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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gWtrnb4KjU

I had the sensation when watching this that it wasn't Groundhog Day at all but the real feeling of waking up to the same routine every morning and starting to feel like your life was getting repetitious

Just that Nadia died at the end of the day instead of falling asleep

And the rotting fruit and veg is a metaphor for one's own decaying body

I came to this same conclusion! Like all good horror, it's about not really about something imaginary, just the horror of actual everyday experienced slightly displaced so it becomes visible again.

as someone who once set his wife's phone to play "I Got You Babe" when her alarm went off on Groundhog Day, I approve of all Nilsson hijinks.

This show has introduced me to Light Asylum, who is pretty much awesome

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kB4qc7y-o60

She's dating Fred Armisen? :/

for the last five years, says google

I know. If any dude defines "punchable face" to me he's up there with Pav1 Dan0.

Gosh - that last post was a grammatical monstrosity.

* For me FA is up there with PD in the "MostvPunchable Face" celeb category.

the last episode of this was lovely. i can't think of many series that nailed the ending like that.

So in the world of this show, does everyone who isn't in therapy have to relive their last day over and over until they find someone else who's in the same situation and convince them that they should have gone to therapy?

Light Asylum is awesome, Shannon was a key participant in The Knife's live show on their most recent tour

gonna drop the name to say I dj'd a party with her (and martin from a certain ratio) and run the risk of being attacked for being a new york scenester. She also used to sing with !!!.

Need a comprehensive list of all the music in season 1

google is my friend: https://www.tunefind.com/show/russian-doll

not read the full thread yet but

It had the Promise by When in Rome and so therefore it is perfect.

otm!

In the final episode or two, Alan says a few times that he needs to stop Nadia making harmful decisions or something, but the first time round it's just drunkness/carelessness that causes her to die - as opposed to his decision killing him? but there seems to be a fair bit made of her going home with Mike with no condoms and he clearly shags around so is that supposed to indicate this is a potentially lethal decision? idk just suddenly seemed a bit 'out of nowhere'.

I did notice Alan was the deli guy in ep1, yay me

The engagement ring scene was cool

The rotting fruit (but only on the outside!) / other changes as the loops went on were the creepiest thing, I loved it. And when it's just Maxine at the party and she says 'I can't.' [go with you]. I like the 'saving memory space' idea v much.

Meeting Alan in the elevator was like when they met the tail section guys in Lost lol

.@nlyonne I think I found a way to get that party chicken cooked that fits in perfectly with the storyline. #RussianDoll #Netflix #sweetbirthdaybaby pic.twitter.com/39YwGuysfe

— Deb Amlen (@DebAmlen) February 18, 2019

watched the whole thing last night. my theory is that Nadia and Alan are the only real people living in a crashing simulation. This explains why they are linked. this is also supported by the last loop, in which nadia asks maxine to come with her and maxine just says "i can't" - she's not real. Like kinder said above, maybe this and the disappearing people/objects have to do with the simulation running out of memory space due to the crash. I kind of wish that they went a little further with this - i was waiting for an ethereal and psychedelic breaking down of reality, but it never really came in full force. in one of the interviews linked above, NL says that they wanted to things with CG that they didn't have the budget for - maybe this was one of those this things?

Maxine at one point does leave the apartment with Nadia and her other friend, though.

I'm still kind of sad about the resolution! It's optimistic but the end result is they each lose a friend and have a task: their inner conflicts have reached some point of resolution and in return it's their job to fix their companion, who never knew them

Is it? Note their clothing -- the final shot has them as the 'fixed' Nadia and Alan.

Yeah I completely missed that on first viewing. she also seems to pass two 'previous' versions of herself.

I was convinced towards the end each one would have to die saving the other so I'm just happy they made it alive

Maxine at one point does leave the apartment with Nadia and her other friend, though.

― A Grape Ape Agape (Leee)

yeah, but that was during a previous loop before things had deteriorated as badly as they had in the last loop

I took the final shot, with the parades of people from both sides merging into one, to be kind of symbolic

In retrospect, reality collapsing down to bring them back together seems just as possible

Well this was the best thing I've ever seen on Netflix

(The 2nd best was the first season of American Vandal)

pretty sure the ending is meant to be ambiguous/unresolved. unless or until there are further seasons, of course

i mean, 'alone again or'

i thought the ending was meant to suggest that the "alphas" and "betas" of the pairs have found each other and are on their own corrected trajectories; bug fixed
good luck with a second season there i suppose but hell, happy death day 2 is happening so there's clearly no limit to the public interest in seeing these kind of speculative universes play out

One prosaic thing: people keep talking about the depletion of people at the party as the loops go on, but not the fact that when Maxine explains it away but saying "It's only 9pm" she has a point. In the first loop it's mentioned that it's 00:02 (assuming that's what she means when she says she turned 36 two minutes ago). In the second loop Ruth says it's 11-ish. Obviously the depletion is eerie as fuck when it gets to just Maxine but the whole thing is tied in with the loop starting earlier and earlier, right?

Getting a real kick out of rewatching this, not least for little things about Natasha Lyonne's performance that I missed the first time. Latest joy: when the ketamine doc asks "Is there a history of mental illness in your family", the way she replies "That's not it". And the colour scheme in that scene.

tt is watching this and I have to say, Episode 1 features a song off Weyes Blood's PREVIOUS not-even-famous album so basically I'm in favour of this now

One prosaic thing: people keep talking about the depletion of people at the party as the loops go on, but not the fact that when Maxine explains it away but saying "It's only 9pm" she has a point. In the first loop it's mentioned that it's 00:02 (assuming that's what she means when she says she turned 36 two minutes ago). In the second loop Ruth says it's 11-ish. Obviously the depletion is eerie as fuck when it gets to just Maxine but the whole thing is tied in with the loop starting earlier and earlier, right?

Also, I'm pretty sure the time of her work meeting that she gets a text about keeps changing as she loops and loops (I think getting steadily later?)

Been looking at the fruit and flowers this time, expecting them to see them gradually getting more and more tired but they look just fine to me until the shot of the dead flowers that ends episode 2 (when she's in the loop after dying the ambulance crash). So not sure what kicks that off.

I didn't really follow the four-dimensional orange conversation but it was pretty cool either way

was there an explanation why Alan was in the elevator where he met Nadia. it wasn't part of his normal activities which I thought he was doing every loop until then, right?

i thought it was implied that he had been going to visit his mom each time until he met nadia

ah ok. i didn’t put it together that his mom was in that building.

Anyone else have a problem opening this thread on Flagging app for Android?

Nope. Occasionally threads don't load for me but this one's fine.

Yes, kinder, almost reported it last week but then it cleared up for me.

fwiw i'm very glad that mentioning alex in nyc a while back quickly summoned him to thread. the fire must be ever honoured

plus that tompkins square gentrification allegory theory c'mon dude!

I really enjoyed this. It was a pleasure to watch something so well executed - there is not a wasted minute in any episode (the short run times probably helped with that). The ending is very satisfying - certainly happy (yah! they're not dead), but tinged with a sadness of how hard the happy ending was to achieve (or the implications of what the resolution might mean for them) - ambiguous without being ostentatious about it (like Sopranos).

*unlike Sopranos"

alex in nyc has reported back (or on fb) if he likes it or not, right? I am wagering he likes it.

I realized I don't like the Alan character or maybe the portrayal at all.

ugh, that was supposed to be a question and not a doubtful statement above.

watching episode 1 now, finally.

:D

Preemptive warning: it gets better.

Episode 5. This gets better and better