For a show about a hard-nosed, hard-partying New Yorker who thinks religion is worthless, “Russian Doll” is surprisingly encouraging toward people of faith.
It appears infrequently enough in the dialogue, but religion plays an important role in the popular Netflix show.
Released last month, the comedic drama treats its main character as the title suggests: a layered figure with more to her than meets the eye. The layers represent different timelines, and the show unfolds like a gritty “Groundhog Day,” as a day repeats for the protagonist, ending only when she dies.
Cue the religious themes. As our hero Nadia continually resurrects, the show necessarily deals with questions of belief, goodness, and mortality. Nadia balks at any such moralizing, but she can’t escape it.
In trying to solve her dilemma, she thinks the fact that her friend’s apartment used to be a Jewish school may be part of the key. “Religion is dumb,” she says before her visit. “It’s racist, it’s sexist, there’s no money in it — anymore. Who needs it?”
Nevertheless, she’s desperate for any solution that may pull her from the endless cycle of death and life. When she goes to a local synagogue for help, a rabbi affirms that the apartment is not possessed, but he offers an alternative interpretation.
“Buildings aren’t haunted,” the rabbi says. “People are.” The scene occurs in episode three, a turning point for the series. I won’t explain why, lest I give anything away.
“Russian Doll” is best enjoyed knowing little about it and letting each episode’s surprise ending carry you along. It’s worth watching if you can get past the first two episodes, where Nadia is insufferable and you can’t tell if the plot will keep you in the same monotonous loop where she finds herself.
Nadia never goes back to the synagogue, but the rabbi’s words weigh on the rest of the season: “Turn away from the physical world and toward the spiritual one,” he says. “There is wisdom inaccessible through the intellect. You can only reach it by surrendering, being nothing.”
