Spoilers Russian Doll - Netflix Original Series

[Trekker4747]

Not sure if this is "strictly" a "Sci-Fi/Fantasy" series, but I guess it does deal with a fantastical premise outside the bounds of "normal" fiction and story telling....

Anyway, this is a Netflix Original series that was released at the start of this month, that I started watching tonight and, honestly, could still be watching if I didn't stop myself. It's only 8 half-hour episodes so I'll finish it this Sunday on my next day off...

it stars Natasha Lyonne as a woman who keeps dying and re-living the same day (almost) over-and-over again (a'la Groundhog Day which, non-ironically, this series was released the day before, though it's closer to "Edge of Tomorrow"/"Live. Die. Repeat" in how it happens. (She has to die to reset the day, which resets with her in the bathroom at friend's apartment where there's a birthday party in her honor in the middle of the night.)

Natasha Lyonne is just one of those actresses who never skyrocketed, but is brilliant in her way (Best known as either the friend of the blonde-chick in American Pie, or Nicky Nichols in "Orange is the New Black") and co-created/wrote this series.

It's got an interesting visual and atmospheric style to it and, well, Lyonne is just a delight.

Looks to be a good series and, as noted, an easy binge. Look forward to finishing it this weekend.

Anyone else check it out?

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[Asbo Zaprudder]

Like Groundhog Day, it's presumably based on the relative state formulation aka many-worlds interpretation of quantum theory with the addition of being able to remember events from a branching point? Unless there is some character growth, which isn't apparent from the trailer, I don't feel drawn to watching a series about the central character. In this branch of reality, I'll give it a miss for now.

 

[auntiehill]

My husband and I watched it-- and really enjoyed it. The first episode wasn't the best ever but by the time we got to episode 3, I was full-on loving it. It's not often that I'm pleasantly surprised by a show or movie but, but I was here; I thought the end was fantastic.

And that damn song will be stuck in your head for WEEKS.

 

[Awesome Possum]

An absolutely wonderful series. I had thought it was going to be timeloop comedy and focus on why everything was happening. Which it did play with as the character went from one red herring to another, which really showed more about who she was than solving any mystery. The mid-series twist was great and I really loved how everything was resolved. I'm not sure where it could go from there if the creators would want to.

 

[Starkers]

Unless there is some character growth, which isn't apparent from the trailer.

There is. Quite a bit as it happens.

I really liked it. It's billed as a comedy but it goes to some quite dark, quite raw places. I agree with @Awesome Possum in that I'm not sure where you could go with a second season but I'd watch it is they do one.

Also Mike's a dick!

 

[Venardhi]

The attempts at technical mumbo jumbo were borderline embarrassing, but I liked the series overall.

 

[Professor Zoom]

Like Groundhog Day, it's presumably based on the relative state formulation aka many-worlds interpretation of quantum theory with the addition of being able to remember events from a branching point? Unless there is some character growth, which isn't apparent from the trailer, I don't feel drawn to watching a series about the central character. In this branch of reality, I'll give it a miss for now.

You're missing out. It's a tremendous show. Better than Groundhog Day in a lot of ways.
There's a lot of character growth, there's a deeper exploration of free will and philosophy than in Groundhog Day, and it's got fantastic performances.
It's one of the best shows I've seen in awhile.

There is. Quite a bit as it happens.

I really liked it. It's billed as a comedy but it goes to some quite dark, quite raw places. I agree with @Awesome Possum in that I'm not sure where you could go with a second season but I'd watch it is they do one.

Also Mike's a dick!

I have some thoughts of where they could go with the end, but, it's way into deep spoilers in the last episode... That said, I trust the creators of the show... they took something that could've been very been there, done that and created something wonderful and thoughtful.

The attempts at technical mumbo jumbo were borderline embarrassing, but I liked the series overall.

Nothing worse than any typical episode of Star Trek Voyager... on TNG. Or DS9...

 

[Trekker4747]

Well, I finished it off tonight. Damn, that's a fast watch.

For me, there's some questions I have about some of the things that occur in the loops that don't completely make sense that all of the sudden seem to hit an extreme point at the end, but whatever mystical forces were playing with things here likely adjusted the difficulty levels as Nadia and Alan figured more and more things out.

Spoiler: Like...

1. Why fish were disappearing.
2. Where the cat disappeared to when Nadia was holding it on the river quay and then the rest of the series until near the end.
3. Why all of the sudden things go to 11 and objects like mirrors, entire rooms of people and furniture start disappearing.

It'd be one thing if these things slowly escalated (which there were hints of early on, a second or third time through Nadia passes the same group of people on the sidewalk and the second time around they're missing objects, articles of clothing, etc.

So, it left me with a lot of head scratching, but the final three episodes had me unable to break away, and the twist on the final pass through the loop had me really engaged.

In the end, though, fantastic series and Natasha Lyonne is just a great lead.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Sounds like the premise is more like The Matrix but we're actually software artifacts, who can experience glitches like Princess Vanellope Whatsherface in Wreck-it Ralph. I assume the allusion to Russian dolls is then based on something like layers of simulated reality as depicted in The Thirteenth Floor. Maybe -- damn, now I have to watch this.

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[Trekker4747]

Okay, I didn't want to get too heavily into spoilers, but the thread does warn of them, so if you've not watched the series, tread carefully from here on. I don't want to have to spoiler code all of this.

It may not be strictly "spoilers" as the series has a few red-herrings in it, but this seems like a significant thing.

I just watched through the series a second time, this time I watched it with the Descriptive Audio for the Visually Impaired on. It's not a feature necessary to me given my sightedness, but it's a neat little feature that I enjoy listening to, I like hearing how the show (or movie) is described, especially in a series like this where there's visual clues here and there. The series negotiates the linear-timelines aspect of the final episode well. (It's helpful that Nadia and Alan are given clothing alterations to help keep things straight.)

Anyway, in watching it again I'm a bit confused on the role of "Horse" (the shoe-less homeless man in the park.) As he seems to also operate outside of the linear time presumably continuing before and after the loop Nadia and Alan are in, but while also not caught in a loop himself. (Unless he is, and he's not mentally stable enough to realize it or do anything about it.)

First of all, before entering the loop Nadia seems to recognize him.

Secondly: His shoes.

This isn't a detail that the Descriptive Audio points out, but it's a detail that's there and often times the DA doesn't hit everything since it has to come in and out between dialogue.

In one of her passes through the loops, Nadia befriends Horse who's walking around the park in socken feet, Nadia asks him what happened to them and he says someone stole them the previous night at a shelter he slept at so he hasn't gone back. Nadia ends up sleeping (in the platonic way) with him on the street under a shelter blanket and dies in the middle of the night, freezing to death.

Her next pass-through she sets herself on a side-quest to prevent Horse's death (in a parallel to Bill Murray's character with the homeless man on the street in Groundhog Day) she rushes out of her party, managed to intercept Horse at the shelter and sleeps near him through the night and prevents his shoes from being stolen. (In my theory, Horse doesn't/didn't die through the night, since soon after this episode we learn Nadia's and Alan's deaths are simultaneous (explaining some of the "sillier" deaths she goes through) so Nadia could have frozen to death overnight since her death "had to" happen, and Horse's doesn't so he survives.)

But... Wait.

Horse's shoes we're presumably stolen the night before Nadia enters the loop... right? I thought maybe I misunderstood this and was getting the days inside the show mixed up, but in the final episode in the linear run-throughs we see Horse with both socken and shoed feet.... The times of the night these things are happening aren't entirely clear, but it seems like what didn't happen was Horse went to the shelter, got his shoes stolen, discovered this in the middle of the ngiht and then promptly left, and then encoutered Nadia/Alan on the street with his socken feet.

Horse seems to be a character somewhat in "control" of things on some level. Afterall, on the "final" night he initiates the parade for Nadia and Alan's successful ending of things.

.... There's a lot of head-scratching stuff in the series. Good stuff, but stuff that can be picked apart and analyzed.

And, as I said, red-herrings. Hell, the guy at the bodega with the Lottery numbers, that seemed like something Nadia would have taken advantage of during all of this but it's thrown out there as a misdirect.

And I'm not entirely sure I get Nadia's analogy with time, space, the Fourth Dimension and how through all of this she concluded that rotten fruit was still fresh inside. ... Huh?

 

[Seven of Five]

I watched this last night. I think by the end of episode 2 I was all in, so just watched the whole thing.

I'm glad I did, it was very entertaining with a lot of dark humour in some of the deaths that happened.

I should try and show this my hubby. He wasn't a fan of Groundhog Day (how did I marry this man again?), but he likes Natasha Lyonne in Orange Is The New Black, so that might be the best way to do it.

 

[Saul]

Put this on last night before going to bed having some vague recollection of it been mentioned on Trekbbs. Have already finished the first season in a day. Such an engrossing show.

Wondering how season 2 can live up to season 1 and if the homeless guy with on again off again shoes appears

 

[auntiehill]

^It IS a great show. Season two takes a different approach but follows the same theme as the first season. Give it a shot.