skygiants

I watched all of Russian Doll! I liked it!

Q: Russian Doll is that Groundhog Day sort of thing on Netflix, right?
A: That is indeed the general trope, yeah! Except with a lot more death and psychological deconstruction. You probably got all that from the trailer.

Q: OK, so why did you like it?
A: Can I answer that by comparing it to other things I like?
Q: .... sure? Will that be helpful?
A: Okay, so Russian Doll sits somewhere in the middle of a spectrum of shows about surreal snowglobe worlds full of extremely real-feeling people bouncing off each other's pain points until they form enough of a connection to push through the things that have been keeping them stagnant, with The Good Place on one end and Utena on the other.
Q: What do the points on that spectrum represent?
A: Sitcom and surrealist anime. Next question.
Q: ... that's not a spectrum though? Russian Doll is very emphatically not animated?
A: Yeah and also Russian Doll is actually probably the third point of a genre triangle representing 'the cable version with lots of cursing and casual sex', this is a bad analogy, anyway I said next question.

Q: Did you also say at some point that Russian Doll has the same energy as a Frances Hardinge book?
A: I definitely did! It totally does!
Q: ... how?? Frances Hardinge writes children's books???
A: List partially sourced from nextian: heavy parental stuff, terrible/amazing female protagonists, unclassifiable friendships between opposite-gender people who aren't very good at the whole concept, creepy fruit, girls consuming/disgorging horrifying objects...
Q: Not all Frances Hardinge books are like this though? Really just The Lie Tree is like this. What you're really saying is this show is just kind of like The Lie Tree.
A: Not so! Also Skinful of Shadows, A Face Like Glass, kind of Fly By Night? And the creepy objects are Cuckoo Song and -
Q: Wait, I thought this was a post about Russian Doll? Are you just trying to get me to read a bunch of Frances Hardinge now?
A: Yes, obviously! Always!

Q: MOVING ON. Speaking of heavy parental stuff and psychologically complex people, can you talk about Russian Doll's handling of mental illness?
A: I super am not qualified to talk about that but I very much hope somebody else does!

Q: Okay, but does any of this actually explain why you like Russian Doll?
A: I guess I just really like stories that treat human connection as the miracle it kind of is?
Q: Also you just like things that are weird enough to get stuck in your brain and irritate it like a grain of sand in an oyster shell while still feeling deeply grounded in relatably petty human concerns.
A: This also is true.
Q: And you like the soundtrack.
A: I REALLY LOVE THE SOUNDTRACK.