'Russian Doll' returns with more existential questions

Actress and writer Natasha Lyonne digs deeper into existential themes in season two of her hit Netflix show “Russian Doll”, this time sending her character Nadia and friend Alan to explore theirs pasts via a New York subway time portal.

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After successfully escaping a time loop that saw them repeatedly die in season one, Nadia and Alan go on a new journey spanning different eras. However, once again they will need to find a way out.

“Russian Doll” was a hit with critics and audiences upon its release in 2019, a reaction co-creator Lyonne said gave her freedom to explore the story further.

“Mostly I just wanted to do interesting works. I was really like – what am I? What am I interested in? What are the conversations we’re really having, you know?” Lyonne told Reuters in an interview.

“And as you get older, my personal experience has been sort of moving…to somebody who is genuinely concerned about mortality and the finite nature of time itself. And for me, that’s separate from the specifics. It’s an incredibly universal experience.”

Season two is set four years after the first and some of the show takes place in New York’s East Village in 1982. Audiences see more of Nadia’s late mother Nora, played by Chloe Sevigny.

“We get to really delve deeper into the Nora-Nadia relationship…explore that mother-daughter dynamic and just have more clues as to why Nadia is the person that she is and what she’s struggling with and how she’s trying to overcome certain things,” Sevigny said.

Another relationship that is also further explored is Nadia’s friendship with pal Maxine, played by Greta Lee.

“She’s a very present person and kind of up for anything, so for this season that means she travels. She is along for the ride, literally,” Lee said about Maxine.

“I love that depiction of that duo, it’s one that I don’t think we get to see that much, actually. You think about classic duos in film and TV, of course there’s Bonnie and Clyde but you see more male versions of that. So it was nice to have our version of what that could be.”

“Russian Doll” season two is released on Netflix on April 20.