- Position1 of 5›
- Watch something funny
Natasha Lyonne stars in this dramedy about a woman who lives the same day over and over - not dissimilar to life in self-isolation. This TV show is hilarious and does not feel dull or repetitive. Its creative approach to repetitiveness makes it easy to watch, too.
The argument
The recommendation rests on a claim about what kind of viewing suits the circumstances rather than on the show's merit in the abstract. Trying to decipher the plot of some television can feel like work: a series that withholds information, runs many threads at once or requires the viewer to assemble a chronology asks for sustained effort, and the pleasure it offers is the pleasure of solving something. Proponents argue this is the wrong demand to make of a viewer whose situation already feels like too much work. Russian Doll, the 2019 dramedy, is offered as the complement to that condition because it is not complicated. It does not require its viewers to work. The premise is stated plainly and holds throughout: Nadia Vulvokov is caught in an endless loop of her 36th birthday party, the show kills her repeatedly, and each death returns her to the same party. Because the structure repeats, a viewer always knows where they are, and the series is easy to follow and to piece together as it goes. What that structure supplies in place of difficulty is a clear question. Nadia has to find a way not to die, and the audience watches her work at it, which gives the show forward motion without requiring the viewer to hold anything in reserve between episodes. The conclusion is that undemanding does not mean uninteresting. The show is funny, its premise is unusual, and it can be followed without concentration, which is what makes it a good fit for the circumstances rather than a lesser choice within them. A viewer can turn on the television and relax, and still be watching something with a real idea behind it.
Premises
Counter-arguments
Even though the show has a great cast, it's a letdown for viewers. The main character, Nadia Vulvokov, ruins the mood with her constant deaths, each worse than the last. The show can be compared to Groundhog Day, a repetitive loop of bad decisions: boring.
Rejecting the premises
[Rejecting P1] The premise's own description works against it. The series is built on a time loop in which the protagonist dies again and again, and its material takes in addiction, trauma and a mother's death; a plot that is easy to follow is not the same as one that asks nothing of the viewer. [Rejecting P2] "Light premise" is a strange description of an endlessly repeating death, and "turn on the TV and relax" is asserted rather than shown. The position is that viewers should watch something funny, and a dramedy whose comedy is bleak fits that heading only partly. [Rejecting C] The conclusion recommends one series without comparing it to the alternatives available under the same heading, so the case rests entirely on two descriptive claims — both of which characterise the show more gently than the show characterises itself.