Utopia (All 4)
A group of people who met online come together to discuss a graphic novel called ‘the Utopia Experiment’, unaware that their lives are about to change forever. Forced to go on the run and hunted by a shadowy organisation that is after the manuscript, the group consists of an array of complex and intriguing characters, such as the mysterious Jessica Hyde, and Arby, an assassin who spends the first season searching for Jessica. For such an entertaining and well-written series, not enough people have seen it. I met someone once who was wearing a ‘Where is Jessica Hyde?’ t-shirt and they seemed genuinely surprised that someone else understood the reference.
Russian Doll (Netflix)
Like Groundhog Day meets Happy Death Day, but starring the endlessly charismatic Natasha Lyonne (Nicky in Orange is the New Black), Russian Doll follows Nadia, a woman who keeps living and dying, and living and dying, etc. She enters this inexplicable loop after getting hit by a car, only to wake up back at the party she just left and her outrageous personality makes it highly enjoyable to watch her try to figure out a way of existing in this bizarre situation. Her incredibly curly, bright red hair and effortlessly cool fashion sense should get more recognition as an iconic TV look, and while the show was popular when released, it isn’t talked about as much as other Netflix originals. It’s refreshing to see a series that had only female directors and writers, and is worth the watch if just to hear Lyonne repeatedly say the word ‘cockroach’ in her thick New York accent.