'Baby Reindeer': Fiona Harvey says Netflix did a terrible job of disguising her identity

• Fiona Harvey is suing Netflix over its true-crime drama "Baby Reindeer."

• Most of her lawsuit argues that the show's content isn't true, and unfairly trashed her reputation.

• She also gave another criticism — that its efforts to conceal her identity were inadequate.

Fiona Harvey, the woman depicted as a stalker in "Baby Reindeer," says Netflix did not do enough to disguise her identity.

The ture-crime show was released in April, and climbed the ranks to become one of the most-watched shows of the year.

The buzz was heightened when Harvey came forward to say that Martha Scott (Jessica Gunning) is based on her.

She later alleged that the central premise of the show was untrue.

In an interview with Piers Morgan, she said that she never stalked Richard Gadd, the show's creator, and threatened legal action.

On Thursday, Harvey followed through, filing lawsuit against Netflix in California. She's seeking $170 million in damages, alleging defamation and emotional distress.

Most of her filing sticks to the regular territory of a defamation suit — arguing that Netflix said untrue things about her which wrecked her life.

She also made an interesting, more professional, critique of Netflix: that they messed up in their stated aim of obscuring her identity.

In the filing, her attorneys alleged that Netflix did too little to break the links between Harvey and the character Martha Scott.

She noted that her gender, age, nationality, profession, and the pub she went to were all exactly the same as in the show.

"Defendants breached their duty of care by making 'Martha,' like Harvey, a female Scottish lawyer twenty years older than Gadd, living in Camden who patroned the pub where Gadd worked in the year 2014," they wrote.

"Baby Reindeer" repeatedly describes Scott as a convicted stalker in an episode when Gadd's character reckons with his situation, but Harvey's attorneys rejected that claim.

The lawyers said "Harvey has never pled guilty to any crime. Harvey is not a convicted criminal," and also submitted a document showing a clean criminal record.

The suit also blamed the physical depiction of Scott, played by actor Jessica Gunning, for making it easy to find Harvey.

"Defendants' further breached their duty by giving 'Martha' an uncanny resemblance to Harvey," the suit said.

It also alleged it left details in the showing leading to Harvey's past social-media posts.

The show includes what it describes as real messages from Gadd's stalker — and those in particular led to widespread claims that Harvey and Scott were the same person.

The lawsuit said this crushed Harvey, leading to her being "tormented" online.

It said she continues to suffer "emotional distress," as well as anxiety, depression, and panic attacks. Harvey, her lawyers wrote, is "fearful of leaving her home," and has isolated herself in fear of being recognized in public.

A Netflix spokesperson told Business Insider: "We intend to defend this matter vigorously and to stand by Richard Gadd's right to tell his story."

A representative for Richard Gadd did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI.

Read the original article on Business Insider