All aboard the train of madness in a new season as entertaining as the first and, however, unnecessary.
The second season of ‘Russian Doll’ had many challenges to overcome after the success of the first. Their debut, gallows humor at its finest, featured Nadia (Natasha Lyonne) and Alan (Charlie Barnett) hitting the snooze button countless times. Of course, they managed to break the cycle, and honestly, the story, well told, seemed to have come to a satisfying end.
The reality of a second season now evokes that uncomfortable mix of excitement and dread. ‘Russian Doll’ could have stayed in this perfectly contained story, a limited series that gave people something fresh, funny and macabre. Instead, the creators reopened the box of cosmic worms, dragging Nadia and Alan on another supernatural journey. Was it necessary? Sadly not.
Don’t get us wrong, season two has its merits. In fact, it’s quite entertaining. Continuing with the exploration of mortality, this time it’s the other way around: instead of being haunted by her death, Nadia is obsessed with her life. More specifically, her origin story and her family’s changing destiny, beginning with her erratic mother.
The story picks up four years later with Nadia approaching her 40th birthday (what about her and birthdays?). After visiting her godmother Ruth (Elizabeth Ashley) in the hospital, Nadia, after a car accident, takes the subway home and this is where things take an unexpected turn.
A glitch in the space-time continuum causes Nadia to travel back in time to the 1980s via a train that acts as her portal into the past. It sure is a psychedelic trip that forces Nadia to confront her mother Nora (Chloë Sevigny). It’s no secret that she and Nora have… problems. Nadia does not hide her tense relationship with her mother (who passed away in the present).
While she may have made peace in the first season with the guilt she felt over her mother’s death and wanting to live with godmother Ruth as a child, there seems to be a lot more unresolved trauma to deal with.
Season two sees Nadia dealing with generational wounds and leads to some pretty big personal revelations that turn out to be exceptionally healing. However, before the balm can be applied, Nadia takes some hard hits as, like all time travelers, she is faced with the dilemma of changing the past for the better of the future.
It wouldn’t be fair to leave Alan out of the equation. He too jumps on the time travel bandwagon by exploring his own family lineage, but unlike Nadia, his journey is less about trauma and more about discovery. Living in the past allows him the freedom to know himself more deeply, away from the restrictions of his authoritarian daily life.
It’s a fun and quirky sequel to the first season with mind-blowing paradoxes inevitably caused by the alteration of a key event from the past, but to talk about it would be to enter spoiler territory. However, the second season feels less like a continuation and more like its own isolated story.
Sure, some of the themes are similar: exploring the mother-daughter relationship, human beings, and their ability to be flawed but still deserve. But he makes no effort to link the stories of the two seasons and thus leaves the viewer with more questions than answers.
Before, there was no need to ask why Nadia and Alan were going through the supernatural wringer. We took things as they appeared, the cosmos playing God. No one questions how Billy Murray was forced to repeat Groundhog Day for what seemed like forever. He had a lesson to learn and that was it.
The same can be said for the first season of ‘Russian Doll’; past issues needed to be resolved and the rules of the genre dictated the how of the matter. Now, as Nadia and Alan embark on a new adventure with different cosmic happenings, it’s a bit surprising not to offer a reason why this is happening only to them. Once is an amazing trip, twice and we need a little explanation.
Nadia and Alan’s journeys also feel more seamless the first time. Their experience felt united, united as if it was natural for them to be together on this path. After all, you can’t get much closer than dying at the exact same time… Over and over again.
Fast-forward four years and that link is tenuous now. The series struggles to make the connection as to why they are both experiencing this phenomenon or to make their connection feel genuine. Admittedly, the second season always had a pretty tough job of producing the same compelling magic without repeating the tight narrative of the first season and it almost succeeded.
The story is more convoluted than the first, but the idea and execution is strong enough, with some heartwarming moments that force both of them to grow through difficulties, especially Nadia.
However, as an addition to the franchise, it’s the weaker of the two and feels completely unnecessary, but does that mean the story should end there? Maybe not. Perhaps a third installment will answer some of those lingering questions and bring more understanding to the full story arc.
At the very least, we know it’s going to be an entertaining and messy ride.
‘Russian Doll’ season 2 will arrive on Netflix Spain on April 20 in full.
Source: Fotogramas
Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.
