February 02, 2019
In this brilliant new series, Natasha Lyonne plays a woman whose life, or rather death, is on repeat
Netflix’s Russian Doll: TV’s answer to Groundhog Day?
In Russian Doll (Netflix, out now), Natasha Lyonne’s Nadia – a chain-smoking New Yorker with corkscrew hair and a don’t-fuck-with-me demeanour – is marooned in a time loop, destined to die and be catapulted back to the bathroom at her birthday party over and over again. Nadia, whose fondness for chemical stimulants makes William Burroughs look like a rank amateur, initially assumes she is on some massive hallucinatory comedown, but slowly it dawns that she’s in a never-ending nightmare.
Naturally, we have been here before (geddit?), most famously in Groundhog Day, in which Bill Murray’s cynical weatherman, Phil, keeps reliving the same day in snowy Punxsutawney. It’s a brave, or possibly foolish, writing team that try to hold their own next to Harold Ramis’s classic. But if anyone is up to the task it’s Russian Doll’s stone-cold brilliant creators Lyonne, Amy Poehler and Leslye Headland, who tip their hats to Ramis and co in their deployment of Harry Nilsson’s Gotta Get Up in place of I Got You, Babe by Sonny & Cher, signalling that the clock has reset and Nadia is back where she started.
Unlike Groundhog Day, though, this is not an unfolding tale of redemption. Yes, you could say that Nadia, a 36-year-old kidult who ducks out of work meetings to visit her drug dealer, is a disaster zone worthy of a dedicated UN task force. But Russian Doll is not about showing its protagonist the error of her ways. Instead, having watched Nadia go through the five stages of grief, we find her on a quest to discover what the hell has happened and how she can make it stop. Is she having a psychotic episode, like those experienced by her late mother? Is the building where she has her party haunted? If so, is she an actual ghost?

One of the many virtuoso gags here is that, despite the endless repetition of her birthday bash, the manner of her deaths – which include being mown down by a taxi, tumbling into a beer cellar or plunging to her death in a faulty lift – are a surprise to her every time. It’s no wonder, after breaking her neck in her friend Maxine’s stairwell on three occasions, that she starts using the fire escape instead.
But the greatest joy of Russian Doll is Lyonne herself, who pulls off a smart balance of poignance and slapstick. Lyonne is best known for her role as Nicky, the drug-addled trust-fund babe in Orange Is the New Black, and there are clear overlaps in Nadia’s knee-jerk wisecracking and faux bravado. But here she is clever yet scatty, self-destructive but resilient. We see her holding down a job – although who needs a 9-to-5 when you’re going to die in the next 24 hours? – and capable of compassion, such as when she visits the homeless shelter to stand guard over a man’s boots, which, in one of her previous life cycles, were stolen while he slept.
It is traditional for time-loop dramas to deliver a heart-warming message to hanky-clutching viewers that they should do better, be better and make every day matter. Gloriously, Russian Doll has no time for such finger-wagging. As Nadia wisely tells Maxine: “I got bigger fish to fry … I gotta work out how to get down the stairs.”
Latest News
Top news around the world
Academy Awards

‘Oppenheimer’ Reigns at Oscars With Seven Wins, Including Best Picture and Director

Get the latest news about the 2024 Oscars, including nominations, winners, predictions and red carpet fashion at 96th Academy Awards

Around the World

Celebrity News

> Latest News in Media

Watch It
Olivia Munn Reveals Breast Cancer Diagnosis and Double Mastectomy Procedure | E! News
March 13, 2024
kUaEV1Kd3S0
Travis Kelce Shares Details From His Trip to Singapore With Taylor Swift | E! News
March 13, 2024
3YXi-Dgf4eg
Kate Middleton VIRAL Photo: Agency Addresses Photoshop Claims | E! News
March 13, 2024
S4VkO0TpkCY
Da'Vine Joy Randolph Plays 'Smash or Pass' With Iconic Moments From Her Career
March 13, 2024
vkPdJEF2BX4
Jean Smart Wears a Hotel Bathrobe to Present an Award to Hannah Einbinder l Power of Comedy SxSW
March 12, 2024
Bw7uVEYQev4
Lenny Kravitz Walk of Fame Ceremony
March 12, 2024
MlWq8BcnwhE
Dak Prescott Extortion Plot & Steph Curry for President? | TMZ Sports Full Ep - 3/12/24
March 13, 2024
jHFsrjs7OFY
A Japanese space rocket blew up after takeoff Tuesday, turning the sky into a fireball of smoke.
March 13, 2024
YkfJ3Qg8B7c
#KimKardashian and #BiancaCensori hung out at #KanyeWest's listening party Tuesday night!
March 13, 2024
EfwLLq6bx9k
‘Pioneer Woman’ Ree Drummond denies using Ozempic to lose 60 pounds
March 13, 2024
Omfjk1AlZ3A
Chrissy Teigen reveals her ‘boob lift scars’ in daring dress at Jay-Z & Beyoncé’s Oscars 2024 party
March 13, 2024
VxZ2qXAlpmU
Zoë Kravitz pokes fun at dad Lenny Kravitz's style during Hollywood Walk of Fame speech
March 13, 2024
j3-lcFu_1sQ
TV Schedule
Late Night Show
Watch the latest shows of U.S. top comedians

Sports

Latest sport results, news, videos, interviews and comments
Latest Events
17
Mar
SPAIN: La Liga
Atletico Madrid - Barcelona
17
Mar
ENGLAND: FA Cup
Manchester United - Liverpool
17
Mar
ITALY: Serie A
Inter Milan - Napoli
17
Mar
GERMANY: Bundesliga
Borussia Dortmund - Eintracht Frankfurt
17
Mar
ENGLAND: FA Cup
Chelsea - Leicester City
17
Mar
ITALY: Serie A
Roma - Sassuolo
17
Mar
ITALY: Serie A
Verona - AC Milan
17
Mar
ITALY: Serie A
Juventus - Genoa
17
Mar
GERMANY: Bundesliga
SC Freiburg - Bayer Leverkusen
17
Mar
USA: Major League Soccer
Atlanta United - Orlando City
17
Mar
ENGLAND: Premier League
West Ham United - Aston Villa
17
Mar
SPAIN: La Liga
Rayo Vallecano - Real Betis
17
Mar
ENGLAND: Championship
Leeds - Millwall
17
Mar
SPAIN: La Liga
Las Palmas - Almeria
17
Mar
SPAIN: La Liga
Villarreal - Valencia
17
Mar
SPAIN: La Liga
Sevilla - Celta Vigo
16
Mar
GERMANY: Bundesliga
Darmstadt - Bayern Munich
16
Mar
ENGLAND: FA Cup
Manchester City - Newcastle United
16
Mar
ENGLAND: Premier League
Fulham - Tottenham Hotspur
16
Mar
SPAIN: La Liga
Osasuna - Real Madrid
13
Mar
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: 1/8 Final
Atletico Madrid - Inter Milan
12
Mar
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: 1/8 Final
Barcelona - Napoli
12
Mar
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: 1/8 Final
Arsenal - Porto
11
Mar
ENGLAND: Premier League
Chelsea - Newcastle United
10
Mar
ENGLAND: Premier League
Liverpool - Manchester City
10
Mar
SPAIN: La Liga
Real Madrid - Celta Vigo
10
Mar
ENGLAND: Premier League
Aston Villa - Tottenham Hotspur
10
Mar
ITALY: Serie A
Juventus - Atalanta
10
Mar
ITALY: Serie A
Fiorentina - Roma
10
Mar
ITALY: Serie A
AC Milan - Empoli
09
Mar
GERMANY: Bundesliga
Werder Bremen - Borussia Dortmund
09
Mar
ENGLAND: Premier League
Arsenal - Brentford
09
Mar
ITALY: Serie A
Bologna - Inter Milan
Find us on Instagram
at @feedimo to stay up to date with the latest.
Featured Video You Might Like
zWJ3MxW_HWA L1eLanNeZKg i1XRgbyUtOo -g9Qziqbif8 0vmRhiLHE2U JFCZUoa6MYE UfN5PCF5EUo 2PV55f3-UAg W3y9zuI_F64 -7qCxIccihU pQ9gcOoH9R8 g5MRDEXRk4k
Copyright © 2020 Feedimo. All Rights Reserved.