Groundhog Day is many things. For sure, it’s a much-loved, classic comedy of the 1990s and one that stars Bill Murray at that. That should be enough to make it noteworthy.
But it’s also a genre-defining movie. The tale of man doomed to relive the same day, day after day, no matter what he does, it is much emulated. If you watch as many TV shows as I do, you’ll notice that pretty much every long-running sci-fi show will do a Groundhog Day episode, whether it’s Stargate SG-1, Dark Matter, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Doctor Who, Fringe, Star Trek: Discovery, 12 Monkeys, Supernatural, The X-Files or Travelers, to name but a few.
Indeed, I’ve seen so many now, it feels like I’m in my own TV Groundhog Day, and one of my golden laws of sci-fi TV is that any sufficiently long-running sci-fi show will eventually do a Groundhog Day episode of its own.
So iconic is Groundhog Day that most shows don’t even try to hide what they’re doing and will even namecheck It. It’s also made it into the dictionary now.
Not Groundhog Day
Look up at the first part of that definition and you’ll suddenly remember that Groundhog Day is named after a real-life event celebrated in the US on February 2, in which a groundhog is used to predict the weather (this year: an early spring). So kudos to Netflix on three scores.
First, for releasing Russian Doll, its version of Groundhog Day, on February 1, just in time for the actual Groundhog Day, but with no fanfare pointing this out.
Second, for not mentioning Groundhog Day throughout the eight episodes, despite having a computer game designer as a heroine who drops copious mentions of other genre movies and TV shows.
And third, for doing something that while having much in common with Groundhog Day somehow manages to do something surprisingly different with its central time loop.
No doll
Given the need for there to be some cause for a time loop, most shows that use ‘the Groundhog Day’ scenario are by their very nature sci-fi shows, with the likes of Daybreak being one of the very few exceptions – until now.
But beyond a slight horror theme that gets more and more pronounced until the surprisingly disturbing seventh episode, Russian Doll is actually a dark relationship comedy. Co-creator and star Natasha Lyonne plays the eponymous Russian Doll and Bill Murray of the piece, ‘Nadia Vulvokov’. When the action starts, she’s at her 36th birthday party and there appears to be a vortex in her bathroom, not that she pays much attention to it. At the party, she meets a guy called Mike (Jeremy Lowell Bobb) and hooks up with him. However, on the way home, she’s hit by a taxi… and killed.
And is back in the bathroom again. What’s going on, why is this happening, how can she escape from the loop and how many times will she have to die along the way?
Screen Australia to fund: Evonne Goolagong biopic mini-series, dystopian Sophie’s choice drama Aleph, cleaners join ‘the resistance’ sci-fi drama Oddlands and 1970s ritualised cannibalism drama Seconds
Every Friday, TMINE lets you know when the latest TV shows from around the world will air in the UK
One very odd acquisition without a date this week, but everything else has a premiere announced.
Acquisitions
Netflix has picked up USA (US)’s Dare Me, an adaptation of Megan Abbott’s novel of the same name. I said odd because there isn’t actually a TV series yet – and there wouldn’t be if Netflix hadn’t agreed to distribute it everywhere in the world except the US.
So no premiere date yet… because it hasn’t been made yet.
Drama set behind the scenes of Soul Train, the 1970s US TV show that was the country’s first nationally-syndicated Black music show.
Stars Sinqua Walls, Kelly Price, Jason Dirden, Iantha Richardson, Katlyn Nichol, Jelani Winston and Christopher Jefferson. Kelly Rowland, Michelle Williams, Bobby Brown, K Michelle, Gabrielle Dennis and McKinley Freeman all guest star.
Bite Club follows two detectives who, after surviving a shark attack, join forces to hunt the ultimate predator – a serial killer who is also hunting them. Not only are they survivors but also ex-lovers.
Stars Todd Lasance, Ash Ricardo, Damian Walshe-Howling, Deborah Mailman, Robert Mammone, Pia Miller, Marny Kennedy, Darcie Irwin-Simpson and Dominic Monaghan.
Delhi Crime Story (Netflix)
Premiere date: Friday, March 22
True crime Indian anthology series. The first season follows the notorious December 2012 investigation by the Delhi Police into the horrific gang rape of a young woman, which reverberated across India and the world. It captures the complexities of the scrutiny, the emotional toll on the investigating team, and their determination to bring the perpetrators to justice in a fraught environment.
Stars Shefali Shah, Adil Hussain, Denzil Smith, Rasika Dugal, Rajesh Tailang and Yashaswini Dayama.
Störst av allt (Quicksand) (Netflix)
Premiere date: Friday, April 5
Swedish Netflix original from the makers of Bron/Broen (The Bridge), based on the book by Malin Persson Giolito.
A mass shooting takes place at a prep school in Stockholm’s wealthiest neighbourhood Djursholm, a normal high school student, Maja Norberg, finds herself on trial for murder. When the events of that tragic day are revealed, so too are the private details about her relationship with Sebastian Fagerman and his dysfunctional family.
