Sunday, April 24, 2022

What I’m Watching: Russian Doll

Russian Doll: Season 2, Episode 2 “Coney Island Baby” (B+)

It’s interesting to see how Nadia is taking advantage of her ability to travel back to the present to help her get important information, though she’s also seeing the drawbacks to getting on the subway and missing time in the past. Bragging that she could use the World Wide Web, a concept that sounded crazy to anyone listening in 1982, to do in one night what one man could do for her in two to three weeks was indeed productive in finding Chez, who seemed to be very much the same man four decades later, albeit a bit less optimistic about his future. Talking about the idea of a Coney Island didn’t hit Nadia well, and she still seems fervently intent on correcting the past. What she doesn’t seem to see, and which is likely the case, is that events may correct themselves, and just as she was stuck in a time loop before, she may now be fated to try and change the past with no hope of ever doing so. Finding out that, after she tracked him down, Chez had already given her the coins back the night before led her to a series of unsuccessful attempts to get them back, only to lose them on the subway at the end of the episode after she finally found them. I was pleased to see Annie Murphy from “Schitt’s Creek” and “Kevin Can F**k Himself” as young Ruth, who seems to be the best possible influence for the wayward Nora in 1982, and we also got a glimpse of Alan on his own train, though it remains to be seen whether his reflection will also be unrecognizable to Nadia.

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