Stephen King Gives High Praise to ‘Baby Reindeer’ & Compares it to ‘Misery’

Prolific author Stephen King was such a fan of Netflix’s Baby Reindeer that he penned an entire article praising the show, calling it “one of the best things” he’s ever seen.

In an article for the U.K.’s Times, King said a friend had recommended the hit series to him, saying it made Misery, both the book and the film, “look like a kids’ cartoon.”

“Like 13.3 million other Netflix subscribers, I tried it and found myself sucked in, unable to look away,” King wrote. “My first thought was to thank God my novel came first, or people would assume I’d stolen it from Richard Gadd.”

Baby Reindeer, written by and starring Richard Gadd, centers on Gadd’s Donny Dunn, a struggling stand-up comedian who takes pity on a lonely woman, Martha (Jessica Gunning), at the bar where he works. This brief encounter soon spirals into a months-long saga of torment as Gadd finds out Martha is a serial stalker with a history of violence.

This is familiar territory for King, who wrote the classic 1987 novel Misery, which is based around romance novelist Paul Sheldon and his deranged self-proclaimed number-one fan Annie Wilkes. The book was adapted into a critically acclaimed 1990 film starring James Caan and Kathy Bates.

Kathy Bates, James Caan in ‘Misery’; Columbia Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection

In Misery, Paul is dragged into Annie’s world after suffering a car accident, leaving him physically unable to escape. Whereas, in Baby Reindeer, Donny invites Martha into his life by happily interacting with her and offering her a cup of tea.

“[Martha] appears one day in the pub where Donny works. It’s a showstopper of an entrance, hands down the equal of our introduction to Misery’s Annie Wilkes,” King wrote. “The difference between Paul Sheldon and Donny Dunn is to some extent physical because Sheldon has been badly hurt in a car accident.”

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“He doesn’t give Annie a cup of tea — in fact would probably only give her a passing glance if she turned up in an autograph line. Donny, on the other hand, invites the devil in, however unknowingly,” the multi-time best-selling author continued.

King added that in Misery, a bedridden Sheldon “reluctantly comes to the conclusion that Annie is right about his new novel,” which she says “isn’t very good, and she’s probably right. In any event, she burns it. She is the doer; Paul Sheldon is the helpless watcher.”

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“In Baby Reindeer Donny finally takes action himself, knocking his sad suitcase of props to the floor and getting honest — brutally so — with his audience,” the Carrie author continued.

Overall, King was massively impressed by Baby Reindeer, which has landed at number one on the Netflix charts in 30 countries. He was especially a fan of the above-mentioned scene, where Donny opens up to his audience about his struggles with Martha and the sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of a successful TV producer.

“The struggle between Donny’s self-loathing and his self-esteem in this monologue makes the sixth episode of Baby Reindeer one of the best things I’ve ever seen on television (or in the movies, for that matter),” King stated.