<em>Russian Doll</em> Shatters the Word <em>Crazy</em>

This article contains spoilers through all eight episodes of Russian Doll.

“No, no, no, no, no, we do not use that word in this house.”

So says Ruth, the no-nonsense parental guardian of Nadia, the ever-dying star of Netflix’s psychedelic triumph Russian Doll. Ruth, a therapist, actually says it twice—varying the number of nos each time—in separate “loops,” in separate episodes, when confronted with the forbidden word: crazy.

Ruth’s rule fits with changing mores, as have tried to retire the term for being insulting to people with mental illness. But Ruth and Nadia share a particularly intimate understanding of the harm the word can do. With the same humanity and attention to detail that it , unwinds how the incoherent, shame-laden cultural image of mental illness diverges from—and worsens—the real thing.