GBH, May 2024
For weeks, the Netflix series “Baby Reindeer” has been the number one show on the streaming giant. But it’s an unlikely hit: It tells the story of a victim of stalking. He’s a struggling Scottish comedian. And instead of immediately reporting the woman who spends her days following him around and texting him incessantly, he does nothing for a long time, even becoming sympathetic and helping the woman terrorizing his life. It’s a complex story that’s funny and scary at times, and it’s drawn the attention of people around the world. But it’s tricky when dealing with a story surrounding a crime like stalking to know what is safe, what is healthy and what is responsible to be sharing in a TV show.
“One of the challenges is that very often you have shows like this that become very popular and get a lot of attention, and often are not necessarily showing what the more common or typical experience is for individuals who are stalked,” said Carlos Cuevas, a professor of criminology and criminal justice at Northeastern University.
