Critic Reviews

The show is so striking and smart that I made a note to include it on my favorite TV shows of 2019 immediately after blowing through the season--which is saying something, since that was back in December of 2018. But part of what makes the series so special is how it’s meticulously constructed, shedding layer after surprising layer until the bittersweet end.

2019’s best new show to date, a cerebral yet propulsive eight-episode dramedy. ... [Nadia’s] arc feels like the ideal fusion of Lyonne’s gruff authenticity, Headland’s acerbic humor and the warm, humanistic perspective that defines Poehler’s work.

What Russian Doll has is heart--but heart without cheap sentiment or bosh. ... It is matter-of-fact in acknowledging modern failure and disillusion, without ever trying to nail it down, avoiding the tones of hectoring obviousness that mars recent items-in-vogue like “BlackKkKlansman” and the bratty jabber of Aaron Sorkin scripts. In a soothing, down-to-earth way that doesn’t have all the answers, Lyonne and company show us how to deal with the deaths, literal and figurative, we face every day.

Unlike so many puzzle-box shows, Russian Doll doesn’t rely on its twists and clues, though there are plenty of those, all expertly deployed across each of its eight exquisite half-hour installments. ... Russian Doll’s investment in its characters makes it a binge-worthy show that demands an immediate rewatch.

If in the end it's just a long meditation on the idea that people need people, a four-hour metaphorical expression of the fact that you have to abandon old patterns to move forward, it is wonderful all along the way and magnificent in the end. Its last minutes are as deftly handled, wise, unpredictable and rewarding as television ever is. And these ideas are no less powerful for being obvious; the world is choked with people trying to realize them in their own lives. Lyonne, especially, is marvelous, playing Nadia.

It’s pure binge-watching magic; a show that’s not only expertly designed to compel viewers to the next episode but invests just as much in the integrity of story and character.

The series is probably too weird to win a bunch of Emmys, but God willing, Lyonne will be nominated. She’s so good. ... Already one of the best shows of the year.

Extraordinary and thoughtfully existential. ... Russian Doll draws viewers in with questions large and small about death, depression and the redemptive power of friendship.

This show is truly a gift, and if Season 2 is any indication, it can keep on reinventing itself for years and years to come.

It is so inventive, and creative, and original, that it seems petty to quibble. As the story progresses, it gets smarter and weirder, and the surreal twists once again land in an unsentimental yet beautiful place. It dares to ask big questions about trauma, grief and fate.