Netflix’s smash-hit series Baby Reindeer is a mind-blowing true story about Scottish comedian Richard Gadd, who was relentlessly stalked by a woman for years. In the process of telling his story, it also reveals a traumatic event that occurred in his past. The underlying themes in the series hit hard, but it’s also a cathartic story of damaged self-worth, loneliness, ambition, desperation, assault, and a system that often fails people.
Chances are you have probably already powered your way through the seven episodes of the black-comedy drama thriller. If you’re looking for something else to satiate your appetite while processing the disturbingly good show, put these three series on your radar to tackle next.
Like Baby Reindeer, Beef (one of the best Netflix shows of 2023) tackles the concept of obsession and self-loathing. It takes you on a journey with two tragic characters, each dealing with their own personal trauma, much like Donny Dunn (Gadd) and Martha Scott (Jessica Gunning) ware in Baby Reindeer. Central to the plot is a road rage incident that happens at just the wrong time for both characters.
Instead of letting things go and moving on, they become laser-focused on getting revenge on one another, even when the situation escalates to each one’s personal detriment.
Both shows tackle difficult, sensitive subject matter in a way that’s disturbingly dark with a hint of humor. The plots in both shows draw you in and make you feel sympathetic for and angered at the central characters. Highlighting motivations of loneliness, anger, and self-destructive personalities, Beef takes you down a similar emotional journey that far transcends the initial incident.
The topic of dealing with trauma and, more specifically, sexual assault is at the heart of this Emmy-winning black comedy-drama as well. The protagonist, Michaela Cole, also based the story on her own real-life experiences, further drawing comparisons to Baby Reindeer.
It begins when Arabella (Cole), a young writer, takes a break from penning her second novel to enjoy a night out with friends. Unfortunately, it turns ugly. She awakens the next morning unsure of the events of the evening. Through flashbacks, she slowly begins to recall and piece together what happened, realizing that she was the victim of sexual assault.
Both shows are arguably cathartic for the actors who star in them, both of whom play fictional versions of themselves. Just as brilliantly done as Baby Reindeer, I May Destroy You is deeply heart-wrenching, providing an intimate look at the process of healing from trauma and dealing with the aftereffects that never leave you. The shows might also help others who have been through similar situations deal with their own emotions and feelings of blame.
Stream I May Destroy You on Max.
What makes You an interesting watch after Baby Reindeer is that while it’s a purely fictional tale about a serial killer, he is also one with a proclivity for stalking the women with whom he becomes obsessed, albeit far more secretly than Martha does to Donny.
Interestingly, this series presents the story from the perspective of the stalker versus the person being stalked. Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) justifies his reasoning for doing the awful things he does in the same way Martha misinterprets situations and Donny’s actions or words. In both cases, the stalkers reply, in time, with rage and fury, which often results of their own delusions.
Goldberg’s inflated sense of who he is — he even eventually poses as a university professor — is reminiscent of Martha pretending to be a highly respected and sought-after lawyer. Goldberg also draws comparisons to the biggest villain in Baby Reindeer, Darrien O’Connor (Tom Goodman-Hill), by presenting himself as a charming, kind, respectable man when in reality he’s anything but.
You might not be as deep and meaningful as the acclaimed Richard Gadd series, but the psychological thriller will keep you invested through the story. It will send chills down your spine in a similar way that Baby Reindeer does. You is an embellished, fictional tale that isn’t quite as believable as Baby Reindeer’s true story. But the focus on the warped mind of a murderous stalker provides a different perspective on an equally chilling tale.
China just gave Hollywood a cautionary tale about AI filmmaking. Sanxingdui: Future Past, billed as the country's first fully AI-generated movie, hit theaters on October 23 and bombed at the box office.
According to Futurism, the film's reported $1.5 million production budget landed on more than 10,000 screens. Yet it pulled in only about $181,000, averaging roughly $20 per screen, making the budget difficult to recover.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?