''The Baby'' is a British

horror comedy Comedy horror, also known as horror comedy, is a literary, television, and film genre that combines elements of comedy and horror fiction. Comedy horror has been described as able to be categorized under three types: "black comedy, parody and spo ...

limited series Limited series may refer to: *Limited series, individual storylines within an anthology series *Limited series, a particular run of collectables, usually individually numbered *Limited series (comics), a comics series with a predetermined number of ...

created by Lucy Gaymer and Siân Robins-Grace that premiered on

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

on 24 April 2022. The series consists of eight episodes.

Premise

When 38-year-old Natasha is unexpectedly landed with a baby, her life of doing what she wants, when she wants, dramatically implodes. Stinky, controlling, manipulative and with violent powers, the baby twists Natasha's life into a horror show. Where does it come from? What does it want? And what lengths will Natasha have to go to in order to get her life back? She doesn't want a baby. The baby wants her.

Cast and characters

Main

Michelle de Swarte Michelle de Swarte (born 1980) is an English actress, comedian, presenter, and former model. She starred in the Netflix series ''The Duchess (TV series), The Duchess''. Early life De Swarte was born in Lewisham, South London to a Jewish mother ...

as Natasha Willams: A 38-year-old who has never made long-term plans and is unexpectedly landed with a baby. * Amira Ghazalla as Mrs. Eaves/Nour: The 73-year-old "Enigma" who has spent 50 years living in her car. * Amber Grappy as Bobbi Willams: Natasha's younger sister, who wants nothing more than to be a parent. * Albie Hills and Arthur Hills as ‘The Baby’ that turns Natasha's world upside down.

Recurring

* Patrice Naiambana as Natasha's father, Lyle *

Sinéad Cusack Sinéad Moira Cusack ( ) is an Irish actress. Her first acting roles were at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, before moving to London in 1969 to join the Royal Shakespeare Company. She has won the Critics' Circle and ''Evening Standard'' Awards f ...

as Natasha's mother, Barbara * Shvorne Marks as Mags *

Isy Suttie Isobel Jane "Isy" Suttie (; born 11 August 1978) is a British musical comedian, actress, and writer. She played Dobby in the British sitcom ''Peep Show'', and in 2013 won the gold Sony Radio Academy Award for her radio show ''Pearl And Dave''. ...

as Rita *

Tanya Reynolds Tanya Louise Reynolds (born 4 November 1991) is an English actress. She landed her first major role as a series regular on the Sky 1 comedy-drama ''Delicious (TV series), Delicious'' (2016–2019). Reynolds gained further prominence for portrayi ...

as Helen * Seyan Sarvan as Nour * Karl Davies as Jack *

Divian Ladwa Divian Ladwa is an English actor best known for appearing in the Oscar nominated Best Picture ''Lion'', the BAFTA winning comedy series ''Detectorists'', and the Marvel Studios film ''Ant-Man and the Wasp''. Career TV and film Divian Ladw ...

as Fooze

Episodes

Production

Development

In August 2020, it was announced

had given a series order to ''The Baby''. Robins-Grace,

Jane Featherstone Jane Featherstone (born 1969) is an English television producer and founder of Sister Pictures, a television production company. Prior to that, she was the chief executive of Kudos and co-chairman of Shine UK, now part of Endemol Shine Group. B ...

, Carolyn Strauss, and Naomi de Pear were confirmed as executive producers with Lucy Gaymer producing. ''The Baby'' is produced by

, Sky Atlantic, Sister Pictures, and Gaymer's Proverbial Pictures.

Nicole Kassell Nicole Kassell (born 1972) is an American film and television director who is noted for her work on films such as '' The Woodsman'' and on TV in series such as ''Vinyl'', '' The Leftovers'' and ''Watchmen''. Kassell has won numerous awards incl ...

joined in December 2020 as a lead director and executive producer. Stacey Gregg, Faraz Shariat and Elle Jones also serve as directors.

Writing

Sophie Goodhart, Kara Smith, Anchuli Felicia King and Susan Stanton serve as writers on the series.

Bisha K. Ali Bisha K. Ali (born 17 March 1989) is a BAFTA award-winning British stand-up comedian and screenwriter. She is the head writer for the streaming television series ''Ms. Marvel'' for Disney+. Career Bisha Ali was born to Pakistani parents. She wo ...

serves as a consulting producer.

Casting

In June 2021,

was cast as Natasha, while Amira Ghazalla was cast as Mrs. Eaves and Amber Grappy as Bobbi. In February 2022, Patrice Naiambana,

, Shvorne Marks,

, Seyan Sarvan, Karl Davies, and

joined the series.

Filming

Filming began on 31 May 2021 in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. The series wrapped in November 2021.

Music

Lucrecia Dalt Lucrecia Dalt is a Colombian experimental musician who currently resides in Berlin. While her earlier releases were rooted in electronic dance music, her work has evolved over time to become more overtly abstract and experimental. Biography Dal ...

serves as the series' composer. Pete Saville and Zoe Bryant are the music supervisors, and Ed Hamilton is the music editor.

Release

''The Baby'' premiered on

on 24 April 2022 and consist of eight episodes.

Reception

Critical response

The

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

reported an 82% approval rating with an average rating of 7/10, based on 22 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "''The Baby''s tone can be as wobbly as a rocking crib, but its audacious nature of comedy and horror deserves to be nurtured."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 71 out of 100 based on 9 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Ratings

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Baby (TV series), The 2022 British television series debuts 2022 British television series endings 2020s British comedy television series 2020s British horror television series British horror comedy television series 2020s British television miniseries HBO original programming English-language television shows Television series about children Television shows filmed in the United Kingdom