Netflix let Richard Gadd and survivors down by leaving ‘Baby Reindeer’ open to lawsuits
The defamation lawsuit against Netflix over its critically acclaimed Baby Reindeer has been approved to proceed. As further details about the suit surface, it’s beginning to appear that Netflix didn’t do its due diligence in protecting the show from such predictable legal action.
Baby Reindeer took Netflix by storm earlier this year. The series is created by Richard Gadd and inspired by his real-life experiences with a stalker and abuser. He stars in the show as Donny Dunn, a struggling comedian and bartender who offers kindness to Martha (Jessica Gunning) after she shows up at his bar looking forlorn. However, his small gesture of kindness sparks a nightmare as Martha begins relentlessly stalking him and upends his entire life while he’s already navigating past trauma from abuse. Although the show is dark and difficult to watch at some points, it sparked countless important conversations about trauma, abuse, and stalking.
Following the series, Gadd received an outpouring of support for sharing his story, but the story didn’t end there. Despite his pleas not to, internet users began trying to track down the real-life inspiration for Martha and eventually outed Fiona Harvey as his alleged stalker. She quickly filed a lawsuit against Netflix, accusing the streamer of defaming her through Baby Reindeer. As much as survivors hoped it would prove to be a frivolous lawsuit, she and her legal team actually have a strong case.
Netflix made a grave mistake in marketing Baby Reindeer
California Judge R. Gary Klausner recently approved Harvey’s Baby Reindeer defamation lawsuit. While he acknowledged that Harvey’s alleged actions were “reprehensible,” he accused the show of portraying her wrongdoings to “a worse degree.” For example, he pointed out how the show depicted Martha as being convicted of stalking in court and sentenced to prison. However, in real life, she wasn’t ever convicted of stalking.
One could argue that Baby Reindeer wasn’t supposed to be 100% factual. In interviews, Gadd has been open about the differences between what really happened and the show. Countless books and movies tell truth-based stories with creative liberties without being accused of defamation. Creators should absolutely have the freedom to turn their stories into art and express themselves in the way that works the most artistically, even if it’s not 100% factual. The problem here isn’t that Gadd told his own interpretation of the story; it’s that Netflix made one egregious error. Netflix didn’t highlight that Baby Reindeer was based on or inspired by a true story — it claimed it was a true story.
When you start the first episode of Baby Reindeer on Netflix, you’re met with a disclaimer within the first two minutes that states plainly, “This is a true story.” It’s not just in the show but even in the marketing that Netflix pushed the “true story” label. In the show’s official trailer, at the 0:42 mark, a caption appears on the screen reading, “A captivating true story.” On Netflix’s official companion site, a release date, plot, and cast roundup of the show also stated, “The dark and dramatic — yet still piercingly funny — series is a true story.” While it might seem like a technicality, the wording does matter. If you label something as a “true story” and nothing else, viewers assume everything in it is true. All Netflix had to do was label it “based on a true story” to ensure viewers didn’t wrongly assume everything was factual. Yet, it didn’t.
How did Netflix not see this coming?
Given that the lawsuit is against Netflix and there’s no evidence Gadd ever tried to mislead the studio or anyone else into accepting his story as 100% fact, it seems that Netflix made the egregious decision to market Baby Reindeer as true on its own. It’s difficult to understand how it didn’t predict this would result in legal action. After all, Baby Reindeer is an entire series documenting alleged crimes that two people committed against Gadd. One would’ve thought the streamer would’ve put extra care into ensuring it examined and corrected any possible avenues for legal action against the series.
Although the suit is against Netflix, it still likely hurts Gadd to have the details of the stalking case rehashed in court. One can’t imagine it’s pleasant to think about how his stalker may walk away with large monetary damages over this incident. Meanwhile, it hurts survivors, in general, to see a stalker get a public platform and attention from this case. On top of that, with how frequent defamation cases are becoming for anyone wishing to tell their story, whether through a show, poem, or op-ed, it’s disheartening for such a case to rise against one of the most critically acclaimed series of the year about abuse.
The most frustrating part is that this whole thing could’ve been avoided, but Netflix dropped the ball. Not only did it market it as a true story, but it also made numerous questionable choices, such as featuring the real-life texts Harvey sent and other identifying details in the show. None of these inclusions were Gadd’s fault. No one expects survivors to automatically know what may open them up to legal action in telling their story through art. One of the very reasons why survivors go to studios or publishers to share their stories instead of doing so independently is because it’s supposed to mean they’re not solely responsible for ensuring they don’t break the law or spark legal action. They’re supposed to have teams and trained professionals who should know things like not to market a story as true that’s not 100% true.
If survivors succeed in selling their stories to a major streamer like Netflix, they should have assurance that the streamer will take care of them and protect them. Netflix knew it was telling the story of a real-life survivor when it greenlit Baby Reindeer, but for some reason, it didn’t handle it as delicately as it should have. Baby Reindeer‘s lawsuit could’ve been easily avoided, but Netflix’s negligence means a defamation lawsuit is moving forward that has the potential to be very public and very damaging and discouraging for survivors.
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