Russian Doll levels up in season 2 by catching a new existential train of thought

In the first season of Russian Doll, she was trapped in a cycle of death and do-overs, but her familiarity with the concept of time loops helped her escape. Russian Doll didn't feel like a simple Groundhog Day parody because of the self-awareness of the main character. Russian Doll's second season makes for an unexpectedly different and fascinating puzzle box as it takes the series to its next level with another tale of metaphysics.

Russian Doll's second season picks up a few years after the previous one and just days before a friend's 40th birthday. She is confident that she is going to be able to make good on her plans, because she fully intends to spend the day of her birth with her loved ones.

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The interactions with neighborhood pillars like Horse and Farran give you a sense of how much everyone has lived in the gap between Russian Doll and the rest. After spending the past few birthdays together and on high alert in case they were sucked into another loop, she and Alan have had the chance to develop a genuine friendship and shared sense of safety that helps keep them both grounded.

Russian Doll's second chapter suggests that Alan and Nadia's previous experiences have changed them for the better, despite the fact that they have more than earned their right to be in a state of anxiety about their places in the universe. Russian Doll's story is a mind-bending exploration of how the two of them got to be that way in the first place. The show doesn't try to frame its new time-traveling conceit as a surprise, similar to how the new season of Russian Doll doesn't spend as much time reminding you that Nadia is a video game developer. Russian Doll presents the universe as a challenge to both Alan and Nadia to better understand themselves and how they have always been.

Russian Doll thinks that you have consumed enough stories about time travel to know the rules about what people should and shouldn't do if they find themselves transported to the distant past. Season two raises the stakes and puts a unique spin on the genre, by padding its story with a healthy dose of urban legends and batshit left turns that all complement Lyonne's performance as a New Yorker.

One of the larger ideas that shapes Russian Doll's plot is the importance of living in the moment and how important moments from their past are connected to New York's subway system. The absurdity of a time-traveling MTA train guiding people to crucial points in their lives might be enough to derail the entire endeavor, but it works here because of this season's focus on how nonsensical things become important parts of people.

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Russian Doll explores her interiority by way of her mother, Lenora, a paranoid schizophrenic with her own history of moving through the world. The first season of Russian Doll gave us a glimpse of what it was like to be a single mother in the 80s, but the second season is a better look at what it was like. Lyonne and Sevigny bring a raw intensity to the show that feels new despite the fact that we have seen the characters before.

While Russian Doll is taking on a slightly different kind of sci-fi / supernatural trope this season, what is pleasantly surprising is how disinterested the series is in deconstructing said trope outside of a few jokes. Russian Doll knows that you've watched Back to the Future and thought about what investments you'd want to make if you woke up in the past, which is why it spends so much of its time pushing you and its protagonists to think more deeply.

The more you get to know Russian Doll's new mystery, the more satisfying it becomes as it begins to rely on a fuzzy kind of dream logic. The clarity that Nadia and Alan are initially able to see doesn't endure, but it's replaced by a perspective that's far more interesting and leaves open the possibility for even more Russian Doll down the line.

Russian Doll has Annie Murphy, Rebecca Henderson, Waris Ahluwalia, and Lillias White in it. The second season of the show was released on April 20th.