Russian Doll Season 2 Casting Hints More Time With The Troubled Vulvokov Family
Netflix's Russian Doll season 2 will take even longer to come out thanks to the Coronavirus pandemic, but the show's casting also hints at more time with Nadia Vulvokov's troubled family. The darkly sarcastic and intricately existential dramedy centers around the aforementioned main character (played by Natasha Lyonne) and the exasperating Groundhog Day-esque, time-repeating loop she's stuck in after dying on her 36th birthday. And though the show certainly channels the sort of archetype Lyonne is known to play so well, which is ostensibly tough and unimpressed, it also offers a deep dive into psychology, trauma, and how people can "stay in loops" until they go back and finally address pieces of their pasts that never correctly healed.
When linear time stops working for Nadia's character in Russian Doll, she's finally able to embark on some much-needed introspection. And one highly influential component of her personal story is her mother, Lenora (Chloë Sevigny), who died when she was a child. She's shown to have lived with severe, unspecified mental health conditions and been unstable as a parent. And she died after losing custody of Nadia, something the grief-stricken daughter never truly forgave herself for, always carrying guilt that wasn't hers to bear. Nadia's inward journey to heal her younger self and reevaluate her life finally comes to an end when she and her fellow death-repeater, Alan (Charlie Barnett), save each others' lives, in different ways, during the finale. But, in season 2, there will clearly be a new path to follow Nadia on. And it's looking like the memory of her mother will, once again, be a vital piece of it--and maybe even more prominently featured.
In 2020, Sevigny told Digital Spy regarding the plan for Lenora's character in Russian Doll's season 2: "Well, the character comes back more. It still has…'abstract' is not the word. There are some situations where…There is more time-traveling, maybe." And this is certainly the right direction for the show to head in. After season 1's conclusion, Nadia has a new level of self-awareness, as well as a better understanding of the world, the human condition, and how it all fits together into one beautifully messy work of art. With both her character and the audience armed with all of this, the show can continue to lean into its deeply psychological and philosophical elements. And, though the show is very complex, and there is certainly a lot that makes it work, those aspects are crucial to what makes it stand out from most other series in the past few years.
Sorting through Nadia's many layers (she is clearly the metaphorical "Russian doll") was a beautiful, on-screen character deconstruction of sorts. In her Digital Spy interview, Sevigny said of Lyonne's performance in season 1, "People always see her as this brash New Yorker who's smoking and... And the moments where she's vulnerable on the show – I was in tears every time I was watching it. I think she doesn't get enough credit for her performance in those moments." Sevigny is right, which is why introducing more of Nadia and Lenora's complicated, painful, and immensely important relationship can be used to showcase some of that very vulnerability. Which, coupled with Nadia's dry, sharp sense of humor and outwardly tough demeanor, fleshes out a truly three-dimensional, resonant character.
Although Lenora's looming ghost is a major part of the show, viewers still don't learn a great deal about her in season 1. The audience does see some of her tragic behavior and knows about her heartbreaking, early demise, but there's still a lot to learn about her and how she's informed Nadia's character within the context of Russian Doll. The series could also use increased screentime for Sevigny's portrayal to give even more of an honest, empathetic look at the reality of living with mental health conditions and their impact on the loved ones of those dealing with them. Whatever route the Netflix show decides to take in season 2, it looks like it will feature more of Nadia's late mother, and (hopefully) more of its nuanced, layered material that so aptly lives up to the show's name.