The Long Wait For Russian Doll Season 2 Is Finally Coming To An End

It's been over two years since "Russian Doll" first premiered on Netflix with its eight-episode original season. The series was created by Natasha Lyonne, Leslye Headland, and Amy Poehler; it follows Lyonne's main character, Nadia Vulvokov, who gets stuck in a time loop that sends her back to the night of her 36th birthday party at a friend's apartment. The series throws itself into similar territory to a movie classic like "Groundhog Day," as well as more recent films like the "Happy Death Day" horror-slasher movies and 2020's romantic comedy "Palm Springs."  

In "Russian Doll" Season 1, Nadia eventually meets Alan Zaveri (Charlie Barnett), who also experiences the time loop due to his own death. The pair work together throughout the season to discover why they've been stuck in the time loop and resolve to help prevent their original deaths in order to escape it, all the while their universes grow more and more unstable each time they die. A simple time-loop story at first glance, "Russian Doll" opens up into a surreal adventure that explores topics like substance abuse and mental illness; it forces its main characters to learn to care more for themselves in order to escape their wild predicament. According to Variety, Netflix picked up the series for a second season in June 2019 due to near-universal critical acclaim and high popularity among audiences, too. The show's first season holds a 97% critical score on Rotten Tomatoes, with 86% of audiences on average enjoying "Russian Doll."

Netflix released a short trailer and date announcement video for "Russian Doll" Season 2, featuring cryptic teases of scenes involving Nadia intercut with a point-of-view shot of a train traveling through a subway tunnel. The trailer flashes between several scenes before settling on an image of a door with a mysterious rip in it, giving way to the trailer's only dialogue.

"When the universe f***s with you ... Let it," says Nadia to a patron at a bar before downing a drink.

Per Netflix, the new season takes place four years after the end of "Russian Doll" Season 1, in which Nadia and Alan prevent each other's deaths in their individual timelines and escape the time loop. The new batch of episodes see Nadia and Alan discover a time portal at an unspecified location in Manhattan that enables them to look further into their pasts, though it's described as "a fate even worse than endless death," via Deadline.

"Russian Doll" Season 2 premieres on Netflix on Wednesday, April 20, giving fans plenty of time to review its eight-episode first season before Nadia and Alan venture through the time portal. The new season of "Russian Doll" consists of seven 30-minute long episodes and will likely serve as a contender come awards season; the first season was nominated for 13 Emmys in 2019 and earned awards for its production design, cinematography, and costume design (via the Emmys).