Russian Doll: A Failure of Concept on Netflix

Before I begin, I’d like to state that I really did give this Netflix Original a chance and I watched the entire series in one shot. The beginning had me invested in the mystery of the groundhog day style deaths that the two main characters suffer. I actually really liked the more intelligent dialogue, I enjoyed both of the character arcs of the two main characters, and I thought most of it was well done . . . but, unfortunately, this is probably the most “well-done” failure of a show that I’ve seen.

The Show puts the main focus on the mystery of why the groundhog day style events are occurring . . . and then completely fails to deliver an explanation of any kind on why it occurred. There’s some allusions to parallel worlds, but it doesn’t explain anything. What was the point of the rotting fruit? Why were the mirrors disappearing? Why were people vanishing? How did the groundhog day style events start and what was the cause? The show sets-up all of these mysteries and then blithely ignores answering any of them. Why have a show that sets-up 90% of the focus on the mystery of why the groundhog day style event was happening . . . if you’re not even going to bother answering any of it? I don’t understand why the moment something is perceived as “woke”, suddenly reviewers shamefully turn off their critical thinking faculties and try to argue something is perfect or groundbreaking. This was neither. It was a giant waste of my time.

Already, I can see the gaggle of idiots from the woke crowd suddenly accuse me of anti-Semitism or racism or some other sort of ism because the main characters were a Russian Jewish woman and a Black man. I can tell you with all sincerity that the two main characters were the only good parts of this show once I completed it. Their character arcs were engaging and well-done. Aha! So why am I giving it a bad rating? Because the show sets-up several mysteries and never answers any of them. For example, why the fuck was Nadia’s younger self showing up and causing her to die? No answer! Why were windows disappearing? No reason given! Like with all of this show’s mysterious events. It’s disgusting that I even have to go so far to explain that setting up a mystery and failing to answer ALL of its questions means this show gets a negative rating in my book. What the fuck was the point? People who are fans of this trainwreck would be hard-pressed to answer that. Why does so much of this woke shit lack any sort of rational logic and read as incomplete, half-baked ideas that people barf out instead of fully outlining before making a high-production show?

And that is how I will end this review. It’ll probably feel rushed, unfinished, half-assed, and pointless . . . just like watching Russian Doll on Netflix.

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