The Romanoffs

I didn't see a thread about this. I'm watching the first episode and like all Mathew Weiner material it seems to have excellent character definition and dialog. There are lots of subtitles as it kicks off in Paris. But it is very, very good and I've barely seen any of it. As with Mad Men, every frame shot looks impeccable, and Weiner has a much bigger budget this time around.

From the creator of Mad Men, The Romanoffs is a contemporary anthology series set around the globe featuring eight separate stories about people who believe themselves to be descendants of the Russian royal family. Starring Aaron Eckhart, Diane Lane, Isabelle Huppert, Christina Hendricks, John Slattery, Amanda Peet, Jack Huston, Kathryn Hahn, Noah Wyle, Paul Reiser, Andrew Rannells and more.

 

Rasputin approves.

 

Didn't die easily.

 

Nicholas and Alexandria ( 1971).
Felt a bit sorry for the Romanoffs in this film.

Pop pickers : Paul Ryan " The Day Anastasia Romanoff Died" catchy ditty, wrapped in tragic history.

 

I watched the first episode and i felt that it was a bit underwhelming from Matthew "Mad Men" Weiner. The greedy french girlfriend was a cliché, there was a maid that could speak english but couldn't write in her own language? Come on!

 

As an historical buff who's been reading/watching a lot recently about the last days of Imperial Russia and it's last Tsar/Tsarina, it's hard not to feel very sorry for them, even though much of what happened was ultimately their own fault; you'd be hard-pressed to find a more unsuitable couple than Nicholas and Alexandria as imperious royal rulers, they just weren't suited for such a task, and not willing to realize and/or accept that times were changing and the days of total autocratic rule were over... mind you, if World War I had not happened - or if Nicholas had heeded Rasputin's dire warning and not mobilized the Russian army into that conflict - they likely would have stayed on the throne as mere constitutional monarchs and the Soviet Union would have remained a mere figment of Lenin's fevered imagination in his Swiss exile.

The saddest thing of all regarding Nicholas and Alexandria is that had they not been born into royalty but were mere commoners (so to speak), they likely would have enjoyed a long and happy life together... unlike most royal marriages those days, where people married for mostly dynastic and political reasons, Nicky and Alix were genuinely, passionately, madly in love with each other... it's all very, very sad.

An utterly fascinating period of history, it has to be said... much more interesting than any fiction...

 

Russia very interesting at that time period, you had Skriabin composer working with colored light machines early precursor to psychedelica. Rasputin with super human strength after been poisoned and shot he was ..eventually killed by drowning.

 

The first one was beautifully shot but seemed like it was written by a tenth grader. Why would the lovely Hajar give the sad-sack guy a second look? He was twice her age and gross. Maybe Matthew Weiner should leave his fantasy life out of his work.

 

I thought he died from gunshots?

 

Yes and no. After being poisoned(he did not die) he was then shot, but just to be sure he was thrown in the river.

 

Is it hard to follow if you know nothing of the Romanoffs or Russian history from this time?

 

You don't have to know history but like all Weiner material, the more closely you can pay attention the more you will get out of it. Much of the first episode is spoken in French with subtitles, so it's not something you can watch without paying attention.

 

Can't wait to see who they cast as Noodles.

...not to mention, Roger Ramjet (surely this time around, the production values will be better... )

 

I enjoyed the first 2 episodes. Nothing groundbreaking, just some well-crafted short stories.

 

Watched the first episode and thought it was well written and very well acted. Then found out it was an anthology series. Not sure I’m going to like that.

 

I watched the first two episodes and really enjoyed both. The show is beautifully shot and does have a a bigger budget than what AMC gave Weiner. Looking forward to watching #3 tonight and the rest that follow.

 

Perhaps ironically, I heard about this series last week, and a day later I saw Anastasia on Broadway.

 

As a NYC advertising guy I had really high hopes for this series as I greatly admired Madmen (and I know Weiner was trying to do something completely different). The first episode dragged like nobody's business and the romance seemed highly unlikely. Second episode featured a very unlikeable character who might as well have had a giant arrow painted on his forward toward his inevitable comeuppance. Third episode felt like an weak attempt at a horror story with fairly abominable acting by Christina Hendricks (or you choose, maybe she was just miscast). Either way I'm curious enough to stick with the series, at least for awhile. Problem may be when someone as brilliant as Weiner gets a little too much freedom along with a carte blanche budget.

 

Watched one episode of this but mistakenly picked episode 4 to start with, though I'm guessing it doesn't matter too much! Enjoyed it anyway and will watch the rest.

Spoiler: Episode 4 question

Was the homeless guy really Eddie Van Halen? Looks quite a bit like him to me.

 

I partially agree. I don't think you're doing justice to Weiner's genius. There is tons of depth in these vignettes and the acting and writing is beyond reproach. However, I agree that there is no way for the audience to identify strongly with any of the characters, so each episode is like diving into a different ocean with no landmark, no info about the currents, tides, or clue about what to look for. The common thread that I could understand related to coming to terms with a sense of pride or allegiance toward one's heritage in the modern age, even though any semblance of a shared heritage has been lost in the modern world. This probably derives from Weiner's personal feelings about his own heritage. He's brilliant, but a show that serves as his personal outlet about this theme is probably not the best use of his talents. He's at his best when he lets the audience get deep into the head of a main character or group of characters through an arc of development, and there is no way to do that in Romanoffs.

 

They like to eat salad.

 

Two of the eight episodes were truly great: the horror-tinged one with Christina Hendricks ("House of Special Purpose"), and the one where the couple goes to Vladivostok, Russia, to adopt a baby ("End of the Line").

The rest were mostly just so-so, with "Expectation" being the least interesting by far.

"The Violet Hour" had potential but

Spoiler

the plot-twist of the protagonist and the middle-aged guy falling for each other wasn't very believable, at least not based on how little we were able to see in the one episode.

 

Your two favorites were extremely disturbing. The House of Special Purpose was borderline horror movie as you say, but the real unsettling issue was whether the Hendricks character had lost her mind or if she was just being set up to be driven crazy. You don't quite know what's real in that episode. The End of the Line was even more disturbing. It ended on a solid note, but the twists and turns were so gut-wrenching to get there, it just leaves you feeling unsettled.

I have a funny story about the forth episode, Expectation. First let me say that a lot of what Weiner did in Sopranos and Mad Men was so close to my personal experience in some ways that it gave me a feeling of deja vu. imagine it had this effect on millions of viewers. Anyway, he took the effect to another level with the ending of Expectation.

Spoiler

The protagonist was eating dinner and had horrible stomach pain. She went to the ER and was admitted to the hospital needing gallbladder removal. The show ends as she lies in a hospital bed awaiting surgery the next day. Coincidentally, this exact thing happened to me two months ago, but thanks to Kaiser I was unable to get the surgery the next day after being admitted to the hospital, and the staff couldn't even assure me that I would get surgery the day after that, so I made them release me. Anyway, the point is I had the surgery scheduled for the next day as I was watching this episode late at night. Talk about a deja vu feeling...

 

I think the unsettling nature of those two episodes is partly why they appealed to me. And both leave you with a lot to mull over. (As for the "House of Special Purpose," I kinda lean towards the theory of Hendricks' character being manipulated to be driven crazy so that she delivers the sort of performance the director wants.) Plus, I happened to find both genuinely entertaining and compelling throughout, something I can't necessarily say about most of the other episodes.

That's a crazy story about the parallel between your life and the "Expectation" episode.