Matthew Weiner, the creator of Mad Men , is introducing a new series about people who can all trace their family or believe they can trace their lineage back to the Russian royal family the Romanovs. He created eight stand-alone, 90-minute movies that function as an anthology of stories about family heritage and how things can get messy.
The Hollywood Reporter says that six of the eight episodes were written or co-written by Weiner, and the other two had people from his Mad Men days at the helm. One of the promises that Weiner can certainly deliver is star power, including Christina Hendricks (from Mad Men ), Isabelle Huppert, Aaron Eckhart, John Slattery, Amanda Peet, Kathryn Hahn, Diane Lane, and Noah Wyle, just to name a few.
THR says that The Romanoffs is a difficult series to review as each episode has its own cast and its own strengths and weaknesses. At this point, only three of the episodes have been made available for screening.
Daniel Fienberg says this makes it difficult to make grand statements about the series, but he adds that “nobody can accuse Matthew Weiner of playing it safe.”
“That makes it hard to review The Romanoffs , because each episode offers something different, each has different strengths and flaws and each requires at least some amount of tolerance — be it for quirk, whimsy or pretension; one critic’s can’t-miss gem will be another’s quit-after-10-minutes chore.”
The Romonoffs is fine! Very pretty, great acting, but every (standalone) episode is wayyy too long at 90 minutes a pop. The best one I saw is the third, but that’s literally all I get to say about it, so: https://t.co/mTnlUMLibE
— Caroline Darya Framke (@carolineframke) October 2, 2018
But fans of bingeing might be discouraged as after the first two episodes are released on October 12, there will be a week’s gap per succeeding episode.
Vulture refers to the episodes in The Romanoffs as stories of “white people in decline.” To some extent, the overriding theme is the thought or promise of “royal blood” and the idea of being part of a family of “royals forced to live amongst commoners.”
For each of the characters, just the idea that they are connected to the Romanov family sustains them through rough times, and the idea that they deserve “better” they get allows them to walk with their heads held high, even if the reason turns out to be bunk.
“No matter what misfortune befalls them, they can console themselves that their ancestors were royals; that they ultimately deserve the best life offers; and that the right to rule still runs in their veins, even though their kingdom fell a century ago.”
The first two episodes of The Romanoffs will air on October 12.
