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'Baby Reindeer' is the most popular show on Netflix: 4 shows you need to watch next

Richard Gadd's series, costarring Jessica Gunning, has reached more than 13 million views on Netflix

Elisabetta Bianchini
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The Netflix hit Baby Reindeer continues to be the most popular show on the streaming platform. Richard Gadd has transformed his one-man play into a series, documenting the true story of being stalked by a woman for years, and the sexual abuse he suffered in the early days of his comedy career.

People around the world have been captivated by Baby Reindeer, a compelling story that's incredibly emotional, dark, jarring, and for many, quite difficult to watch. Several fans of the show have praised the series for its very honest and truthful depiction of a victim of sexual assault, with very frank discussions about sexual violence and grooming.

Richard Gadd as Donny in Baby Reindeer (Ed Miller/Netflix)
Richard Gadd as Donny in Baby Reindeer (Ed Miller/Netflix)

As the series begins, we see Gadd's character Donny Dunn offer Martha (Jessica Gunning) a free cup of tea when she walks into the bar where he works, after she says she can't afford to pay for a drink. From that one act of kindness, the stalking began. In real life, Gadd received more than 41,000 emails from his stalker over three years, 350 hours of voicemail, 744 tweets and 106 pages of letters, the creator of show has revealed.

In one notable episode, we go back in time five years, when Donny is at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and meets someone who offers to help him expand his career. But Donny is drugged, groomed and sexually abused. This is also taken from Gadd's real life.

"It kind of shows a side of abuse that I don't think we've seen before," Gadd says in a behind-the-scenes look at creating Baby Reindeer. "I still think there's an idea that sexual abuse is a kind of a pill in a drink that dissolves, and someone wakes up and they don't know where they are, and that does happen, and that is a big problem, but a lot of abuse occurs in very intimate relationships."

"I think I wanted to show just how complicated and psychologically messed up situations can get. So I hope that when people see it who have been through similar things that they feel less shame around it. They feel maybe emboldened to take it on in their life and deal with it in a way where they don't see it as a dent to their character in some way. I hope it provides peace. I think it would have provided peace for me. I was going through like a masculinity crisis. I had all these kind of like broken ideas of what it meant to be a man and this doesn't happen to a man. I just didn't know who I was anymore."

If you've finished Baby Reindeer and you're looking for what to watch next, here are four shows to add to your binge watch list:

Since Baby Reindeer arrived on Netflix, many have been comparing the series to Michaela Coel's HBO series I May Destroy You (on Crave in Canada, Max in the U.S). If you still haven't checked out this compelling series, it's a must-watch show that really packs an emotional punch in each episode.

Coel stars in the series as Arabella, an author who is raped at a bar while out with her friends. Arabella not only has to grapple with the cloud of this trauma, but also has to navigate if, and how, she should go to the police to report what happened.

I May Destroy You is a brilliant evaluation of consent with incredibly nuanced characters that are complex and dynamic all the way through.

Created by the same production company as Baby Reindeer, The End of the F***ing World was one of our favourite shows when it premiered on Netflix in 2017.

The dark comedy, starring Alex Lawther and Jessica Barden, follows James (Lawther), a teen psychopath who goes on a road trip with a classmate, rebellious Alyssa (Barden).

Injected with a lot of wit, the series hones in on these teens having dark compulsions and coping with their personal pain.

A quick look at Gadd's IMDB page will remind you that before we got the Baby Reindeer series he wrote an episode of Netflix's Sex Education, Season 2, Episode 5.

In the episode, Otis (Asa Butterfield) and Eric (Ncuti Gatwa) go on a camping trip with Otis' father, Remi (James Purefoy).

In addition to this being an episode where tensions rise between Otis and Eric, particularly related to Eric's relationship with Adam (Connor Swindells), it also explores divorce and the relationship Otis' parents had.

If you were particularly taken by Jessica Gunning's portrayal of Martha, you can also watch her work in the Prime Video series The Outlaws, from creators Stephen Merchant and Elgin James, costarring alongside Merchant himself, Charles Babalola, Rhianne Barreto, Darren Boyd and Christopher Walken. Gunning will also have her debut writing credit on the third season of the show.

The setup for the British series follows seven lawbreakers who are doing community service together, specifically helping to restore a building into a community centre. When they find a bag full of money on the job, they have to figure out what to do with it.