Netflix
Natasha Lyonne co-writes and stars in the riveting Netflix series.
The afterlife seems to be having a moment in popular television.
Shows like NBC’s The Good Place and Amazon’s Forever have breathed fresh air into visualizing life after death, but it’s Netflix’s recently debuted Russian Doll — helmed by a mighty trio of Leslye Headland, Amy Poehler and its star, Natasha Lyonne — that is asking the boldest and often the darkest questions about life, death, and whatever else there is.
The premise of the show is a simple but surreal one. Lyonne plays Nadia Volvokov, a fiery Brooklyn-dwelling videogame designer who cannot stop celebrating her 36th birthday. It’s not that Lyonne’s character can’t say no to prolonging a bender, though she can’t. Rather, it’s that as soon as Nadia is hit and killed by a car after wrapping up a post-party one-night stand, she is suddenly back in the outlandish bathroom of her friend’s apartment where the party is being held, frazzled and somehow alive.
In the show’s eight episodes, each at about 30 minutes, Nadia dies and undies a lot. Each time, she is back in the party with a Harry Nilsson song playing, sometimes with more answers about her predicament, but more often with additional questions. This mystery, and Nadia’s drive to understand her situation, propel the show. And while critics have noted its similarity to Groundhog Day, this show adds to the canon because of Lyonne’s outsized charisma and the gritty portrayal of her milieu. It spins down back alleys where Nadia tracks down the dealer who supplied the blunts she smokes at her party, and when she allows a homeless man, Horse, to cut her hair.
The first few episodes build this world, presenting the show’s version of New York City as Nadia searches for more rational explanations to her predicament. Each time she dies, her theories fail, and we see her become more and more desperate to explain the unexplainable.
Like its precursors, Russian Doll connects us with the universal experience of trying to rationalize our own existence. Nadia’s journey to right the universe runs parallel to one in which she addresses her traumatic past and takes responsibility for her present.
Russian Doll, ultimately, teaches an important lesson: Sort out what is amiss within your own world, as Nadia ultimately does, and there’s a shot that the universe’s whirling machinations might sort themselves out as well.
