The best series of the week: a different look at the Vietnam War in ‘The Sympathizer’, and the intense stalker drama ‘Baby Reindeer’

Hi Mark, you looked at Baby Reindeer. What did you think of it?

‘I watch so many series that I usually don’t linger long on something I’ve seen, but the seven-part series Baby Reindeer (Netflix) keeps popping into my head. I notice that everyone who has seen it wants to talk about it. It seems like a black comedy, but it is much bleaker than that.

‘The series is based on the true story of Richard Gadd, who also plays the lead role. Gadd wanted to comedian which did not go so smoothly. He also had a part-time job in a bar. There he met a woman, who is called Martha in the series and is phenomenally portrayed by Jessica Gunning. He offers her a cup of tea, and that is the beginning of her misconception that they have a special connection. Things quickly get completely out of hand: she turns out to be a classic stalker.

‘Martha shows up everywhere, harasses him, harasses his family, is sometimes sweet and sometimes threatens violence. In a short time she sends him 40,000 texts, hundreds per day. Gadd tries to press charges, but it turns out not to be that easy. You must be able to prove that someone is threatening you – texting someone is not prohibited. It is extremely difficult to defend yourself against such a person.

‘Another thing that’s intriguing: Gadd starts talking about his stalker during performances. That first theater program, including her voicemails and apps, was a huge hit. It earned Gadd the contract with Netflix that led to this series. And although the subject is heavy, the narrative form is light. Baby Reindeer lingers for many reasons. It’s easy to shake off horror, but this is so realistic and true that it has a major impact.’

You watched another drama series with black humor: The Sympathizer.

‘The Sympathizer is based on the book of the same name by Viet Thanh Nguyen. The story is partly based on Nguyen’s own experiences. He fled from Saigon to the United States as a boy with his parents in the 1970s, at the end of the Vietnam War. The narrator in his novel is a Viet Cong mole in the South Vietnamese army, who, after fleeing to the US, merges with the South Vietnamese community in America and continues his work for the North Vietnamese revolutionaries there.

‘The series was created by legendary South Korean director Park Chan-wook and was largely made in Vietnamese. Ten years ago you could not have imagined that such a huge HBO production would be subtitled and filled with relatively unknown actors. I am an admirer of the book, and the series makers have managed to adapt it very cleverly into a film.

‘The story contains a number of American characters who represent the way the Vietnamese were viewed at that time. All those roles are played by Robert Downey Jr. That’s an interesting one gimmick that you rarely see.

‘In one of the episodes, the main character becomes an advisor on the set of an American Vietnam film. A clear satire on how America and the film industry viewed the Vietnam War. This makes it clear once again how those Vietnam films were all about the Americans.

‘But there are more sides to the story The Sympathizer clearly. Now it’s about the Vietnamese perspective, and the makers have developed that very nicely.’