Amy Poehler attended Deadline’s Contenders Emmy Event earlier today in Los Angeles, California. She was there to talk about Broad City and Russian Doll, in which she helps to produce, create, write and direct! Our gallery has been updated with photos from the event, check them out below.
A series about reliving your death over and over again has the making for a great comedy but it also runs the risk of, as the premise suggests, repetitive. But the Netflix comedy Russian Doll steps up to the challenge with co-creators, executive producers and writers Leslye Headland, Amy Poehler and Natasha Lyonne (who also stars) leading the charge. At Deadline’s Contenders event, the trio talked to Dominic Patten about the deja vu-centric show and how it has created a whole new bingeing experience.
Russian Doll follows a young woman named Nadia (Lyonne) on her journey as the guest of honor at a seemingly inescapable party one night in New York City. One night she falls down the stairs and dies and then she is transported to a certain point in the same evening when dies again…and then it happens again…and again. The whole series is an existential journey of Nadia figuring out what the hell is going on. Seeing that it is a repetitive show, it brings new meaning binge-watching.
When creating the show Headland and her fellow creators posed the question: How do we make the ultimate binge show?
Headland said that one of the goals of the show was to not only create a show where everyone watches the entire series in one sitting, but to have them sit there and watch it again and again. “That’s the next place for binge-watching — it’s like an album you listening to [over and over again],” she said.
Headland points out that they stuck to the classic structure of a TV show, but it still unpacks a lot in each episode, which requires multiple viewings.
“We were talking about the idea of exploiting the feeling of having to make choices over and over again and the existential crisis that goes with it,” said Poehler of creating the show.
Lyonne adds that throughout the eight episodes, there is a “crescendo and a finish” that sticks the landing. Of the episodes, she cites the one where Chloe Sevigny plays her mother and how it reflected her own life. “We’re going deeper and deeper into the Russian doll within us — seeing the meta-levels of that is very moving.”
Russian Doll features an all-female writing team with all episodes directed by Headland, Lyonne, and Jamie Babbit. The series also features Greta Lee, Yul Vazquez, Elizabeth Ashley and Charlie Barnett. Dascha Polanco, Brendan Sexton III, Rebecca Henderson, Jeremy Bobb, Ritesh Rajan and Jocelyn Bioh also guest star.
The series is produced by Universal Television, Poehler’s Paper Kite Productions, JAX Media and 3 Arts Entertainment.
Source: Deadline
Broad City creator-star Abbi Jacobson and executive producer Amy Poehler reunited after saying goodbye to the Comedy Central hit on March 28. At Deadline’s The Contenders Emmys on Sunday, the duo discussed the importance of featuring a strong female friendship at the heart center of the series.
“It was such an extremely beautiful exploration of female friendship,” Poehler said during her panel. “I know that the people that relate to that show feel the same
way, like they own a part of the friendship. And so, a lot of the journey has been friendship and discovery.
“Broad City was the first show I ever produced outside of working on Parks and Recreation,” she added. “It’s been a wonderful 10-year journey for us from beginning to end.”Jacobson and fellow creator-star Ilana Glazer knew how the story would end, but there were a few details that needed to be ironed out. At the top of their list was whether or not they’d unmask Abbi’s former roommate Melody.
“Melody was originally an homage to Maris on Frasier, who was Niles wife that you never saw,” Jacobson explained. “Then, the more we leaned into it, it was about Abbi and Bevers, Melody’s boyfriend. It was more about that relationship growing and that felt more important than ever revealing Melody.
“At the end, it was just hilarious that Abbi kind of forgot about Melody,” she added. “Did she ever live there? What’s going on? So we decided that it was better without ever revealing her.”
Jacobson and Glazer also debated whether their characters would remain together in the same city and how their friendship would be challenged if one did move away.
“We knew that we wanted my character to get into this artist residency program and that she needed to go try something new outside of New York before she turned 30,” Jacobson said. “It felt like someone had to leave New York because New York is such a big part of the show.
“Originally, when we first wrote it,” she continued, “there was going to be a FaceTime at the end between the girls and Ilana was going to show up in Abbi’s FaceTime announcing she’d transferred schools to Boulder.
Then one day, Ilana said, ‘This is crazy, but I think Ilana should stay in New York.’ Then we both laughed and said how the girls can’t split up.
Source: Deadline
“The more we let that sink in,” she said, “the more we knew that that was really right. Even though it’s sad for the audience and for us, it’sreality .”
