If there ever was an example of the phrase, “No good deed goes unpunished,” then Donny Dunn and his experiences are a testament to that. Donny (Richard Gadd) is a bartender and aspiring comic in the London area who does one simple thing for a person having a bad day only to have it snowball into the worst period of his life.
Gadd, a Scottish writer, comic and actor created the Netflix limited series based on his one-man act of the same name. It’s become international news as Fiona Harvey, a Scottish lawyer, has come out to publicly denounce the series saying she is the inspiration for Martha Scott (Jessica Gunning), a morbidly obese woman. Harvey has claimed her intentions to sue all involved for defamation. Now, to come out and admit this is something a lot of people wouldn’t do. But it might be a look into the madness of a stalker and their mental illness.
One day, Martha stops at the pub where Donny works and it’s obvious she’s not having a good day. He offers her a free cup of tea on the house and gives her a friendly smile. Yet, Martha reads more into it. A lot of people who work in the food service industry probably have had people thinking a common pleasantry was something more. But as Donny learns, friendly chatter with someone can lead to danger really quick when the wrong thing is said.
When Donny’s co-workers, Greggsy (Michael Wildman) and Gino (Danny Kirrane), drop hints that there’s something more between Donny and Martha that she would like, Donny drops a joke but Martha doesn’t like it. Eventually, he tries to smooth things over but they go from bad to worse at a meeting at a diner. And then out of curiosity, Donny follows Martha home only to discover that she has been lying about being a lawyer and lives in public housing and barely getting by. However, Martha catches a glimpse of him peering in the window and assumes he’s more interested in her than he lets on.
From here, Donny gets numerous emails every day for months in which she refers to him as “baby reindeer.” The emails coincide with Martha coming to his work to stay there for hours at a time. When she shows up to a stand-up act for support, he goes after her as a heckler for laughs. At the same time, Donny has begun a relationship with a transgender woman, Teri (Nava Mau). He tries to get his co-workers to ban Martha but they instead send an email indicating he wants to have sex with her. (For the most part, the two co-workers are the weakest part of the series and I wish they were left out or made more generic. Maybe Gadd really did have these issues with his co-workers. But they seem to be in a different style show for such a serious topic.)
Donny supplies the series with voice-over narration and we learn why he might have been so reluctant to report Martha even though she had a prior history of criminal activities. When he first started out in London, he met a TV writer, Darrien (Tom Goodman-Hill), who was a sexual predator who would drug him and sexually assault him. Embarrassed and humiliated, Donny is struggling with guilt.
The series, which blends comedy and drama, also focuses on the gender bias. Greggsy and Gino are morons, for lack of a better word, but if this was a woman bartender, with a man getting too close, do you think he wouldn’t be banned a lot sooner? Also, because Martha is obese, there’s that component that Greggsy and Gino were messing with her, something she’s used to. Yet, Martha sees Donny as someone who is genuine until he tells a joke that she doesn’t like.
As for Teri, Donny finds the companionship he needs but realizes he’s doing the same thing Martha is by lying to Teri, telling her his name is “Tony” and he’s in construction. The series handles transgender women as well as obese women with sympathy but also how social norms keep Donny from accepting that he might be in love with Teri. Not to defend her, but how many times prior do you think someone like Martha (who’s older than Donny) has been turned down for dates because of her size?
Gadd and Gunning give great performances. By making Donny hard to sympathize with at times makes him a complex character. His comedy bits, which include props, are very awful. And following the experience with Darrien, he begins to explore his own sexuality as well as his own humiliation with erectile dysfunction. Gunning makes Martha more three-dimensional than what some might think. At one point she begins to break down and sit at a bus stop near Donny’s place for hours on end. It’s obvious there is something mentally wrong with Martha and she has done this before so she’s prepared when Donny goes to the authorities. And even here, Donny finds the gender bias affects his case.
All this leads to Donny having a breakdown during a stand-up act. Normally, something like this would seem so cliched but Gadd delivers it in a way where he shows true pathos. I also liked how the series seriously handles the relationship between Donny and Teri. Mau gives a wonderful performance as someone who may truly be in love with Donny but can’t keep up with all that’s going on. Martha assaults Teri and Donny keeps it from being reported because he is still afraid of how people will see him.
It’s been seven years since the MeToo Movement started. Gadd has reported his real-life incident started in 2015 and lasted for four years. At first, he said people thought it was great he had an admirer and that’s how it starts. Social norms have led people to believe that it’s best to persist asking someone out on a date or that if a boy is mean to a girl, it really means he likes her. Now, this is being changed. A lot of times, infatuations and stalking ends violently.
Hopefully, this series as well as others that have come before it will open a dialogue and open minds toward something a lot of people deal with every day. While movies like Fatal Attraction are used for entertainment, for a lot of people it’s not so simple. We don’t have the law enforcement to investigate unless things really turn violent. Our judicial systems don’t put a high value on it unless it turns really violent. And a lot of victims (of all genders) are sometimes guilted or shamed so they don’t report it. They just try to move on which is easier said than done.
What do you think? Please comment.