Russian Doll: Inside the Mind Behind the Mystery
“What, if some day or night, a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: ‘This life, as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh… must return to you—all in the same succession and sequence—even this spider and this moonlight between the trees and even this moment and I myself. The eternal hourglass of existence is turned over again and again—and you with it, speck of dust!’
Friedrich Nietzsche
If you’ve ever stumbled on the stairs and thought ‘that’s me dead in a parallel universe’, then Russian Doll is the show for you! Flame haired genius Natasha Lyonne has created one of the most inventive and intelligent Netflix shows of all time. It’s Groundhog Day with a twist – instead of just waking up to the same situation every day, main character Nadia dies (in various ways) and ends up at her 36th birthday party again, and again, and again. Through this deadly samsara she learns something more about her personal trauma each time, and eventually finds a way out of the death loop. A self-confessed commitment-phobe and misanthropist, Nadia realises she can’t solve this problem alone.
Clues are offered along the way, but this is a show that makes you think for yourself, resisting easy conclusions. While the series explores the idea of the multiverse where each choice leads to a different reality, Nadia could equally have truly died the first time, with the rest of the deaths happening in her head as she’s dying.. (Scary stuff!)
Even more mind bending than the first season, the second go around offers a more deterministic view. No matter how many times you go back and try to change the past, the outcome will always be the same. There is only one future mapped out for everyone that will happen regardless of our choices, meaning free will doesn’t really exist. (Something also explored in Alex Garland‘s excellent sci-fi show Devs.)
Both series are packed full of ideas and references to books, movies and TV, with each re-watch offering something new. Here are some of Russian Doll’s biggest influences..
I Am A Strange Loop by Douglas Hofstadter
According to Lyonne, I Am A Strange Loop was required reading for the first season’s writers room. The title derives from the mathematical idea of the strange loop – a phenomenon in which, whenever movement is made upwards or downwards through the levels of some hierarchical system, the system unexpectedly arrives back where it started. Hofstadter proposes that ‘the key to understanding selves and consciousness is the strange loop – a special kind of abstract feedback loop inhabiting our brains.’
The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli
This book was added to the writers room reading list for season 2. Theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli examines the nature of time itself. Described as a ‘worthy heir to Stephen Hawking’, Rovelli covers the theory of relativity, space-time, loop quantum gravity, and thermodynamics. Light reading, then!
Demian by Hermann Hesse
In the second season, we see a young Nadia reading Demian on the train. Hesse’s novel tells the story of Emil Sinclair, a young boy raised in a middle class home, amidst what is described as a Scheinwelt, a play on words meaning “world of light” as well as “world of illusion”. Sinclair’s entire existence can be summarised as a struggle between two worlds: the show world of illusion (related to the Hindu concept of maya) and the real world, the world of spiritual truth. Accompanied and prompted by his mysterious classmate and friend Max Demian, he detaches from and revolts against the superficial ideals of the world of appearances and eventually awakens into a realisation of self.
Lyonne also stated on Twitter that this is the one book she would recommend to young people.
Emily of New Moon by Lucy Maud Montgomery
“Everybody loves Anne. But I like Emily. She’s DARK!”
Emily of New Moon by Anne of Green Gables author Lucy Maud Montgomery is a key influence throughout the first season. Similar to the Green Gables series, the Emily novels depict life through the eyes of a young orgphan girl, Emily Byrd Starr, who is raised by her relatives after her father dies of tuberculosis.
Both stories deal with childhood trauma. Vox writer Constance Grady suggests that ‘Emily offers Nadia an avatar for herself, a way to think through what happened to her without it hurting too much. Which is why it’s only when Nadia fully embraces the idea of a heroic Emily […] that she is able to begin to let go of her guilt over what happened to her mother, and finally close the loop.”
Jodorowsky’s Dune
Perhaps not a major influence, but another example of Lyonne’s cinephile credentials. ‘Jodorowsky’s Dune‘ is mentioned as the password of drug dealer War Dog’s secret underground bar. This critically acclaimed documentary from 2013 explores Alejandro Jodorowsky’s unsuccessful attempt to adapt and film Frank Herbert’s 1965 sci-fi novel Dune in the 1970s. Variety called it a ‘mind-blowing cult movie’.
The Game
“This is like The Game. I’m Michael Douglas!“
Here Nadia is referencing David Fincher’s film The Game. A wealthy investment banker (played by Michael Douglas) is given a mysterious birthday gift by his brother – participation in a game that infiltrates his every day life in strange ways. As the lines between the banker’s real life and the game become more uncertain, hints of a larger conspiracy begin to unfold.
Fincher has stated that the film is about “loss of control. The purpose of The Game is to take your greatest fear, put it this close to your face and say ‘There, you’re still alive. It’s all right.'”
Watch Russian Doll on Netflix here.
