Re-living the city: The urban time-loop of Russian Doll

Abstract This article discusses the first season of the television series Russian Doll (2019–), analyzing its time-loop structure through a narratological lens with focus on the significance of its setting to the narrative’s overall message on social connection in the city. The narrative’s chronotope of urban space and repetitive temporality works to reflect the internal struggles of its two protagonists (Natasha Lyonne and Charlie Barnett), but also a contemporary collective trauma and inability to imagine a different future – a narrative mode that Gomel and Karti Shemtov (2018) term “limbotopia”. However, Russian Doll is ultimately optimistic, allowing its protagonists to break out of their limbotopic time loops and move towards a transformative conclusion of regained hope for the future. The narrative device of the time loop pushes the characters to immerse themselves in their space: joining other people in the city and creating a community.