Now this Netflix series Baby reindeer is now an Emmy-winning Netflix series. Baby reindeer“–at this year’s awards, the series managed a small lead in the Limited Series category, winning in the Best Series, Best Actor and Best Screenplay categories for creator Richard Gadd and a win in the category Best Supporting Actress for co-star Jessica Gunning – everyone participated I might have hoped that the series would now run smoothly. It turns out it’s not so much THR reports tonight that a judge has rebuffed and thrown out of court Netflix’s first attempts to bring a defamation lawsuit against Netflix based on the show’s content.

This, of course, is the lawsuit from UK-based Fiona Harvey, who claims that Gunning’s Martha character in the series – who spends years stalking Gadd and plays a fictionalized version of herself as a struggling comedian – is based on her. Netflix attempted to dismiss the lawsuit over anti-SLAPP statutes – typically the first port of call for such cases when it comes to defamation cases, which the defendants say “serve to restrict free expression” – but was then overturned by a California court Judge hired. In making his decision, Judge R. Gary Klausner appeared to pay particular attention to Netflix’s decision to market the series as “based on a true story,” noting that despite Gadd’s own hesitation, Netflix may have “insisted on adding the disclaimer.” ” have. “This indicates a reckless disregard for the question of whether the statements made in the series were false,” the court order said.

Harvey’s position has been this since she came forward after online sleuths tracked her down not long after the series’ April 2024 release Baby reindeer contains enough detail for people to identify her (see previous half of this sentence), but still attributes several characteristics to Martha that Harvey said do not fit her life. (Notably, the character in the series has already been convicted of stalking, while Harvey states that she has never been convicted of a crime.) The lawsuit, which only targets Netflix and not Gadd, accuses the streamer of: “to have acted in the truest sense of the word”. Nothing” to fact-check the show before sending it out with the attached “Based on a true story” note to win Emmys.

The judge narrowed some of the claims in Harvey’s lawsuit, excluding claims for negligence, right of publicity and punitive damages while allowing a claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress to stand. The big problem, however, is the accusation of defamation, and it sticks: Netflix’s first steps to dismiss the lawsuit as a matter of course have now hit a legal wall.