Originally published in the Summer Issue 2020.
When was the last time you did something truly selfless? Even if you’re sacrificing something for another person, you could still be motivated by wanting them to like you, or for them to think that you’re a good person. What if you knew that whatever you did, nobody would remember it tomorrow? Would you still act in the interest of other people? Or purely for yourself? This is the premise of the film Groundhog Day. Phil Connors is an inconsiderate jerk, but after reliving the same day over and over again, he learns to care about others. As specific as this premise sounds, it has actually become a common trope, seen in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Doctor Who, and even The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. My two favourite examples of this trope in TV are the episode ‘Mystery Spot’ from season three of Supernatural, and the show Russian Doll, both of which utilise it in entirely different ways.
Supernatural has not been a good show for a very long time, but those first five seasons told a compelling story with interesting characters. As some backstory for those of you who aren’t Supernatural apologists, protagonists Dean and Sam are monster hunters.
Up to this episode, the brothers have been ignoring the fact that Dean has less than a year to live after making a deal with a demon. Over the course of the time loop, instead of following in Phil’s footsteps and becoming compassionate, he needs to be taught his own limitations. As satisfying as the final time loop in Groundhog Day is, where Phil has touched the lives of everyone in town knowing that they won’t remember it tomorrow, that conclusion of his arc would be ridiculous in a single episode forty minute. One of the best parts of a TV show is watching somebody grow and progress over time. Going from a nightmare to a saint over the course of forty minutes would not be emotionally impactful. Instead, it would be painfully saccharine and the kind of unrealistic that’s intolerable, even on a show where the King of Hell complains about stains on his rug. Instead of this foundational change, a trickster god has taken it upon himself to ‘help’ Sam deal with his feelings regarding his brother’s upcoming demise – by making him watch as his brother dies again and again and again. Groundhog Day is better for the lack of an explanation, but in an on-going universe in which the unexplainable happens all the time, not explaining the loop just feels lazy.
It’s a running joke now that the brother’s keep trading their lives back and forth for each other, but this episode came at a time in the show when the idea of Sam losing his brother still had impact. Though it’s funny to watch Dean die by a poisoned taco or from falling in the shower, the best Supernatural episodes combined humour with emotional weight. The final twist in the format is that once Sam makes it to a new day, his brother dies again, and he spends the next six months (and next five minutes of screentime) mourning and trying to find a way to go back in time. There are a lot of differences between Mystery Spot and Groundhog Day. One is forty minutes long and a small part of an overarching narrative, set in a world where the paranormal is everyday, and whose tone is regularly quite dark. The other is more than twice that length and comprises both the beginning and end of its’ characters’ stories, set in our own world with a mostly comedic tone. Still, by adapting the trope to fit the medium and story, it can work.
Russian Doll plays with the trope over a whole series. The protagonists, Nadia and Alan, are both struggling with different things, but they get stuck in the same time loop before they’re aware that the other exists. At over three hours in total, this is a great way to keep the viewer interested in a trope they might already be familiar with. The two meet when they both get stuck in a rapidly dropping lift and realise how calm the other is. Nadia has a similar arc to Phil in that she must overcome her self-serving nature, though we learn more about how she became this person, while Alan is incredibly insecure. The more we see the two react, the more similar they reveal themselves to be. They both focus far too much on themselves because they don’t want to get hurt. For Nadia, this fear manifests itself most clearly in her love life, as she spends time with married men and obvious jerks, cutting off relationships when things become serious. Alan, on the other hand, has been dating the same woman for nearly ten years, but he’s not happy either. She’s been cheating on him and putting off breaking up with him because she’s afraid of what he’d do without her. When he is introduced we see that he has been going through the motions in his loop, changing very little. With his influence, Nadia learns to act for others, and with her he learns to act, full stop. There’s something very powerful about taking this trope in which a character learns to care about others and adding a second party who will also remember everything that’s happened. They both have someone who can point out their patterns and ask more of them. At the same time, they both have somebody whose feelings need to be considered, as shared memories now exist between them. Phil is alone in a way that they, together, aren’t, and this makes sense for the overarching story being told. As much as Russian Doll is about redemption and positive growth, it also takes great pains to establish the weight that the past will always carry.
One thing the show addresses that Supernatural and Groundhog Day don’t really touch on is the loops they have left as a consequence. Nadia has to grapple with the fact that her aunt has mourned her again and again. This fits with the story being told, where there is more of a focus on how Nadia and Alan became the people they are, compared to Phil in the original film, for whom this is not a concern. Nadia’s complex relationship with her mother growing up does not mean that her actions have any less impact on others, just as jumping to another reality and reliving the same day doesn’t make her loved ones left behind in the previous realities grieve any less. As concerned as Russian Doll is with forgiveness and redemption, the writers also stress that these things don’t mean a clean slate. Nadia and Alan’s pasts, while helping to explain their actions, don’t excuse them, and while it’s clear that they’re good people, we aren’t asked to forget their mistakes. This makes the ending all the more satisfying, as we know the work they’ve had to undertake to face the final loop.
The Groundhog Day trope is ultimately about growth, which is why we keep seeing it again and again on TV. We can all relate to making mistakes and striving to be better, but we also know how easy it is to fall into old habits. The idea that we could have the space to fail again and again without anyone remembering until we get it right is comforting, while the premise of living the same day over and over again has the potential for incredibly dark complexity. At the end of the day, this trope reminds us of the impact our actions have on other people, and that while it’s hard, that we should always strive to be better people, and be selfless.When was the last time you did something truly selfless?
