This black comedy miniseries is not for the weak for the realness of stalking, Britain’s justice system and sexual assault. All subjects that are tiptoed around and Richard Gadd tells his story giving a new insight. The Scottish actor, writer and comedian tells the true narrative of himself as Donny and stalker, Martha played by Jessica Gunning. This drama came to the screens of Netflix and got us hooked.
This warped relationship starts after Donny offers Martha a drink for free after being unable to afford one, from then their relationship blossoms. They befriend each other but Martha starts to fall in love with him, starting her obsession off. The obsession turns into something no person can handle with hundreds of messages, voicemails and calls everyday. As time goes on it gets progressively worse with Martha at one point sitting outside his house at a bus stop for hours in the cold. Then we go back into a dark time for Donny which reflects how he can't let Martha go and keeps her around despite how bad the stalking gets. Flashbacks of alcohol and drug misuse with sexual assault, long term starts to eat away at him. Leaving him struggling to keep relationships and know who he is. After time he goes to the police realising he should have gone sooner with a different issue. A restraining order is given to Martha and Donny slowly gets his life back.
Photo taken from IMDb
What I loved the most is how raw everything is throughout using real messages and knowing this made the story more emotional as you felt you were receiving them yourself. Including his experiences of sexual assault halfway through made you understand more clearer why his relationship with Martha was so hard to leave. It was frustrating at times when it seemed a no brainer was to stop involving himself with her. But it was way more complex than we could comprehend at the start.
Going full circle with the first scene in the police station made you have goosebumps as later on in the series we go back to the same scene and realise why he is questioning Martha. When it came to his own sexual assault experience Richard Gadd didn't shy away and it was great to see. The emotional battle he faced and physically was pure and made viewers not feel alone who have felt the same way. It is important to be open to talking about assault because in a lot of entertainment there isn't enough openness about the aftermath just the issue itself happening. It was refreshing to see. Can we all give a shoutout to Jessica Gunning. Jessica's acting as Martha couldn't have been better. She was well suited and presented herself as charming and also scary in some scenes. Richard made one thing very clear throughout that the British system had it’s part to play, meaning not just the police taking his case seriously but also how Martha was made to feel. The two came hand in hand as later they knew about Martha and still didn't help which could have solved a lot of problems sooner.
Overall I think this was a good show to watch to educate ourselves on a part of the law we don't necessarily think about as a crime like stalking and also people's life experiences that are not okay to be dealing with on your own.
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