The British horror comedy “The Baby” contains a significant proportion of blood, supernatural tactics, and demonic possession. Since its premiere on HBO in April, the limited series has brought a constant stream of gussets, horrific deaths, and ghosts.
However, viewers who have taken care of young children can say that some of the show’s most chilling moments are rooted in national mediocrity.
There is a covenant-like mama’s creek that pierces your soul with their judgmental gaze. Or, rebellious diaper jump scare is revealed. Next, there is one stuffed animal. This can cause more sleep-related fears than Freddy Krueger if lost.
The show’s protagonist, Natasha (played by actress Michelle de Swarte), gets a crash course both in the ordinary and in another world when a mysterious toddler is pushed into her life. After her bohemian bachelor literally falls from the sky into her arms, she is forced to take care of her baby.
She soon finds out that the creepy crawler is an immortal serial killer with mental and telekinetic abilities — for decades he has brought vitality from a series of single childless women. I smoked.Despite the baby’s rounded gaze and gummy smile, he is a physical manifestation of anger, revealed in the story of a tragic origin characterized by violence and in the penultimate episode. Abandoned by both his born mothers, as When Father.
Weeping, pushing strollers, feeding with spoons, and between urge-filled scenes, the show touches on the themes of intergenerational trauma, physical independence, and the expectations of society for women. Through numerous state legislatures. The eighth and final episode of “The Baby” will air on Sunday.
Before her unnamed ward arrives, Natasha suffers from the fact that her drinking companions are calm. This reflects her actual experience with Cyan Robins Grace, one of the creators of the show and its headwriter who had various emotions when her close friends started her family. I am.
“I didn’t handle it very well,” she said in a recent interview. “I was very surprised how hard it was to find it.”
She talked with co-creator Lucy Gaimer about organizing those emotions during her 2019 trip to Machu Picchu, Peru. The London-based duo hiked and talked, eventually hatching what became the show’s pilot. It was my first collaboration. Previously, Robins Grace was an executive producer on Netflix’s “Sex Education,” but Gaimer worked primarily as a television executive producer. Filming took place throughout England between June and November 2021.
In a video call from a vacation in Corfu, Greece, Robins Grace and Gaimer have to say about maternity-based thriller growth trends, their changing perspectives on parent-child relationships, and what the “baby” has to say about reproductive rights. I talked about whether it would be. They were joined by two executive producers, Carolyn Strauss (“Game of Thrones”, “Chernobyl”) in Los Angeles and Nicole Kassell (“Watchmen”) in New York. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
Please forgive me for puns, but can you explain how the “baby” was devised?
Cyan Robins Grace I was really impressed with how far the experience of many women uniting and having children can create. And I was impressed with the polarization effects that babies can have on your life. These poor little creatures are newborn and they don’t want it, but they make all this drama.
Lucy gaymer I had this idea: What if an exciting incident was a baby who fell from the sky and a woman in her thirties who knew she didn’t want a child caught her? I’m in my thirties and Siân is in my thirties, but I don’t know which version of maternity I find exciting and relevant to us. The place of confusion is where the idea started.
Has your view of parent-child relationships changed in the process of writing and filming the series?
Robins-Grace In the process of making the show, I was able to really explore the depth of my ambivalence. It didn’t give me any more clarity, but it helped me sit more comfortably in that ambivalence. I think it’s one of the things that feels pretty taboo, but we’re trying to explore it at the show.
Nicole Kassell Cyan’s reaction to a friend who gives birth — I remember feeling that way.There teeth When your friend moves on, that abandonment. Or, if you move forward first, it’s like “But you’ll lose all your friends!” I loved the quest for ambivalence because it took me years to decide to have a baby and six years to decide to have a second baby.
Gaymer One of the things I’ve learned is that I definitely want far more people around than seemingly available. The nuclear family is clearly not what I want.
Robins-Grace Yes, Shaw undoubtedly looks sideways at the family structure of traditional nuclear heteronormativity and identifies how it can be a truly violent space for those trying to raise children.
Caroline Strauss The show explores all these questions, but doesn’t feel like making decisions about parenting practices. I saw it, but I didn’t necessarily come to a conclusion.
How do you think “The Baby” fits into the portrayals of modern movies and television? Motherhood as a horror show??
Robins-Grace It’s really weird and feminist horrified because it comes from the “other” perspective of living in a violent society. There is a very interesting trend of horror that has happened in the last few years. This is what Jordan Peele calls a “social thriller”, and the monster is not a man with a hand or a vampire hook. Monsters are your environment. We are stepping into a conversation surrounded by ideas for social monsters. In episode 7, we identify “Boogeyman”, which turns out to be a Straumann. Suddenly, all the horror habits disappear, and you ask, “Who is the bad guy? And what if there are no bad guys?” Ideally, leave the question to the audience and answer. I would like you to look for.
Kassel It’s always fascinating to see things rippling like waves, whether it’s a western movie, a science fiction movie, or a tornado movie. This tendency feels like a crack in the perspective of a woman or the perspective of a mother. All of these topics have not been considered, as the media gatekeepers are primarily male. It is a refreshing feeling to explore these experiences completely, rather than idealize them. Calgon commercial “That woman is having a stressful day. She deserves a bathtub!”
Strauss But what’s interesting is that half of the world wants more of these conversations and half of the world feels like they’re turning the clock back. Of particular importance, it feels like the show is a hit at this point.
Siân and Lucy, living in the UK and seeing your show unfold in the United States, just as the dispute over the right to abortion began to dominate the country’s headlines. Did you?
Gaymer We’ve talked a lot about how this is happening and how the mysterious timing of the show feels. But then we are also thinking about how this is happening in some European countries.
Robins-Grace It’s a terrible coincidence. That’s not what we expected at all when we were making the show. However, the show is obsessed with the issue of reproductive justice, and its abortion is one of the greatest pieces. But reproductive justice is also a question of who chooses to have a child, who raises the child safely, and who can manage it. Therefore, broader conversations need to take into account health care, disability rights, trance rights, poverty, education and race. All of this tells us how we love each other and bring our families together. All other works are so important that limiting the show to the allegory of the right to abortion is not a rich conversation. Also, the right to abortion should not be reduced to a matter of momentary choice.
You said you didn’t expect this kind of timing. Did you write something different when you think about it later?
Robins-Grace No. All characters in the show are addressing family care and reproductive issues, which are problematic for all characters in different ways. We wanted to be part of a conversation about family care and politicizing reproduction from a female perspective, which is happening now in the United States. Hopefully we are contributing to it.