If I never see the words “Sweet birthday baby!” again, at least on Twitter, it won’t be a moment too soon. Uttered at various times and in various ways by Maxine (Greta Lee, who nearly didn’t take the part because of the line) in the Netflix series Russian Doll, they have started to rub me the wrong way. When I see them, I find myself wanting to act like Groundhog Day’s Phil Connors (Bill Murray) when he hears Ned Ryerson (Stephen Tobolowsky) call out to him for the thousandth time. “Phil? Phil Connors?!” “Ned?!” Murray screams before punching Ned in the face.
I use this example deliberately. “Sweet birthday baby!” is Russian Doll’s “Phil Connors?!” in the same way that Harry Nilsson’s ‘Gotta Get Up’ is its ‘I Got You Babe”. These are very obvious hat-tips to Groundhog Day, which is Russian Doll’s most obvious precursor. The series tells the story of Nadia Volvokov (co-creator Natasha Lyonne), who keeps reliving the night of her 36th birthday, continually dying in her attempts to work out what’s happening to her.
Matthew Clayfield
Matthew Clayfield is a journalist, critic and screenwriter.
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