The Baby is a British horror comedy television limited series created by Lucy Gaymer and Siân Robins-Grace, which premiered on HBO on 24 April 2022 and Sky Atlantic on 7 July 2022. The series consists of eight episodes.
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 to what lengths will Natasha have to go in order to get her life back? She doesn't want a baby. The baby wants her.
In August 2020, it was announced HBO had given a series order to The Baby. Robins-Grace, Jane Featherstone, Carolyn Strauss, and Naomi de Pear were confirmed as executive producers with Lucy Gaymer producing. The Baby is produced by HBO, Sky Atlantic, Sister, and Gaymer's Proverbial Pictures. Nicole Kassell joined in December 2020 as a lead director and executive producer. Stacey Gregg, Faraz Shariat and Elle Jones also serve as directors.
Sophie Goodhart, Kara Smith, Anchuli Felicia King and Susan Stanton serve as writers on the series. Bisha K. Ali serves as a consulting producer.
In June 2021, Michelle de Swarte was cast as Natasha, while Amira Ghazalla was cast as Mrs. Eaves and Amber Grappy as Bobbi. In February 2022, Patrice Naiambana, Sinéad Cusack, Shvorne Marks, Isy Suttie, Tanya Reynolds, Seyan Sarvan, Karl Davies, and Divian Ladwa joined the series.
Filming began on 31 May 2021 in the United Kingdom. The series wrapped in November 2021.
Lucrecia Dalt serves as the series' composer. Pete Saville and Zoe Bryant are the music supervisors, and Ed Hamilton is the music editor.
The Baby premiered on HBO on 24 April 2022 and consist of eight episodes.
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an 72% approval rating with an average rating of 7/10, based on 32 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "The Babys tone can be as wobbly as a rocking crib, but its audacious nature of comedy and horror deserves to be nurtured." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 71 out of 100 based on 9 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".