{"id":7533,"date":"2020-04-13T13:00:26","date_gmt":"2020-04-13T20:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=7533"},"modified":"2020-04-06T16:43:52","modified_gmt":"2020-04-06T23:43:52","slug":"mark-watches-russian-doll-s01e01-nothing-in-this-world-is-easy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2020\/04\/mark-watches-russian-doll-s01e01-nothing-in-this-world-is-easy\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Russian Doll’: S01E01 – Nothing In This World Is Easy"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the first episode of the first season of Russian Doll<\/i>, Nadia relives her 36th birthday. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Russian Doll<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For extensive talk of death, and for mentions of drug use<\/b><\/p>\n

Hello, all!!! It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been a while since I started a new show here on Mark Watches. If you are new to the site (I generally get a bunch of new readers whenever I start a new series) or if you need a refresher, I would highly advise that you read the following, which is a rundown of how things work here on Mark Watches<\/p>\n

1) Spoilers are not allowed in any form on Mark Watches<\/b>. Please refrain from ever posting (in normal text) any sort of spoiler or reference to future storylines or developments while commenting on this site. This rule is probably a lot more strict than you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re used to, so if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re warned about spoilers or if your comment is edited because of it, trust me. This is for a reason. Please visit the\u00c2\u00a0Spoiler Policy<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0for guidance.<\/p>\n

2) You may, however, post spoilers in rot13.\u00c2\u00a0<\/b>You will inevitably see what looks like gibberish in the comments. We use\u00c2\u00a0rot13<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0to cipher all possible spoilers so that y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all\u00c2\u00a0can<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0still have a conversation about each episode if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen the entire show. Please cipher all spoilers.<\/p>\n

3) Please read the Site Rules before commenting<\/b>. My group of moderators and I try to make Mark Watches an exception to the rule when it comes to online conversations. This means that moderation is more evident here than other places. Please review the rules<\/a>, as this is your only warning.<\/p>\n

4) Mark Watches videos are attached as a link at the end of the post.<\/b>\u00c2\u00a0They are $0.99 each, and you can download each video 15 times, meaning you can send them to friends or anyone else for free. The system is built to handle free downloads, so download away. The lovely folks over at Mark Spoils run a place called the\u00c2\u00a0Black Market<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0where you can find extra downloads of videos in case you cannot afford them or don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to pay for them. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s totally sanctioned (and adored!) by me, so go ahead! Test them out. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s basically me sitting and yelling at my TV, and I cry a lot because reasons.<\/p>\n

And with that out of the way:<\/p>\n

WHAT THE FUCK DID I JUST WATCH<\/b><\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m so thankful that all the folks who have told me to watch this show since it premiered left out the premise. This show so causally slides into speculative fiction, and I admire that. It did not seem<\/i> like a genre show when I started it. Truthfully, while I love very intensely speculative stories, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m actually perfectly fine with stories that only lightly touch on the speculative fiction elements. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m thinking of my love of Adam Silvera\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first three novels, or historical examples of magical realism, where these fantastical elements aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even really the point or the focus; they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re just a means to tell a story.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But I also have to admit that upfront, this show has landed in my life at a very odd time. Like Nadia, I am also thirty-six, and I also live in New York. Actually, from what I can piece together from context clues and some of the shooting locations, the apartment I was staying in prior to moving to Brooklyn was within a quarter mile from where Russian Doll<\/i> takes place. There is also a whole lot of death in my life. Hell, in all<\/i> our lives right now, but I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s real obvious that this is probably going to affect me differently if I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d not lost someone so close to me and<\/i> so suddenly.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s part of this experience, though, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had a lot of time alone, like many of you, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve spent some of that reflecting on the ten years of doing Mark Does Stuff. (A decade??? What the FUCK.) What I hope I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve done in these past ten years is bring the personal into play when it comes to literary criticism and media studies. That personal angle affects the way each of us interpret a work of art, and I bring that up because if I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d watched this show when it debuted, I would not have had the same take on it all. If I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d watched this show before a global pandemic<\/i>, I would not have had the same reaction. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mind talking about that, either, even if I have been mostly silent on some of the larger issues that have been in my life and continue to be.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Watching this show is strange because, as I said on video, it made me miss New York City. That may seem like an absurd statement\u00e2\u20ac\u201dI literally live in fucking New York City, so how can I miss it? Because I currently can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do any of the things portrayed on this show!!! And the show manages to make fun of New York City culture while also stunningly<\/i> portraying it? I went to like SIX loft parties that looked exactly like the one in this episode just last year alone. There was often someone there liberally handing one substance laced with another substance . There was also a white dude just like Mike at nearly all of them, who talked just like Mike did, too. (I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m guessing that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll learn Mike is either a political science teacher or a literature professor. ONE OF THOSE TWO.) It has EVERYTHING NYC in it. The music! The fashion! The history of buildings that were once one thing but are somehow now these elaborate lofts that seem deeply unfair! (I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get over the bathroom. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so HUGE.)<\/p>\n

So while that plays a part in what I instantly felt drawn to, I also have to say that what \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Nothing In This World is Easy\u00e2\u20ac\u009d does best is give us a challenging, complicated character in Nadia. I spent a lot of time in the kidlit world, obviously, so I am really excited that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m getting a character appears to be dealing with something I am also going through: mid-thirties angst. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a real thing, even if you aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t going through a global pandemic! Because what IS the point of everything! Why go to work? Have I peaked too late? Will I be alone for the remainder of my life? Do I just have to survive until I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sixty before I lock it down and have some security in my final years?<\/p>\n

Yes. I find Nadia deeply, deeply relatable. However, it helps that even in the twenty-five minutes she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s onscreen, Natasha Lyonne KILLS IT. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m always impressed by this specific craft, because Lyonne seems to so easily become this character. I love her voice, her accent, all the tiny expressions that convey MOUNTAINS of character information, the way she holds her body when she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s speaking to someone else. Look at the way she slowly collapses in on herself while she talks to John, until she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s doubled over, his hand in her hair, right up to the moment where he suggests going to look for Oatmeal. Lyonne then rises, her eyes go wide, and in this we see vulnerability. Hope. Possibility. It is of course immediately ruined when John misinterprets this genuine offer of company to look for Oatmeal, and how many of us have been right there? How many times have we thought someone just wanted to be a good friend, but they misinterpreted an action or an offer?<\/p>\n

Lyonne is both chaotic and deeply, deeply human in this portrayal, and I personally can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t wait to see more of it. I say that because while Russian Doll<\/i> exists within a fairly trope-filled history of time loop stories, I never got the sense that the show was trying to say it was some sort of edgy exception to it. No, it feels like the people who made it know<\/i> we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve all seen at least one iteration of this story, be it an episode of The X-Files<\/i> or The Twilight Zone<\/i>, or perhaps Groundhog Day<\/i>. So that means when the story goes in an unexpected direction, it comes off as sincerely exciting. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a central mystery here, of course: Why is this happening to Nadia? Why is it that she is the only one conscious of this loop happening? But those core questions provide some<\/i> of the entertainment, but this show doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t rely on a mystery being the sole<\/i> source of the fun. I love that Nadia retains knowledge of the previous loop, and I also found it incredibly fascinating how quickly she began to question what was going on. That was a character-centered writing choice. I believed that if Nadia got stuck in a time loop, she wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t passively accept it happening it. No, even in just one episode, she seems like the kind of no-nonsense person who would immediately say, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Hey, what the fuck?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Yet even though she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s questioning her experience, it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t leave the audience with a whole lot of answers. One thing in particular bugs me more than anything else. I suspect that maybe the homeless man will play an important part in this; the same goes for that random guy who stumbled in Farran\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bodega. I think the way<\/i> Nadia has died isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t necessarily that important, though both of them seem… so horribly New York City. Like, I am also terrified of getting hit by a yellow cab or falling into either the Hudson or the East River. (More so because of pollution than actual drowning, for the record.) However: Oatmeal disappearing. That just… what the fuck was that, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe that Nadia is imagining any of this, so that stands out as the most bizarre part of what is already a bizarre situation. How? Is it because she didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t<\/i> die by taxi? Did some mysterious force work some sort of course correction to make sure that she died anyway? What the FUCK. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the joint, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. I think that Nadia will focus on that, since it seems to her to be a reasonable explanation for these events, but I believe it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s immaterial to it all.<\/p>\n

I hope???<\/p>\n

I am very, very excited to see more of this, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. What a treat!<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Nothing In This World is Easy\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99.<\/p>\n

Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n

– You can now pre-order my second YA novel, Each of Us a Desert<\/i>, which will be released on September 15, 2020 from Tor Teen!<\/a>
\n– Not only that, but my very first pre-order campaign is now live for North American readers! If you submit proof of pre-order, you can get a limited edition print that comes with the book<\/a>.
\n<\/strong>– If you’d like to stay up-to-date on all announcements regarding my books, sign up for my newsletter<\/a>! DO IT.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"