Selvatico IV

Baby Reindeer Part II (aka Selvatico IV)

Remember when everyone was sucking Richard Gadd’s dick following the engineered release of his sloppy, contrived, manufactured Netflix drivel about a third-rate comedian and his alleged stalker? Having gigged with him in the past, Franken already had some inkling of what a scumbag opportunist Gadd was and is. With this personal foreknowledge, he sat down and watched all seven episodes of Baby Reindeer and wrote an 800-word negative review in response. This written piece went on to be shortlisted in 2025 for the prestigious Observer/Anthony Burgess Prize for Arts Journalism. Memorable though this achievement was, considering also the one-sided monolithic praise heaped on Gadd’s pseudo-confessional dreck, an 800-word limit was hardly sufficient to convey everything detestable about Baby Reindeer. Thus, Franken took all the leftover observations – Netflix’s cheap emotionalism and cookie-cutter cinematography, daytime talk show sycophantic reviewers, and Gadd’s incredulous demand that we weep for a shitty comedian who returns to a rich television executive’s flat week after week for designer drugs and is flabbergasted when his asshole is unsurprisingly penetrated – and serves up a salacious satire indeed. Shallowness comes with a heavy price, numptie! By far, this is Franken’s most vicious instalment in the Selvatico series and one of his personal favourites. Be watching your screens as Franken also takes the opportunity to skewer algorithmic adverts with some delightfully-timed filmed segments.