Dope show. And dascha polacco in it. That bitch should play Vanessa del Rio in the bio if they still doing it
Netflix - Russian Doll - 100% on rotten tomatoes
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I love Natasha Lyonne and Dascha Polanco from Orange Is The New Black. I'll likely give it a shot on that basis.
Her stammer was interesting to me on OITNB-- I wondered if that was acting or a real trait. Judging from one interview I've seen of her off of the show, I think it's a real trait but she embellishes it for her OITNB character. I'd be interested to see her as the lead here.
Her stammer was interesting to me on OITNB-- I wondered if that was acting or a real trait. Judging from one interview I've seen of her off of the show, I think it's a real trait but she embellishes it for her OITNB character. I'd be interested to see her as the lead here.
Agreed
Nah.
I'm having OITNB withdrawals so this is getting moved up my list.
Does the thick chick get naked in this or in OITNB?
OITNB season 1.
Only other place I've seen her is When They See Us... She has talked about body type impacting her career (there's a thread with a good Charlemagne interview of her)-- I'm interested to see what kind of work she gets from here on out.
You wouldnt happen to know how many episodes or what episodes would you?
Actually, not sure if I was thinking of someone else, but she only has one sex scene and it's clothed. No nudity from her.
I liked the show. I was a bit disappointed in the finale because I was confused. For instance, I don't understand the whole plotline with the homeless man. And I was hoping for more backing up the connection between the main two characters.
EDITED TO ADD A QUESTION:
Russian Doll tells one of the best stories I’ve seen about the cost of fighting against your own brain
I mentioned earlier that what’s happening to Nadia and Alan could stand in as a metaphor for mental illness or addiction, and in the season’s standout seventh episode, the loop crumbles around the two of them.
So does the whole world become just a little bit better, and so does Russian Doll, already one of the best shows of the year, make this silly old planet feel not like a place where we all have to die but a place where we all get to live.
EDITED TO ADD A QUESTION:
I don't totally get the rotting fruit either-- I can accept that everything continued to age across the alternate timelines but why wouldn't anyone notice it? And my biggest question: What was up with the disappearing people? Why was the friend who threw the party the only one left?
Russian Doll tells one of the best stories I’ve seen about the cost of fighting against your own brain
I mentioned earlier that what’s happening to Nadia and Alan could stand in as a metaphor for mental illness or addiction, and in the season’s standout seventh episode, the loop crumbles around the two of them.
First animals, then objects, then whole people disappear.
Nadia and Alan struggle to find a way to end the loop, only starting to realize that they need to first seek the emotional closure that will help them move on to the next step of their own personal recovery processes, and then must try to help each other live through the night once the loop resets one final time. (Trust me, this makes sense in the moment.)
(A necessary sidebar: Realizing that Alan played a small but memorable role in the series’ very first episode when he took center stage in episode four was one of my biggest pleasures in watching the show. I love how confident its storytelling is in the audience to keep up, and I can’t wait to revisit the show to find the many, many Easter eggs that must be scattered throughout it.)
Some critics have written this final empathy-driven gambit off as a kind of gooey kumbaya bullshit answer to the series’ deeper mysteries. Shouldn’t there be a deeper answer here than “We need to help each other out in our darkest moments”? Shouldn’t there be an explanation?
I think this misses the mark, though. What the series is is perceptive about how we can only help others after we’ve taken care of ourselves — but also how the two are so inextricably intertwined that one becomes the other. The deeper Nadia drifts into her own past, the more she confronts her horrible childhood, and the more she realizes that she’s forever marked by traumas she’s never forgiven herself for, even though she was a child, the more the series starts to zero in on its real villain: the human brain. The series mimics the slow, methodical unpeeling of layers that is talk therapy for a good reason.
Both Nadia and Alan spend much of the series doing self-destructive things, but because we’re in their points-of-view, those self-destructive behaviors seem entirely fine, justified even. (It also helps that Lyonne is so good at making seemingly terrible ideas feel like the only possible action to take.) It’s not for nothing that Nadia’s beloved aunt, who raised her, is a therapist. Only once Nadia and Alan have traveled to the heart of their own Russian doll to find the shard of painful truth buried there can they begin to heal.
But Russian Doll doesn’t bother arguing that this will “fix” either character, which is where the idea of helping others comes in. If Alan can pull Nadia out of the path of that taxi, if Nadia can stop Alan from jumping off of a building, then they’ll be there to look out for each other in the future. (Also, it’s nice that the two aren’t forced into a romance — though they do have sex.) Life is a series of loops, after all, repetitions of patterns we become comfortable with. And the very best friends we can have are those who see those loops for what they are and take our hand to make us just a little bit better.
Nadia and Alan struggle to find a way to end the loop, only starting to realize that they need to first seek the emotional closure that will help them move on to the next step of their own personal recovery processes, and then must try to help each other live through the night once the loop resets one final time. (Trust me, this makes sense in the moment.)
(A necessary sidebar: Realizing that Alan played a small but memorable role in the series’ very first episode when he took center stage in episode four was one of my biggest pleasures in watching the show. I love how confident its storytelling is in the audience to keep up, and I can’t wait to revisit the show to find the many, many Easter eggs that must be scattered throughout it.)
Some critics have written this final empathy-driven gambit off as a kind of gooey kumbaya bullshit answer to the series’ deeper mysteries. Shouldn’t there be a deeper answer here than “We need to help each other out in our darkest moments”? Shouldn’t there be an explanation?
I think this misses the mark, though. What the series is is perceptive about how we can only help others after we’ve taken care of ourselves — but also how the two are so inextricably intertwined that one becomes the other. The deeper Nadia drifts into her own past, the more she confronts her horrible childhood, and the more she realizes that she’s forever marked by traumas she’s never forgiven herself for, even though she was a child, the more the series starts to zero in on its real villain: the human brain. The series mimics the slow, methodical unpeeling of layers that is talk therapy for a good reason.
Both Nadia and Alan spend much of the series doing self-destructive things, but because we’re in their points-of-view, those self-destructive behaviors seem entirely fine, justified even. (It also helps that Lyonne is so good at making seemingly terrible ideas feel like the only possible action to take.) It’s not for nothing that Nadia’s beloved aunt, who raised her, is a therapist. Only once Nadia and Alan have traveled to the heart of their own Russian doll to find the shard of painful truth buried there can they begin to heal.
But Russian Doll doesn’t bother arguing that this will “fix” either character, which is where the idea of helping others comes in. If Alan can pull Nadia out of the path of that taxi, if Nadia can stop Alan from jumping off of a building, then they’ll be there to look out for each other in the future. (Also, it’s nice that the two aren’t forced into a romance — though they do have sex.) Life is a series of loops, after all, repetitions of patterns we become comfortable with. And the very best friends we can have are those who see those loops for what they are and take our hand to make us just a little bit better.
So does the whole world become just a little bit better, and so does Russian Doll, already one of the best shows of the year, make this silly old planet feel not like a place where we all have to die but a place where we all get to live.
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"It's really about a metaphorical bottoming out that I have a deep relationship to based on my own life which is why it felt sort of not too far fetched and a little more akin to an All That Jazz or Richard Pryor's Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling, which is a hit nobody really watches."
Has anybody seen both this and the Pryor movie? Thoughts?
Yes i have
Interesting connection i never would have made, but yeah I see it.
More with Jojo dancer.
I liked this series a lot but didn't think it needed a second season.
I feel like i got it and that was enough.
still a little curious how they gonna follow this up.
I'll be back
I did some reading about Natasha Lyonne's life history and it isn't surprising that she made that connection once you see where it's coming from.
I'm going to watch Jojo Dancer within the week.
All I knew about this show going in was that two actresses I liked from OITNB were in it and I remembered seeing a mention of it being renewed for a second season. I was so blind to everything else that the first death surprised me. So when I didn't see Dascha Polanco in the first three episodes, I figured maybe she was in the second season.
I definitely was ready to see where they were going with it and a bit surprised to find no second season available. I'm used to being pretty late to series so I'm not used to waiting a full year for follow ups.
Does it need a second season? Absolutely not. But has it earned one? It would seem the vast majority of the audience would come back, so I think so.
Natasha Lyonne has never been a lead and never co-created a show, so this was pretty big for her. If there was not a similar opportunity, I can't blame her for not wanting to let the project die (pun intended). I'll be very interested to see what they do with it. The Russian Doll metaphor does not rely on the "Groundhog's Day" element s0 they could do almost anything.
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I remember her from Slums of Beverly Hills and to this day I am still disappointed that these were nothing but padding.
She's nice looking for 40 but given the article was nearly half a decade ago, seems like the ship has sailed on seeing what's underneath.
"I always felt like saving my tits for the right thing to come along, and it never happened" made me laugh.
Natasha Lyonne wishes she went topless on screen years ago
May 23, 2015
Orange Is The New Black star Natasha Lyonne fears she has missed her chance to appear nude on screen and wishes she had the chance to at least go topless when her boobs were "perkier".
The 36 year old admits she’s usually bra-less and shirtless when she’s at home and would still like to show off her body in the right role.
She tells Playboy, "I always felt like saving my t*ts for the right thing to come along, and it never happened.
"I would be more inclined to do a nude scene if it wasn’t about sex, but I wish it had done it when they were perkier, because now it’s going to be significantly less exciting.
"For anybody who sees them in a future as-yet-unknown project, I want them to think, ‘Damn, I wish I had been seeing those t*ts for years…’"
Michael Rapaport Driven to Despair by Natasha Lyonne
Apr 21, 2005
Actor Michael Rapaport is still shocked by his former friend and tenant Natasha Lyonne‘s meteoric fall from grace–and he had no hesitation about evicting her
when her bad behavior went too far.
The Hitch star first met Lyonne in 1997 and they became such firm friends
Rapaport offered to rent her an apartment in a building he owns in New York
City–but the American Pie actress’ party-fuelled lifestyle quickly sent her
on a downward spiral.
Lyonne‘s fall from grace has culminated in a warrant being issued for her
arrest on charges of harassment, criminal mischief and trespassing after she
failed to attend a court hearing on April 18–her third non-attendance.
Rapaport says, “She really was one of the smartest, most insightful people I
have ever known. She remained very peaceful until the fall of 2003.
“Reports kept coming in – people were going in and out of the apartment, (one
of the tenants) was telling me about the late-night parties, and ‘random dudes’
sprawled out on her sofa at all times. (Another tenant) had a little dinner
party. Natasha was screaming up at them throughout the party.”
The complaints became so frequent, Rapaport flew from Los Angeles to confront
his troublesome tenant–and he was so disgusted by what he saw, he evicted
Lyonne from the apartment.
He continues, “I felt sick to my stomach the moment she touched me. Her body
was so skinny.
“It looked like a grenade had gone off. There was garbage everywhere. There
were glasses smashed in the kitchen and standing water in the clogged tub with
flies hovering over it. That girl needs help.”
Even if she shown them when they were "perkier" they were never actually that big it was all padding.
https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-xpm-1998-09-06-9809030081-story.html
Ask Natasha Lyonne about breasts. Go ahead.
After all, in her new movie, "Slums of Beverly Hills," the 19-year-old actress plays a 15-year-old who is preoccupied with hers. Hates them, in fact. Even when they help her get a boyfriend. Even when everyone tells her how beautiful they are.
So go ahead. Ask her.
"It seems like an original opening question," Lyonne says, eyes rolling skyward.
"I'm sure it does. But it's not at all. Everyone talks to me about breasts. My breasts are my press. It's not fair."
Actually, not her breasts, exactly. Lyonne's character, Vivian Abramowitz, sports 36-Cs, while Lyonne -- it says so right here in the film's production notes -- owns 32-As.
How was the movie?
Imma check this out
It was okay.
Interesting that the show was originally pitched as a three season idea.
Natasha Lyonne on Why 'Russian Doll' Will Be 3 Seasons and One Writing Mistake
"The editing room is its own horror film," says the actress of the meticulous work that went into creating — and keeping track of — the many loops of life and death on her trippy, Emmy-nominated Netflix series.
8/9/2019
The first season of Netflix's Russian Doll consisted of eight episodes — but for Natasha Lyonne and fellow co-creators Amy Poehler and Leslye Headland, the half-hour dark comedy would be defined by narrative loops. Specifically, which time loop protagonist Nadia Vulvokov, a coder played by Lyonne, was experiencing while reliving the night of her 36th birthday after dying and coming back to life on repeat.
When it came to plotting the continuity of such a mind-bending concept (one that takes inspirationfrom Lyonne's true story), the all-female writers room devised an intricate web of interconnected storyboards for Nadia's adventures. "There were boards and strings — the writers room looked like Homeland or A Beautiful Mind," says Lyonne.
Before stepping back into a looping session for the forthcoming second season, Lyonne talked about her experimental adventure series, which earned 13 Emmy nominations.
How personal is Russian Doll to you?
Everything I've ever cataloged in my life is in that show. The songs, little asides I've been keeping notes on, the characters I've been meeting along the way and images I've collated. It's a relief that it all had a place to go. It's scary stuff, jumping into the abyss in the abstract while you're writing and making it. The editing room is its own horror film! You're really up against your own mind and have to beat down self-doubt and double down on taking a risk on yourself and that it's a good idea even when everyone's saying, "Are you going to be able to pull this off?" The excitement of seeing that people were really noticing all the Easter eggs is an indescribable thing.
You didn't watch yourself on Orange Is the New Black because you said you didn't want to self-correct your performances. How did you handle that when it came to Russian Doll?
It's very different than watching something you have no control over. I'm not at Sundance watching Die, Mommie, Die! and seeing myself and thinking, "Why am I doing a Charles Busch impression in this movie?" I remember being struck by that and realizing I shouldn't be watching these things. If I had been watching Die, Mommie, Die! in the edit, I could have been like, "I can build a character out of this who is specifically doing this on purpose." In Russian Doll, even if there were moments that I was not necessarily pleased with, I could massage them into making sense. It became more like a game of Tetris or completing a crossword puzzle.
You initially pitched Russian Doll to Netflix as a three-season series. Do you still envision it that way?
In many ways, yes. I see it quite concretely, and it will be interesting to see what evolves. The beauty of the power of the writers room is that Alan (Charlie Barnett) was a very different character in the original pitch and pilot. Month two of the room is where he really came alive. Before then, he had been a whole variety of other figures and now, looking back, imagining that show without Alan is almost impossible. Because of that experience, I know there has to be space left open for something beyond my limited imagination in this moment to know if that is still where the series begins, middles and ends. Maybe it's only two seasons. Maybe it's four seasons. Right now, it feels quite clearly that it is those three.
What kind of early ideas do you have for season two?
I think where Russian Doll has been successful is that there's a very clear sense of character in Nadia so that you can have very high-concept things happen to her, but they always feel earned. They're backed by some sort of lived experience so they don't feel like they're floating in space or completely in the realm of sci-fi. From that perspective, I have some big ideas, and I think this show will continue to work so long as that journey continues to be interesting and worth watching and new. I want to be learning in real time along with her and along with our audience.
What is one thing you learned that you are applying to season two — given all those mind-bending loops?
There is one [mistake] that is so big that none of us has ever spoken about it because we're all so ashamed. (Laughs.) We corrected it in the edit. Someday when this show is really over, I'll happily talk about. But it's our dark, shameful secret. When I think about how hard we worked at the script level and for us to then discover it in the edit? The idea that despite all those layers of protection — where in each phase we were discovering something new — we missed this one thing so glaringly was a real shock to us. If there was something I learned, it was to continue to be able to look at it with fresh eyes. Maybe we need to keep one person in the dark on the whole thing who can read it all down from a distance meticulously in the end. A job called "fresh eyes." Someone who has never been in the room and who comes in at the eleventh hour, like Harvey Keitel in Pulp Fiction. I'm going to hire Harvey Keitel as the Fixer of Russian Doll, to be the monitor of all loops.
Natasha Lyonne on Why 'Russian Doll' Will Be 3 Seasons and One Writing Mistake
"The editing room is its own horror film," says the actress of the meticulous work that went into creating — and keeping track of — the many loops of life and death on her trippy, Emmy-nominated Netflix series.
8/9/2019
The first season of Netflix's Russian Doll consisted of eight episodes — but for Natasha Lyonne and fellow co-creators Amy Poehler and Leslye Headland, the half-hour dark comedy would be defined by narrative loops. Specifically, which time loop protagonist Nadia Vulvokov, a coder played by Lyonne, was experiencing while reliving the night of her 36th birthday after dying and coming back to life on repeat.
When it came to plotting the continuity of such a mind-bending concept (one that takes inspirationfrom Lyonne's true story), the all-female writers room devised an intricate web of interconnected storyboards for Nadia's adventures. "There were boards and strings — the writers room looked like Homeland or A Beautiful Mind," says Lyonne.
Before stepping back into a looping session for the forthcoming second season, Lyonne talked about her experimental adventure series, which earned 13 Emmy nominations.
How personal is Russian Doll to you?
Everything I've ever cataloged in my life is in that show. The songs, little asides I've been keeping notes on, the characters I've been meeting along the way and images I've collated. It's a relief that it all had a place to go. It's scary stuff, jumping into the abyss in the abstract while you're writing and making it. The editing room is its own horror film! You're really up against your own mind and have to beat down self-doubt and double down on taking a risk on yourself and that it's a good idea even when everyone's saying, "Are you going to be able to pull this off?" The excitement of seeing that people were really noticing all the Easter eggs is an indescribable thing.
You didn't watch yourself on Orange Is the New Black because you said you didn't want to self-correct your performances. How did you handle that when it came to Russian Doll?
It's very different than watching something you have no control over. I'm not at Sundance watching Die, Mommie, Die! and seeing myself and thinking, "Why am I doing a Charles Busch impression in this movie?" I remember being struck by that and realizing I shouldn't be watching these things. If I had been watching Die, Mommie, Die! in the edit, I could have been like, "I can build a character out of this who is specifically doing this on purpose." In Russian Doll, even if there were moments that I was not necessarily pleased with, I could massage them into making sense. It became more like a game of Tetris or completing a crossword puzzle.
You initially pitched Russian Doll to Netflix as a three-season series. Do you still envision it that way?
In many ways, yes. I see it quite concretely, and it will be interesting to see what evolves. The beauty of the power of the writers room is that Alan (Charlie Barnett) was a very different character in the original pitch and pilot. Month two of the room is where he really came alive. Before then, he had been a whole variety of other figures and now, looking back, imagining that show without Alan is almost impossible. Because of that experience, I know there has to be space left open for something beyond my limited imagination in this moment to know if that is still where the series begins, middles and ends. Maybe it's only two seasons. Maybe it's four seasons. Right now, it feels quite clearly that it is those three.
What kind of early ideas do you have for season two?
I think where Russian Doll has been successful is that there's a very clear sense of character in Nadia so that you can have very high-concept things happen to her, but they always feel earned. They're backed by some sort of lived experience so they don't feel like they're floating in space or completely in the realm of sci-fi. From that perspective, I have some big ideas, and I think this show will continue to work so long as that journey continues to be interesting and worth watching and new. I want to be learning in real time along with her and along with our audience.
What is one thing you learned that you are applying to season two — given all those mind-bending loops?
There is one [mistake] that is so big that none of us has ever spoken about it because we're all so ashamed. (Laughs.) We corrected it in the edit. Someday when this show is really over, I'll happily talk about. But it's our dark, shameful secret. When I think about how hard we worked at the script level and for us to then discover it in the edit? The idea that despite all those layers of protection — where in each phase we were discovering something new — we missed this one thing so glaringly was a real shock to us. If there was something I learned, it was to continue to be able to look at it with fresh eyes. Maybe we need to keep one person in the dark on the whole thing who can read it all down from a distance meticulously in the end. A job called "fresh eyes." Someone who has never been in the room and who comes in at the eleventh hour, like Harvey Keitel in Pulp Fiction. I'm going to hire Harvey Keitel as the Fixer of Russian Doll, to be the monitor of all loops.
I just watched Jo Jo Dancer last night and, man, it outdid my expectations.
I didn't really like the drag part in the middle-- less because of discomfort than just not understanding it. I liked the end, though I felt it lacked resolution-- I don't understand why he decided he wanted to live. But I really liked the childhood-focused beginning. I'll rewatch this at some point.
I also watched a YouTube special on it afterward and they compared it to All That Jazz so I'm going to have to watch that one now. I definitely see why Natasha Lyonne would bring up Jo Jo Dancer in relation to Russian Doll.
Same with me.
I could use a better glimpse of the front.
She's looking good. That #ismellgood shit x100 is weird, though.
CASTING CALL MAR. 9, 2021
Annie Murphy Joins Russian Doll’s Season 2 Time Loop
By Devon Ivie@devonsaysrelax
Photo: Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
Great casting. What a concept! Schitt’s Creek star and future sitcom wife Annie Murphy has joined the Russian Doll cast for season two, where she’ll be starring alongside Natasha Lyonne as the Lower East Side time-loop story continues. Deadline reports that no additional intel other than Murphy’s casting is available, such as who her character will be, what timeline(s) she’ll pop up in, or if she’ll be able to hang out with Oatmeal the cat. However, the season began filming in earnest last week. While initially presented as a miniseries upon its release in February 2019, Lyonne later said that the journey of her character, Nadia, was always set up to be a three-season arc and that “Nadia was a presence throughout all three of them.” She also teased that Russian Doll’s second season would be “the same show, just weirder.” Take note, Emmy voters.
Annie Murphy Joins Russian Doll’s Season 2 Time Loop
By Devon Ivie@devonsaysrelax
Photo: Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
Great casting. What a concept! Schitt’s Creek star and future sitcom wife Annie Murphy has joined the Russian Doll cast for season two, where she’ll be starring alongside Natasha Lyonne as the Lower East Side time-loop story continues. Deadline reports that no additional intel other than Murphy’s casting is available, such as who her character will be, what timeline(s) she’ll pop up in, or if she’ll be able to hang out with Oatmeal the cat. However, the season began filming in earnest last week. While initially presented as a miniseries upon its release in February 2019, Lyonne later said that the journey of her character, Nadia, was always set up to be a three-season arc and that “Nadia was a presence throughout all three of them.” She also teased that Russian Doll’s second season would be “the same show, just weirder.” Take note, Emmy voters.
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