Amira Ghazalla

I loved the sound of Sky Atlantic's eight-part horror-comedy The Baby: an "evil baby" causing mayhem - count me in. Created by Lucy Gaymer and Siân Robins-Grace, The Baby even nicks The Omen's red-horror title graphics, which shows it has a sense of humour about itself.

The start of the opening double episode (all are available to stream) doesn't disappoint: a runaway woman backs over a cliff, followed by a crawling baby. The latter falls into the arms of late-thirtysomething Natasha (Michelle de Swarte), who is so anti-baby she bluntly suggests to a pregnant friend that it isn't too late for a termination. It becomes clear that the baby is both killer and parasite. A mysterious older woman (Amira Ghazalla) tells Natasha he must die.

In this way, the baby serves as a hormonal Damien-proxy, a transgressive riposte to idealised parenthood. A complex subtext weaves throughout: the monstering of "unnatural" non-maternal women; the chaos of parenthood; postnatal depression and beyond. Tanya Reynolds (Sex Education) appears in one episode in a thrillingly baroque backstory. When people treat the baby as Natasha's child, you wonder: is she in the grip of postpartum psychosis?

Frustratingly, too large a section gets bogged down by an overworked, dull storyline about Natasha's estranged mother (Sinéad Cusack) and a hippy commune. The Baby works best as a waspish parable about unnatural motherhood. De Swarte is great: uncouth, acerbic, conversing with the tot inappropriately: "Are you fucking with me?" Saltier dialogue ("Home time, you little cunt") and a plot to stab the baby may go too far for some, but it's also where the comedy feels blackest and boldest.

Barbara Ellen, The Observer, 10th July 2022

The Baby review

Horror-comedy fails to raise laughs or goosebumps.

Dan Einav, The Financial Times, 7th July 2022