Living a postmodern purgatory: Death anxiety in Russian Doll

Abstract

Research within Terror Management Theory (TMT), an approach established by Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski and Sheldon Solomon, suggests that the widespread current sense of impending doom and its accompanying political limbo is due to a pervasive death anxiety that has been shown to increase bigoted behaviours. This article addresses how the first season of Russian Doll, a Netflix show created by Natasha Lyonne, Leslye Headland and Amy Poehler in 2019, engages with the notion of time loops and multiverses triggered by death and thus imaginatively confronts the audience with mortality and the search for meaning in the face of the inevitable. This article argues that Russian Doll positions a collaborative approach to meaning making in the face of death as a way to overcome the more politically destructive facets of death anxiety. The protagonists cope with their mortality through fostering strong, positive relationships and overcoming their unresolved emotional issues, thereby creating meaningful lives for themselves.