‘Baby Reindeer:’ Has Netflix’s Word-of-Mouth Smash Saved This Emmy Season?

It’s not the Emmys fault.

Is it?

To me, the 2024 Emmy season feels a little slight at the moment. A little… underwhelming. There are a few reasons for that. First, we just had the 2023 Emmy ceremony last January. Remember that was the celebration of TV that, in some cases, aired a year and a half earlier? Yes, it was delayed for a just cause – the WGA and SAG strikes of 2023. But we’re not really getting that six or so months of breathing space that we normally have.

Then, so much of the 2024 Emmy season feels prescribed. Thanks to the strike and other weird timing occurrences, many of the most popular and Emmy-nominated active dramas on television (House of the Dragon, Severance, etc) won’t air seasons during the 2024 eligibility window (June 1, 2023, through May 31, 2024). That leaves the drama series frontrunner to be Netflix’s The Crown. On paper, that makes a lot of sense. It is a previous Emmy champion ending its six season run. Trouble is, it was a very divisive season. Season six aired in two parts, a smart decision that avoided blending the emotional final moments of Diana’s (frontrunner Elizabeth Debicki) life with the less dramatic Kate and Will romance. Many critics savaged the final season, but audiences still seemed to like it with an 85 percent Rotten Tomatoes approval rating. And it did absolutely nail that final episode, some of the best work across the entire series.

But there’s no denying that the show, aside from Debicki’s outstanding performance, feels extremely vulnerable at the 2024 Emmys. Trouble is, what could beat it? The Morning Show? Mr. and Mrs. Smith? Slow Horses? The Curse? All likely nominees, but not shows that will build enough of a consensus to dethrone The Crown.

And let’s not even talk about the Comedy races where The Bear feels destined to repeat nearly even win from January’s ceremony thanks to an even better second season.

So, it’s again the Limited Series races that we turn toward for excitement.

Only, was the excitement really there?

I loved season five of FX’s Fargo. To me, this is Noah Hawley’s masterpiece, a brilliant high wire act of tension, tragedy, comedy, and just enough insanity thrown to rival the Coen’s themselves. FX also has current frontrunner Shogun which many, many people love and many, many people find it to be homework. Apple’s Lessons in Chemistry has its fans and managed to emerge relatively unscathed from backlash against the massive changes to the original novel. And many praise Netflix’s Ripley for its brilliant central performance by Andrew Scott and its stunning black and white cinematography. That series isn’t without its own complications, though, as some viewers found the initial pacing too glacial to proceed.

But everything changed shortly after April 11, 2024.

That’s when Netflix premiered Baby Reindeer, an adaptation of Scottish comic Richard Gadd’s one-man show about a few very dark periods in his life. It came to American audiences unheralded. It wasn’t heavily marketed or specially packaged for Emmy talent reels. It emerged as an actually organic event. One by which even Netflix themselves seemed stunned.

And the less you know about the series, the more compelling you’ll find it. As such, I’m not going to describe anything about it here other than to say it’s an excellent piece of television. One that has given the 2024 Emmy season a sorely needed jolt of adrenaline. Without going into specifics, there are actually two stories at play here. The first is about two lonely, depressed people who find comfort in shared signs of kindness, empathy, and compassion, but the lines of communication go horribly wrong (for many reasons) leading to a near-fatal attraction. The second story is a deeper, more emotional series of personal reflections by series creator and star Richard Gadd. He explores these seismic events surrounding his struggling life and tries to make sense of all of it. It’s a poignant and, at times, extremely painful exploration of the human psyche.

It’s this second aspect of the series that, in my opinion, takes it from good to great.

What will be interesting is the effect Baby Reindeer has on the Emmy season. We do have a bit of a precedent here in last year’s Jury Duty. That was another series that flew for months under the radar, eventually became an undeniable word of mouth hit (on Peacock), and eventually received multiple Emmy nominations, including Comedy Series. Granted, it didn’t win anything, but the nominations were kind of the win there.

Baby Reindeer should find itself in similar shoes. The Television Academy will likely react to both the quality of the series (it’s really good) and to the sense of excitement and discovery that comes along with it. It is a true sensation, something this Emmy season has sorely lacked.