‘Russian Doll’s Original Ending Was Too Close to Another Netflix Show

The reality-bending conclusion of Russian Doll blew the collective minds of audiences when it was revealed that there are alternate planes of reality with multiple Natasha Lyonne’s and Charlie Barnett’s dying and coming back to life. However, this was not the original ending; there were, in fact, several, as the series creator Lesley Headland told Indiewire, but Netflix producers found the ending too similar to another one of their limited series. Ultimately, Headland feels it worked out for the best, with the current ending of Russian Doll being “a gazillion times better.” How these two similar, yet distinctly different series come to similar conclusions necessitating the change lies in the themes of each show.

‘Russian Doll’ and ‘Maniac’ Have Similar Themes

On the surface, Russian Doll and Maniac starring Emma Stone and Jonah Hill seem like very different shows, but they are more similar than you think. Both are about protagonists lacking intimate connections, their loneliness punctuated by destructive behavioral patterns that threaten to be their undoing. Each set of protagonists goes along a similar journey of self-discovery where they learn to connect to and achieve a kind of intimacy with their counterparts as they traverse alternate realities.

In the first episode of Russian Doll, audiences are introduced to Nadia Vulvokov (Natasha Lyonne), the cavalier software engineer who traipses through her friends’ party, smoking, cracking wise, and imbibing a little too much booze and a little too much cannabis. Her connections to her surroundings are surface level, perfectly illustrated when she decides to have sex with a strange man at the party, Mike Kershaw (Jeremy Bobb), a college literature professor with whom Beatrice, Charlie’s (Alan Zaveri) girlfriend (Dascha Polanco) is having an affair. Later, after Nadia realizes she has died and is reliving the same day over and over again, she acknowledges that she remembers having sex with Mike but discloses that she feels empty inside, a churlish barb at Mikes’s sexual bravado and an insight into the void that exists within Nadia. Later, this will be confirmed when Nadia and John (Yul Vazquez) have a post-coital argument where she rebuffs his desire to take their relationship to the next level, prompting him to gather his clothes and leave and tell her that she is, in fact, a void. Nadia is unable to form any real connections due to her traumatic relationship with her mother, Lenora (Chloë Sevigny). Charlie, too, finding himself weak and ineffectual, has trouble forming real connections, most notably the broken one he has with his girlfriend, who cannot seem to take him seriously. Both Nadia and Charlie will find intimacy and connection with one another through their respective journeys through the time loop.

Maniac, too, is about the pain of not being able to form genuine connections with people. Set in a familiar future that seems to be an alternate version of America during the 1980s. The miniseries tells the story of Annie Landsberg (Stone) and Owen Milgrim (Hill), two loners living out their ineffectual lives in urban isolation. In the first episode of the series, as the Narrator tells the audience all about the creation of the universe, he reiterates the importance of connection and the pain of living without it as Annie sips a lonely coffee from a diner. She watches a man desperately trying to converse with the people around him, who refuse to listen as he sighs in painful resignation, succumbing to his loneliness. Annie is lonely, too, sitting there observing, and she walks off by herself. Owen also languishes in isolation as a privileged son of a brilliant doctor. He lives apart from them, determined to make his way in the world, but fails. Unable to accept himself, he believes that he is sick and living with schizophrenia. Both are deeply unhappy and, as a result, volunteer to take part in a pharmaceutical trial conducted by Neberdine Pharmaceutical Biotech, headed by the eccentric Dr. James K. Mantleray (Justin Theroux). As the two endure the mind-bending psychological trial, Annie and Owen form a deep and meaningful connection like Nadia and Charlie do.

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‘Russian Doll’ and ‘Maniac’ Have Similar Character Arcs

So, how could two seemingly different shows arrive at a similar conclusion? The truth is that when it comes to storytelling there is a formula for how it gets told. Typically, a character or set of characters starts in one particular location. In this instance, the location is profound loneliness for Nadia, Charlie, Annie, and Owen. Then an inciting incident occurs, something that forces the characters into the world of the story, something that turns their world upside down. In the case of Russian Doll, this is Nadia’s death and subsequent reincarnation; in Maniac, it is the invitation to the drug trial that drags the reluctant protagonists through the topsy-turvey world of psychological exploration.

Both stories explore the character’s lack of connections by setting them in a mind-bending world of infinite connections and infinite possibilities. Nadia, Charlie, Owen, and Annie will move through the arc from emptiness to meaningful connection by learning to survive in their respective acid-house story worlds. Maniac ends with a reunion between Annie and Owen after they part ways after the more or less botched drug trial, reaffirming the audience’s belief that the lonesome pair have found their catharsis in each other, and this is where the story will end; another season is not needed, but this is not the case for Russian Doll.

‘Russian Doll’ Had a Better Ending After the Rewrite

During the production of the first season of Russian Doll Leslye, Headland told IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast that “There was [concern] over it in the writers room and amongst us of ‘How are we going to end this?’ “What is the thing that connects these two people, and how are we going to stick the landing?” As their work concluded, the producers of Netflix would deal the team a blow, citing that the ending was too much like that of Maniac, which was impressive given that the productions were closed and no one knew about each show’s respective ending. The solution would come when the writing team knuckled down, digging deep into the story and drawing out the particulars of each character, focusing on their uniqueness rather than a catch-all formulaic ending that acted as a type of chicken soup for the audience’s soul. Instead of Nadia and Charlie finding connections with each other and thus concluding the series, in the eighth and final episode, the audience discovers that there are two planes of reality with two identical Nadia and two identical Charlies crossing paths in an emotional climax that references the Tompkins Square Park Riots. The pair are now connected to themselves and history, ensuring that they will be lonely no more but still enticing audiences to watch its second season and be hopeful for Russian Doll’s third.

A good ending provides the audience with a sense of resolution. It’s essential that the characters get what they need or at least what they want, if the ending is to be a happy one. However, a cardinal rule of show business comes into play, which always leaves the audience wanting more. Maniac delivers this to its audience in such a complete way that there is no need for a second season. Still, Russian Doll leaves audiences satisfied but scratching their heads as to what is going on and what this means for Nadia and Charlie. And it’s a good thing, too, because it launched the production of two subsequent seasons of the show, which means fans will get to hang out with their favorite trans-dimensional travelers again, prompting them to ponder the big questions in life, like who we are and what it means to be connected in this big, crazy, crowded albeit sometimes lonely world.

Russian Doll is streaming on Netflix in the U.S.

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