For weeks, the Netflix series “Baby Reindeer” has been the number one show on the streaming giant.

But it's an unlikely hit: It tells the story of a victim of stalking. He's a struggling Scottish comedian. And instead of immediately reporting the woman who spends her days following him around and texting him incessantly, he does nothing for a long time, even becoming sympathetic and helping the woman terrorizing his life.

It's a complex story that's funny and scary at times, and it's drawn the attention of people around the world.

But it's tricky when dealing with a story surrounding a crime like stalking to know what is safe, what is healthy and what is responsible to be sharing in a TV show.

“One of the challenges is that very often you have shows like this that become very popular and get a lot of attention, and often are not necessarily showing what the more common or typical experience is for individuals who are stalked,” said Carlos Cuevas, a professor of criminology and criminal justice at Northeastern University.

“One of the concerns about a show like this is that it may give individuals sort of a misrepresentation of what this experience is like, what the reality of being stalked is like, and make assumptions about victims that I don't know are always necessarily true or accurate,” he said.

A large majority of stalking cases involve people who know one another, Cuevas said, usually people who have had a previous relationship, romantic or platonic.

The dynamics in “Baby Reindeer” may also perpetuate some stigma stalking victims face, he said.

“I think sometimes shows like this, where the victim here is sort of maintaining a connection with the person doing the stalking, sort of trying to negotiate with them in some way, I think sometimes unjustly pins a certain degree of responsibility on victims,” Cuevas said. “Which, again, is not something that you really want to do or something that happens when we're talking about this happening in individuals' lives.”

In many cases, he said, people may chose not to report their stalkers because they fear going to authorities would only make the situation worse.

“I think one of the things is that very often victims say, 'well, if I can just sort of appease them or kind of negotiate with them, I can get them to stop,'” Cuevas said. “The problem with that is that very often the person who is doing the stalking sees that as sort of encouragement or acceptance of their behavior rather than what it is, which is really the victim trying to get them to stop in a way that doesn't require confronting approaches or the use of protection or restraining orders.”

The popularity of “Baby Reindeer,” and the fact that it was based off of someone's true experience, has led to a flurry of amateur sleuths trying to identify people who might have been involved in the actual story, obsessed with uncovering the identity of the real Martha, the stalker in this story.

That has caught the attention of the UK government, which issued a warning to Netflix over the show.

“There's a certain curiosity,” Cuevas said.

It’s likely the same curiosity that drives mass interest in true crime podcasts, TV shows and movies.

“It's a challenging sort of situation in one sense, because this is this person's experience. And this was their creative outlet for presenting it to the world, if you will,” Cuevas said. “I think the responsibility there is that you do want to protect individuals who are involved in sort of artistic endeavors such as these. Particularly if they're not the ones who chose to sort of be open about the situation.”

If you or someone you know is the victim of stalking, the state has a list of resources here, and the statewide coalition against sexual assault and domestic violence Jane Doe Inc. has resources available here.