Wowza, this one’s a ride, even more so because it’s based on Richard Gadd’s true-life stalker experience. Martha (Jessica Gunning) seemingly wandered into his bar one night, and her eager laugh and undying attention feeds something in Donny he desperately needs. He’s a prop comic, and not yet good at being a commanding presence on the stage. Martha’s a cheap date, always ordering Diet Cokes, which Donny supplies on the house in order to keep her compliments coming.
Things start to get weird, and Martha, who’s a fair bit older than Donny, starts to veer into the delusion that Donny’s her boyfriend. She’s soon overbearing, diving straight into stalker-land: hundreds of text messages day and night, following Donny around town, inserting herself into every nook and cranny she can.
The series soon becomes uncomfortable, but my advice is to hold on—there’s brilliance here, and you must watch beginning to end to see it through. I admire Gadd for diving back into this painful part of his life, but I especially commend Gunning as Martha. She managed to make a seemingly outrageous character whole, to take sadness into beautiful nuance, and to make us feel for someone who’s utterly broken. (seven 30-min. episodes)
—Anna Starkey
