‘Russian Doll’ is the First Show to Make Me Excited About TV in 2019

Russian Doll is the first show in a long time that makes me excited about the state of television. Dark, idiosyncratic, and mystifying, it’s the story of Nadia (Natasha Lyonne), a woman who can’t stop dying and then reliving her 36th birthday. While it sounds a bit like a retread of Groundhog Day, Russian Doll‘s something else entirely. It is a portrait of a woman in the midst of confronting herself, and it is a story with twists and turns that inspire deep meditation on what we owe ourselves and other people. All told, Russian Doll feels like the most audacious thing to hit Netflix in years.

Russian Doll comes in part from the mind of Natasha Lyonne, a brilliant actress who shot to fame in her teens as a precocious performer in films like Slums of Beverly Hills and Everyone Says I Love You. Since then, she has largely appeared in cult hits and popular ensembles. Lyonne has co-starred on Netflix’s first big dramedy hit, Orange is the New Black, since it premiered back in 2013. That series was heralded for being groundbreaking in its depiction of women, but Russian Doll feels even more pioneering now. Co-created by Lyonne, Amy Poehler, and Leslye Headland, it bends the rules of storytelling, but more importantly, lets Lyonne settle back into the wise, craggy, and off-kilter persona that charmed critics when she was a teen. Only this time, we’re seeing that world-wise adolescent as a world-weary adult stuck constantly tripping into disaster.

What’s charming about Russian Doll is its voice. Flush with creativity, the show bends storytelling tropes and reimagines episode structure, all to better leave the audience in shock at the twists and turns. But Russian Doll is less interested in the technical traps of its high concept than it is in its characters’ emotions. For all the dark humor that gets played out, Russian Doll is a show about deep existential fear.

Russian Doll is entertaining, and affect, but most importantly, it’s wildly its own thing. So many of the shows coming out now feel like watered down versions of a stronger concept from the past. There’s a paint-by-numbers quality to storytelling now, with writers patting themselves on the back for over-indulgent episode lengths, celebrity casting, and subversive needle-drops. Russian Doll is a rebuke to those TV trends. Tightly paced, wonderfully cast, and absolutely unique, it’s a series that actually embraces the freedom afforded it on a streaming service.

Because of that, Russian Doll is the first show that makes me really excited to see where television might be going in 2019. I want to see more outrageous voices, more tricky concepts, more women taking control of their own nightmares. Forget convention, give me the bizarre. Show me what lurks in the dark recesses of your brain, and not the tepid and safe stories you think I want. I want television in 2019 to be a curveball coming out of nowhere to knock me upside the head. And that’s why I hope Russian Doll is just a harbinger of more high art to come.

Russian Doll Season 1 hits Netflix Friday, February 1.

Watch Russian Doll on Netflix