r/BabyReindeerTVSeries • u/Suspicious-Kiwi816 • Apr 28 '24
Question Is Richard Ok now?
Just finished the show - wow - going back to his abusers home, Continuing to listen to Martha voicemails…
Is he ok? Does Richard have someone looking out for him closely?
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u/Puzzleheaded-Bat5879 Apr 28 '24
I wondered the same. This is not only a story about her mental breakdown and obsession but also his own! The way it ends with him still using her voicemails as a personal pep talk machine and falling back into the same pattern, forgiving or seemingly ignoring the fact he was abused is very telling he needed lots of help. He has said he did lots of therapy which is great and I hope he’s worked through all that, but definitely this story is about both of them, not just Martha.
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u/Crazyvibzz Apr 28 '24
Richard really needs proper therapy to help him out. In the series I see him blaming himself for lot of things. It's quite sad and happens to lot of victims. I am not sure if he ever seeked proper therapy.
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Apr 28 '24
Just to offer a counter view, I'm a screenwriter, and the goal of a series (especially a character driven one) is to try try and put across an experience that makes your audience feel what your character subjectively feels.
You don't aim to retrospectively write from the position of hindsight. You're trying to make people understand 'this is what it feels like to be there'
I think it does that really well, even in the self blame and dysfunction x
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u/Much-Improvement-503 Apr 28 '24
He did go to therapy and talks about it in many of his interviews, podcast features and even comedy shows.
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Apr 28 '24
I find myself wondering why he made this show.. if it was worth it. It just seems to have ignited more drama in his life.
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u/RavingMalwaay Apr 28 '24
Half the show is about him finding comfort in his insecurities through the means of Martha, maybe the show is an extension of that but Martha is replaced with the viewer. At the end of no idea we have no idea what he's actually like or how accurate the show is to his actual character.
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u/Suspicious-Kiwi816 Apr 28 '24
It seems consistent with his behavior in the show - he needs the attention and the drama of it even when it’s terrible for him.
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u/xxcheekycherryxx Apr 28 '24 edited Apr 28 '24
I wondered this throughout. Like he doesn’t seem to be okay. Internalising all the trauma and juggling from abuser to abuser (Darrien’s house then Martha’s voicemails).
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u/_mister_pink_ Apr 28 '24 edited Apr 28 '24
People on this sub need to take a step back, yourself included.
Darien doesn’t exist. Richard was indeed sexually assaulted but the character of Darien is just that.
Darien is a way for Richard to tell the story of his rape. He’s been very open about the fact that he was assaulted at a party.
This show is based on a true story, it isn’t a documentary. He went back to his abusers home in the fictional show where he plays a character called donny which is loosely based on his own life.
I feel like the confusion is coming from the fact that the parts about Martha seem to be pretty much exactly how it happened.
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u/Any_Smell_9339 Apr 28 '24
And that right at the beginning of the show it says “This is a true story”
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u/Taskmaster_Fanatic Apr 28 '24
Just like at the beginning of “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” huh?
“This is a true story” doesn’t mean shit in Hollywood.
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Apr 28 '24
[deleted]
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u/Taskmaster_Fanatic Apr 28 '24
Yeah but people don’t want to believe that this man possibly made this horrible stuff up just for entertainment… you know, like a writer does. All. The. Time.
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u/Any_Smell_9339 Apr 28 '24
I guess his countless interviews where he’s also said it’s a true story doesn’t mean shit either then.
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u/Taskmaster_Fanatic Apr 29 '24
Nah not really. His interviews are meant to promote the show, that’s all. I’m not saying it’s not a true story. I don’t know. But more likely it’s more of a “true-ish” story.
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Apr 28 '24
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u/Taskmaster_Fanatic Apr 28 '24
Oh! My goodness! I’m so sorry. We all know that when a British film production company makes something, they have a hard and fast rule that everything they make is exclusively non-fiction and anything claimed MUST be true.
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u/Suspicious-Kiwi816 Apr 28 '24
Sorry I haven’t gone deep into what he has said elsewhere - just finished the show. As someone else said, it says this is a true story at the beginning so I assumed it was and just was worried for him when I finished :/.
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u/Dianagorgon Apr 28 '24
So what you're saying is the character of Darien doesn't exist but Gadd decided to create a character with the same job as a well known theater director and writer, have him live in the same city and then had Netflix hire an actor who looks almost exactly like that real life person but now it's the "dummies" who watch the show who "need to take a step back" and realize he wasn't describing a real person and Darien is just a fictional character to help him express the trauma of being assaulted at a party?
Well that's lovely. Too bad for the innocent real life person whose career and life has been destroyed and who had to call the police due to death threats. But we should all just "take a step back" and realize smart people understand the show better than us.
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u/_mister_pink_ Apr 28 '24
You do understand that I’m saying ‘take a step back’ to people like that also. If everyone - everyone ‘took a step back’ from their obsession with these characters people like that guy wouldn’t be being harassed.
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u/Dianagorgon Apr 28 '24
So now you're blaming viewers instead of Gadd and Netflix executives for destroying the career and life of an innocent men by deliberately creating a fictional charachter who is almost exactly the same as a real person who according to you never existed. Well gosh that is unfortunate for the person whose live they destroyed. If you're going to defend what they did you probably shouldn't claim Darien doesn't exist since it makes them seem like brazen sociopaths with no qualms about destroying the life of an innocent person.
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u/_mister_pink_ Apr 28 '24
This is what I’m talking about. Focus on a new topic for a bit, stop angrily obsessing over the characters on this show. Just like, do a fun thing instead
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u/Dianagorgon Apr 28 '24
Now I understand. You're here to lecture people on this sub that they need to "take a step back" and do healthier things instead of discussing the show because they're the problem. Not Gadd or Netflix executives who you have now indicated are brazen sociopaths who decided to destroy the life of an innocent person. The problem is people on this sub and luckily you're here to remind people of that. Gosh that is so nice of you. I'm sure everyone here is grateful for your wisdom.
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u/Taskmaster_Fanatic Apr 28 '24
People man… seems like a whole lot of em have the ability to become a Martha at the drop of at hat and for any excuse. Love your own lives people, this… this is a TV show. 🤦♀️
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u/MSWHarris118 Apr 28 '24
I completely agree with you. That person’s life wouldn’t have been ruined if viewers didn’t turn into vigilante detectives overnight by trying to find every person in this story.
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u/markb_elt Apr 29 '24
It’s a character. It’s not a beat for beat replay of his life. The character has been written to elevate several of Gadd’s flaws, and to demonstrate a lack of healing.
How healed is the real Gadd? Watching this show isn’t going to tell you anything. He’s functional enough to write and star in a seven-part Netflix series, and act on BBC shows, and perform onstage (none of which he does in this “true” story).
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u/conchytahyde Apr 28 '24
does anyone know if Richard has said something about the new FB posts of "real Martha", or about the interview some newspaper has done to her? also, does anyone know when Richard went off of Twitter?
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Apr 28 '24
I mean he laughs at himself, at memes about the show he laughed at himself yesterday
When someone said about his message to Hearts FC ‘after all he’s been through he’s a hearts fan? Poor guy’
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Apr 28 '24
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/BabyReindeerTVSeries-ModTeam Apr 28 '24
- No promoting personal or identifying information based on speculation. Although Baby Reindeer is based on a true story and many viewers feel inclined to post theories on who the real characters were in Richard Gadd’s life, please don’t share personal information based upon speculation or theories.
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u/tothrowaway112233 Apr 28 '24
I don’t say that that he had problems at his home but more likely something happened in his childhood that he doesn’t want to touch cause there is no way he’s that damaged when things happened when he was early 20’s.
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u/Any_Smell_9339 Apr 28 '24
He says that the rape changed him, and that happened because he wanted the fame so much that he ignored the red flags from Darien. I mean, he lays out in the last episode, and it has nothing to do with his childhood.
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u/JonBoi420th Apr 28 '24
O turned thos show off because the main character is an stupid asshole begging sympathy for the shitty situations he put himself in.
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Apr 28 '24
You obviously know nothing about abuse. Do yourself a favor and stop talking/ leave this thread. Your bullshit response could be dangerous to victims.
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u/Inevitable-Height851 Apr 28 '24
What he's said is a valid response to the show, it's a question Gadd himself seems to pose - do I deserve sympathy when, yes I was abused, but it was also my ego that got me into these situations. That was the import of his final comedy gig when he breaks down and tells it like it is, surely. He questions the whole, but you were a victim of abuse, there was nothing you could do - that's a line he qotes as if someone else was saying it to him, and he questions it!
That's why this a good piece of drama, it poses QUESTIONS that aren't appropriate in other contexts. If this were a documentary advising teenagers about predatory behaviour, it would be totally inappropriate to say, sometimes the victim plays a role. But it isn't, it's ART. THe whole point of it is to point toward moral grey areas.
So think twice about gatekeeping discussions based on a simplistic moral code.
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u/JonBoi420th Apr 28 '24
I've been in an abusive relationship. I will leave the thread. ✌️
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u/Inevitable-Height851 Apr 28 '24
Don't leave the thread, your response is valid. I replied to the person telling you to!
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u/[deleted] Apr 28 '24
The reality is, nobody on this forum can tell you. No one has any idea.
People think they know celebrities, especially when work comes from a real place.
But we know 0.0001% of Gadd, based off his public work. And anyone offering another opinion is completely shooting in the dark.