Netflix Summary:
On the night of her 36th birthday, Nadia meets an untimely end… then suddenly finds herself back at the party her friends threw for her.
FYA Summary:
Nadia keeps reliving her 36th birthday party in a classic time loop sitch à la Groundhog Day (presumably, since I’ve never seen it) and The Edge of Tomorrow.
Familiar Faces:
Natasha Lyonne as Nadia
It took me a little bit to warm up to Nadia, but she had won me over within the first few time loops. And obvs, Natasha Lyonne plays her to prickly perfection.
I didn’t recognize anyone else from the (fortunately diverse*) cast, and the one character whom I’d want to talk about the most would require tons o’ spoilers, so that’s all you get!
*Although no word of a lie, I did get two brown-haired white men with similar roles mixed up in the beginning.
Couch-Sharing Capability: Medium
For a show that involves a lot of death, this actually isn’t super dark. (Although maybe someone who’s sensitive about death should skip this just in case it’ll be triggering.) There are only eight half-hour-or-shorter episodes with definitely plenty of things you might want to chat about immediately, which makes for a great discussion-worthy binge.
Recommended Level of Inebriation: Viewer’s Choice
The quality of the show shouldn’t drive you to drink and the timey-wimey stuff might require sober thought, but Nadia of all people wouldn’t take offense to a few libations (or much harder substances, although those I deffo wouldn’t endorse).
Use of Your Streaming Subscription: Good
There’s something incredibly compelling about time loop stories and the ability to redo things — or to do them the ‘right’ way. In the case of Russian Doll, it also switches things up without the premise getting stale, so I was never quite sure of how the story would unfold. And even having seen all of it so far, I’m still not exactly sure, since I need someone smarter to explain a few points, but it was nevertheless entertaining.
