“Happy Birthday Baby!” Talk about Russian Doll on Netflix

tbh a lot of it comes down to how much you care about the setting, colors, and Natasha Lyonne. If you're ambivalent, then hey. It's just a well worn concept. However, if all those things are *very* you, this series is way elevated.

I fall into the latter group.

― Johnny Fever, Tuesday, 5 February 2019 18:55 (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ambivalent vote here but herself loved it. i had ironing to do anyways.

rhian johnson movies are good

nothing better than groundhog day

manaic was good

thats my catchup with thread carry on

I assumed that Lyonne just smokes so much still that it had to be included in the show

wow I just assumed she was committed to the part

lol you don’t get that awesome gravelly speaking voice as a 36yo without a longstanding smoking habit

Extremely good interview with her here

https://www.rollingstone.com/tv/tv-features/natasha-lyonne-russian-doll-interview-785346/

her references & source materials are so varied & interesting! i have read interviews with her in the past & she always seemed like a walking compendium of cool movies & books <3

and i like the idea that the journey of the show is somewhat a mirror of an addict’s journey like she mentions

I just screened The Long Goodbye for some friends of mine this past weekend, 28 hours after I binged this, so that's a bit spooky

*48 lol

Couple of good further pieces here -- the second one is also an interview with the show's designer, many good tidbits.

https://www.vulture.com/2019/02/russian-doll-easter-eggs-hidden-references.html

https://www.vulture.com/2019/02/russian-doll-bathroom-set-production-design.html

Best possible answer to this enduring question

This was one of those things we did for real and in the aftermath realized would’ve been easy to fake. But also it was the right thing to do bc I wanted to feel like Rocky. https://t.co/KTeM3HcHVU

— natasha lyonne (@nlyonne) February 7, 2019

watched the whole thing tonight, liked it a lot

also i want alex in nyc to see it

halfway thru this and so much good about it. loving it. and great music throughout. i'll read this thread more thoroughly when i'm done.

one detail i can't help think was intentional: the air conditioner unit that falls on them is a goodman. it flashes so quickly when it falls, but that's what ours is at home and i recognized it in that flash. considering the theme of the episode, it's gotta be intentional. i've joked on it too. posted a pic of it on instagram with a "hey, i found one!" joek.

am i crazy or does the bathroom at the birthday party change around ep 5? it's getting bigger? mirror orientation different?

the bathroom changes multiple times!

the second of Ned's links goes into that

Wait, why should I see this, specifically?

set in LES, has a distinct 80's/90's sensibility

So you can blog about it and give it a thumbs up or thumbs down as to whether it jibes with your NYC experience as the original UES punk.

Only a few episodes in so far but everyone in this show is that impossibly hip person I'll see and wonder how they seem to effortlessly surround themselves with perfectly cool and unique fashion/decor/music. Her character is so unconventional too; based on her style and way of speaking I was convinced the show was set in the 80s until someone mentioned twitter or something about a minute into the first episode. Trying to ignore past posts in this thread due to potential spoilers.

interesting take; i found every single person on the show to be the sort of person i go out of my way to completely avoid. Everyone is self-involved and/or self-destructive; kinda thought that malaise was the point!

except maybe her stepmother, but she's mostly a mess too!

i should finish, take it all in, and then check out the links, apparently. xp

I'm talking more about their style and homes etc. not their personalities- agree they're all a bit screwy in that regard. Again only a few eps in.

Or sorry maybe you were responding to a post above mine? Trying not to read too much here yet afraid to ruin something for myself

i myself go to fabulous nyc parties like this all the time, but never on a sunday night. was there a reason for this beyond, like, having the code review meeting or ruth taking appointments the very next day?

it's her birthday!

We watched the first episode, it's a little too NEW YORK!!!!!! but we liked it and will watch more.

yeah but you hold the party on saturday and celebrate at midnight

you do if you're WEAK

I liked that the friend hosting the party was played by the actress who was Heidi on High Maintenance

That fan theory above is good in that it does something to explain the otherwise inexplicable ending with the puppet heads. And Lyonne's inexplicably "80s" style of speech -- as he says, not only does she reference her love for Andrew Dice Clay (a bizarrely anachronistic thing for someone in 2019 NYC to do) she talks like Andrew Dice Clay and not like people you meet in New York now.

I def think this is a horror movie! I like its frankness about the fact that either surviving OR successfully suiciding out are basically fine and OK outcomes compared to looping

Enjoying this. I like how it feels like a fantasy melange of early 00s and contemporary LES/East Village as parties like this were familiar to me - minus the recurring stuff - back in the early 2000s. Different NYC.
Have met NL a couple of times in the past via mutual acquaintances and she was always awesome. Happy for her and whatever success this brings.

I've now seen three or four episodes of this and really like it so will watch the rest. But I've known Zinoman for 25 years (we went to school together) and for whatever reason was hearing about his grand unified theory from lots of places, so popped into his feed to see what's up. I skipped to the end to avoid spoilers, but I saw that the first comment was from NL more or less saying OTM.

prob worth noting that the "fan theory" is from the NYTimes comedy critic

lol my best friend, watching on my recommendation, absolutely hated this

at least his wife liked it

A further thread

I have something to add to @zinoman's brilliant grand unified theory about Russian Doll, one of the most exciting things I've viewed in years. My addition, like his, has to do with Tompkins Square Park. His thread is about 1991. Mine is about 1974. Spoiler + long thread alert! 1/ https://t.co/n2ks8OHc3q

— Christopher DeWeese (@lighghghght) February 10, 2019

ooh I’m into that theory v much

This is so good.

love it

I kind of want to live in that bathroom.

All you have to do is die

I liked this series a lot, and like people said upthread, it felt like a more true-to-life variation of Groundhog Day with less romcom clichés, of what kind of work it takes to learn out of ones hurtful habits and try to change as a person... What I didn't like, though, was the extra plot twist they added in the final episode, that was needlessly convoluted and didn't feel natural the way the rest of the plot progression synced with the protagonists tackling their issues.

The ending of the penultimate episode was really the emotional climax of the story, so I didn't quite get what was the point of adding that extra drama on top of it? It almost felt like the writers, knowing that the series would be compared to Groundhog Day, and realising their ending was pretty much the same as in GH too, decided to add the extra twist so they could be like, "See, it isn't the GH plot after all?". But it didn't work for, IMO the final episode should've just been about how they're rebuilding their lives after the whole ordeal.

Having them end up in the same timeline at the end would've robbed them of the opportunity to save each other's lives, which was, in part, the whole genesis of the glitch.

Um, I kind of agree with Tuomas

The series would've been immensely weakened were the two timelines not divergent imo

i myself go to fabulous nyc parties like this all the time, but never on a sunday night.

This is by far the most unbelievable part of the show.

Like, just say she had to come in and do a bug fix on Sunday, it's much more believable and less distracting.

I remember lots of stuff going on Sunday nights. Friday and Saturdays were for tourists and bridge and tunnel (when I was younger).

yeah, not only would the divergent / ambiguity about divergence in the big metaphorical???? parade ending be drastically weaker, it would make the second series thuddingly bathetic

(if they do make one, which seems likely given the reaction; I'm fine if they don't, but Headland and Lyonne get commissioned to make something else new instead)


xp nah, so much of her character and milieu is IMMEDIATELY filled in by the fact that a) she doesn't want a birthday party b) rich artist friends throw her a huge party c) on her actual birthday because that is her birthday d) nearly exclusively full of people she's never set eyes on before e) that she goes to anyway regardless of her antipathy, the absence of friends, and having a major work deadline in the morning.