This lighter turn by Cole was — yes, we’re gonna say it — just what the doctor ordered. — MWM

Which performance(s) knocked your socks off this week? Tell us in the comments!

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