Worlds Within Worlds: ‘Russian Doll’ Season Two Travels Through Time – And Maybe Space – In Season Two
Russian Doll season one was a kind of a stressed millennial version of Groundhog Day, but season two has its main characters breaking out of the time loop only to be trapped again – this time in the past.
In the new trailer, released Thursday, we see that Nadia (Natasha Lyonne) and Alan (Charlie Barnett) haven’t returned to normal; rather they each take a train ride straight to the past—their family’s past, specifically. Nadia takes the 6 train in 2022 to wake up in 1980s New York City, while Alan has landed in Germany in the ‘60s. “Maybe we still have unfinished business,” Nadia ponders, afraid that she has “broken time.”
Nadia’s best friend, Maxine (Greta Lee), will be far more involved in her adventures this time. Chloë Sevigny plays Nadia’s mother Lenora, who Nadia meets in the past.
Annie Murphy, the Emmy-winning star of Schitt’s Creek also joins the cast of the dark comedy, which picked up two Emmys of its own after its 2019 premiere. (The show picked up a statuette for Outstanding Comedy Series and Lyonne won a Lead Actress trophy.)
The season two synopsis doesn’t contain many more details. “Set four years after Nadia and Alan escaped mortality’s time loop together, season two of Russian Doll will continue to explore existential thematics through an often humorous and sci-fi lens. Discovering a fate even worse than endless death, this season finds Nadia and Alan delving deeper into their pasts through an unexpected time portal located in one of Manhattan’s most notorious locations, the New York City subway. At first they experience this as an ever-expanding, era-spanning, intergenerational adventure, but they soon discover this extraordinary event might be more than they bargained for and, together, must search for a way out.”
The show was co-created by Lyonne, Amy Poehler, and Leslye Headland, and the season one plot centered on a chain-smoking game developer (Lyonne), who died repeatedly the night of her 36th birthday party and kept looping back to the host’s funky East Village bathroom.
Season two premieres on Netflix on April 20th.