Spoilers ahead.
It's an interesting coincidence that the recently released second seasons of "Russian Doll" and "Undone," which both premiered in 2019, have essentially the same central conceit. Nadia of "Russian Doll" and Alma of "Undone" both figure out how to time travel to the past by inhabiting other versions of themselves, other people, and their memories. They use this power to try and fix their dysfunctional families, which is a lot harder than it seems initially. Both of these shows are half-hour genre programs centering around interesting, damaged female leads. The second season of "Russian Doll" has seven episodes, and "Undone" has eight.
Nadia spent the first season of "Russian Doll" stuck in time loops of her 36th birthday, but this time she discovers that taking a certain subway train allows her to slip into the existence of her mother in 1982 - when she was pregnant with Nadia. This is a pretty significant departure from the show's original premise, and the execution is very messy. The major characters this time around are really limited to Nadia, her mother, grandmother, and surrogate mother Ruth, who is dying in the present day. All the other friends, exes, and acquaintances from Season One make appearances, but are mostly kept on the sidelines. Alan, who had a parallel story with Nadia's in the first season, is given a new subplot, but it's very underdeveloped.
The season is still very watchable, thanks to the efforts of Natasha Lyonne, Chloe Sevigny, and the rest of the cast. However, the writing feels half hearted. Initially Nadia is obsessed with finding her grandmother's treasured hoard of gold Krugerrands, which were stolen before Nadia was born, and could have made a big difference in the course of her life. The lesson she's meant to learn is obvious almost from the beginning - Nadia has to make peace with her past, and forgive her mother and grandmother for all the hardship that they put her through. Getting to that point involves literally putting herself in their shoes, as Nadia spends some time living out the lives of her mother in 1982, and later her grandmother during WWII.
Part of the issue here is that the rules of the time travel are never clear - Nadia is a victim of existential shenanigans rather than someone with powers she has control over - and the stakes of her quest are muddled. Her goal keeps shifting from one thing to another, but it's never made explicit what's so wrong with Nadia's life that she thinks needs fixing. Someone who hadn't seen the first season, or who hadn't seen it in a while would be left in the dark. The scope of the series remains fairly small, and the production looks good, but it also loses a lot of the nocturnal New York "After Hours" atmosphere that made the first season such a fun, heady watch. This is another case of a great miniseries that should have stayed a miniseries instead of expanding into another season that nobody really seemed that excited about.
However, I can't say that the creators of "Russian Doll" shouldn't have tried to replicate the success of their first season, because "Undone" did the same thing and got it right. In fact, the second season of "Undone" is significantly more entertaining and more fun than the first. Previously, Alma tried to use her reality-bending abilities to jump to different points in her life to prevent the accidental death of her father. This season, she finds herself in a new reality where her father survived, and the timeline adjusted itself to give Alma a much happier present day life. This success spurs Alma to try and help her mother, Camila, and her grandmother, Geraldine (Holley Fain), the same way that she helped her father. This involves a trip to Mexico, and revealing a lot of family secrets.
The biggest difference between "Russian Doll" and "Undone" is that Alma isn't alone in her quest. Her sister, Becca, and her father, Jacob, both have powers that she is constantly pushing them to make more use of. It turns out that Becca can visit people's memories, and is able to bring Alma with her to explore hidden parts of their family history. The consequences impact everyone's relationships, and this is thoroughly explored over the course of the season. It never feels like this is just Alma's story, and the show works much better as an ensemble. In the first season, the narrative was constantly getting stuck in Alma's head and stymied by her personal struggles. This year, all of that has been chucked out so we can focus on untangling the complicated mess of Alma's family tree in a more straightforward fashion. It's a departure from the original premise, but the new material is just as compelling.
I also appreciate that the writing is much more invested in the other characters. I don't think the creators of "Russian Doll" particularly like Nadia's mother Leonora, or want the audience to relate to her much. In "Undone," there's more empathy shown to Camila and Geraldine. Their stories are told more comprehensively, and the characters allowed to be more well-rounded and complete. Becca and Jacob arcs that are satisfying to see unfold and make them more compelling. It's the same with the newly introduced Alejandro (Carlos Santos), a figure from Camila's past. Initially I wasn't going to watch the second season of "Undone," because the first left me pretty ambivalent, but the second was so well done that I'm more inclined to recommend this series as a whole.
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