Russian Doll Thoughts
May. 15th, 2021 10:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iariaI liked it. I'll be watching the second season.
It did take me awhile to actually get into the show and invested in the characters. When I wasn't very into the first couple episodes I kept watching instead of quitting because I knew how short the series was. I'm glad I did because it was great. Once Alan showed up and we got Nadia interacting with someone in the same situation the series really picked up for me.
+ I liked the slow horror of everything falling apart which isn't something I think I've seen in a time loop story before. First in the background - the animals disappearing, the plant dying, the fruit rotting - and then into the foreground with people disappearing and the appearance of creepy child Nadia.
+ I loved how Nadia's child self was so creepy, you know with the killing of Nadia and everything, but in the end she ends up being Nadia's inner will to live. That was a great little twist.
+ I loved the friendship that grew between Nadia and Alan. I love them as mirror images of each other. I love that they're basically soulmates which was not a trope I was expecting. Everything about their relationship worked for me.
+ Both of them have a death wish and the loops are them having to face what led to that and then saving each other but what I really love is that knowing each other and changing each other saves them first by getting them to a place where they can move past their traumas and only them (once their death wishes are gone) do they physically save the other's original version completing their journey.
+ How much knowing Nadia changed Alan becomes super obvious when Nadia meets pre-loop Alan in the finale and we get to see both versions of him at the same time and see how physically different they are. We also get to see how much Alan has changed Nadia (if less physically obvious), especially in the exchange on Alan's roof:
"Do you promise I'll be happy if I don't jump?"
"Fuck no, I won't. But I promise you won't be alone."
I love it. I love that Nadia, who never wanted to make connections and ran from them, is promising to be there for Alan. Because she doesn't want to be alone anymore.
+ I loved that the last loop, and the way out for them, involved Nadia and Alan needing to save the other that first night - in a version of reality where they hadn't started looping and hadn't become friends. Their simultaneous 'fuck' reactions when they realised were great.
+ I was so happy that the two timelines become one again because while I'm sure that they would have become friends again the relationship that Nadia and Alan built during the loops was very singular and unrepeatable (heh) and I would have been sad if they'd lost it. It would have put their relationships with the pre-loop versions of themselves at a very unequal standing.
+ We are left with the big question about which timeline everyone else remembers now. Does Farren remember Alan stalking an uninterested Nadia or a Nadia who got in his face about knowing Alan and that she should be there with him? Does Mike remember Alan seeming to stalk him and his hook-up before saving her life and her going off with him, or does he remember staying at the party (and probably hooking up with someone else)? Since it is series!Alan at the end I'm assuming that he still has his wallet. Unless both he and Horse has his wallet?
+ I liked Farran. I loved that he was good friends with both Nadia and Alan. I loved how supportive he was. His WTF reactions during both timelines in the final episode were very fun. I'm so curious about what he actually thought was going on with them.
+ Nadia's best friends Lizzy and Maxine were great, and I loved Nadia's friendship with them. I loved how Lizzy just rolled with Nadia's desire to go down the fire escape every time and how supportive she was. I loved Max throwing her drink at Nadia and them cracking up over it, and then Max supportively helping Nadia down the stairs.
+ The weird little Horse side-story was great. I loved Nadia spending a loop to make sure he didn't freeze to death overnight. They had such a weird fun energy to their scenes. I did find the situation with Horse in the finale a little strange. In a previous loop he died that night because he lost his shoes. Was he die every loop or only because Nadia was with him and they went to sleep together? Because this time she doesn't get involved and we see him with a bunch of other people and then we get the parade.
+ I liked Nadia's relationship with Ruth a lot.
+ I loved the little exchange between Nadia and Alan's older neighbour.
+ I did find it strange that Nadia and Alan didn't bother to exchange phone numbers. Why the hell wouldn't they? I think this was the thing that bothered me most, lol.
It did take me awhile to actually get into the show and invested in the characters. When I wasn't very into the first couple episodes I kept watching instead of quitting because I knew how short the series was. I'm glad I did because it was great. Once Alan showed up and we got Nadia interacting with someone in the same situation the series really picked up for me.
+ I liked the slow horror of everything falling apart which isn't something I think I've seen in a time loop story before. First in the background - the animals disappearing, the plant dying, the fruit rotting - and then into the foreground with people disappearing and the appearance of creepy child Nadia.
+ I loved how Nadia's child self was so creepy, you know with the killing of Nadia and everything, but in the end she ends up being Nadia's inner will to live. That was a great little twist.
+ I loved the friendship that grew between Nadia and Alan. I love them as mirror images of each other. I love that they're basically soulmates which was not a trope I was expecting. Everything about their relationship worked for me.
+ Both of them have a death wish and the loops are them having to face what led to that and then saving each other but what I really love is that knowing each other and changing each other saves them first by getting them to a place where they can move past their traumas and only them (once their death wishes are gone) do they physically save the other's original version completing their journey.
+ How much knowing Nadia changed Alan becomes super obvious when Nadia meets pre-loop Alan in the finale and we get to see both versions of him at the same time and see how physically different they are. We also get to see how much Alan has changed Nadia (if less physically obvious), especially in the exchange on Alan's roof:
"Do you promise I'll be happy if I don't jump?"
"Fuck no, I won't. But I promise you won't be alone."
I love it. I love that Nadia, who never wanted to make connections and ran from them, is promising to be there for Alan. Because she doesn't want to be alone anymore.
+ I loved that the last loop, and the way out for them, involved Nadia and Alan needing to save the other that first night - in a version of reality where they hadn't started looping and hadn't become friends. Their simultaneous 'fuck' reactions when they realised were great.
+ I was so happy that the two timelines become one again because while I'm sure that they would have become friends again the relationship that Nadia and Alan built during the loops was very singular and unrepeatable (heh) and I would have been sad if they'd lost it. It would have put their relationships with the pre-loop versions of themselves at a very unequal standing.
+ We are left with the big question about which timeline everyone else remembers now. Does Farren remember Alan stalking an uninterested Nadia or a Nadia who got in his face about knowing Alan and that she should be there with him? Does Mike remember Alan seeming to stalk him and his hook-up before saving her life and her going off with him, or does he remember staying at the party (and probably hooking up with someone else)? Since it is series!Alan at the end I'm assuming that he still has his wallet. Unless both he and Horse has his wallet?
+ I liked Farran. I loved that he was good friends with both Nadia and Alan. I loved how supportive he was. His WTF reactions during both timelines in the final episode were very fun. I'm so curious about what he actually thought was going on with them.
+ Nadia's best friends Lizzy and Maxine were great, and I loved Nadia's friendship with them. I loved how Lizzy just rolled with Nadia's desire to go down the fire escape every time and how supportive she was. I loved Max throwing her drink at Nadia and them cracking up over it, and then Max supportively helping Nadia down the stairs.
+ The weird little Horse side-story was great. I loved Nadia spending a loop to make sure he didn't freeze to death overnight. They had such a weird fun energy to their scenes. I did find the situation with Horse in the finale a little strange. In a previous loop he died that night because he lost his shoes. Was he die every loop or only because Nadia was with him and they went to sleep together? Because this time she doesn't get involved and we see him with a bunch of other people and then we get the parade.
+ I liked Nadia's relationship with Ruth a lot.
+ I loved the little exchange between Nadia and Alan's older neighbour.
+ I did find it strange that Nadia and Alan didn't bother to exchange phone numbers. Why the hell wouldn't they? I think this was the thing that bothered me most, lol.
