Baby Reindeer: Writing the True Life Story

This week, we're going to be talking about Baby Reindeer, the hit limited series on Netflix, written, created by and starring Richard Gadd.  We're going to use Baby Reindeer to talk about how to adapt a true story into a limited series, into a feature film, or into a TV show.  You would think that we fully understand our own stories better than anybody else’s. But the truth is you are the hardest person to write because you are the hardest person to see.  You can see everybody else. But your own life is processed mostly internally. And that's the opposite of the way that screenplays work. Screenplays externalize those internal feelings.  So we're going to be talking about how to get yourself on the page: how to tell your true story in whatever form you want to. And we're going to be looking at the structure of Baby Reindeer and how Richard Gadd does it in this fantastic little limited series. Before we get started, I do want to warn you there are going to be some spoilers of Baby Reindeer ahead. I can't talk about it in an effective way without sharing some of the details of the script. So if you have not yet seen the show, I will warn you before we get to the big stuff. If you've listened to my podcast on Beef, you've probably recognized that the structure of Baby Reindeer and the structure of Beef are basically the same.  Baby Reindeer and Beef are both essentially “two-handers.”  “Two-hander” is a term from playwriting, where the story is almost exclusively driven by two main characters. I’m using that term a little loosely when it comes to Baby Reindeer and Beef, but nevertheless, both limited series focus almost entirely on the escalation between these two main characters.  Baby Reindeer and Beef are about two characters who at any point could end the escalation that's happening between them, but who keep making choices that drive the escalation forward. In this way, the game of both the Baby Reindeer and Beef is basically the same:  You keep giving the main character a way out, and you keep watching them not take it.  Now why would the writers of Baby Reindeer and Beef construct a show this way? Well, it's one of the profound ways to deal with the lies that your character is telling themselves. Every character lies to themselves. Every person lies to themselves.  We don't lie to ourselves on purpose. We lie to ourselves because we have identities.  We lie to ourselves because there are things that we don't want to look at.  We lie to ourselves because we want to see ourselves in certain ways.  We lie to ourselves because there are mythologies that have been foisted upon us since we were children, that we've internalized, and that change the way that we see ourselves in the world.  There are all kinds of reasons that we lie to ourselves, but some characters' primary problem is that they are not being honest with themselves. If we look at Walter White in Breaking Bad, for example, his primary problem is he's telling himself a story that he's created a crystal meth empire just because he wants to leave something to his family, to protect them.  But since he keeps getting a way out, we realize this is not about his family. It’s not until the final episode that Walter's actually going to be truthful...