By Spencer Coile
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I vividly remember watching Mad Men for the first time during my junior year of college, struck by the way Matthew Weiner crafted a series that was cinematic and rich in detail, dialogue, and characters. Since its finale in 2015, I’ve been searching for a series that struck the same chord with me. Enter: The Romanoffs, the new Amazon Prime series from Matthew Weiner. Its premiere was a long time coming, with news, expansive cast announcements, and speculation circulating for years. Would Weiner capture lightning in a bottle again?
As it turns out, The Romanoffs is an anthology series, where each episode presents a new story about people who believe themselves to be descendants of the slaughtered Romanov family. Based off the first two episodes, it’ll be a globe-trotting series, bouncing across countries, and continents...
In its pilot episode, “The Violet Hour,” we are introduced to Greg (Aaron Eckhart), an American living in Paris who also takes care of his snobby elderly aunt, Anushka (Marthe Keller). Anushka takes great pride in her lineage, announcing herself to be a direct heir to the Romanovs. Her lavish Parisian apartment reflects her wealth and status, to the chagrin of Greg’s girlfriend Sophie, (Louise Bourgoin), who is waiting for the fateful day that Greg will inherit it...
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Complicating matters is nursing student Hajar (Ines Melab), who is hired to take care of Anushka. Extremely proud and incredibly racist, Anushka is initially prickly saying “Take your bombs and go home. I need a caregiver and not a terrorist.” But “The Violet Hour” follows a very traditional trajectory – the racial tension subsides as Anushka and Hajar form a meaningful relationship, potentially thwarting Greg and Sophie’s plans to move into Anushka’s upscale apartment.
The premise behind The Romanoffs is somewhat lost in “The Violet Hour.” The show's opening credits feature a stylistic slaughtering the family scored byTom Petty's "Refugee" and it slowly morphs into modern day. But aside from a quick conversation between Anushka and Hajar about Anushka’s background, the significance of the Romanov family to the series is easy to miss in the first episode.
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The beauty of Mad Men was found in its attention to the minor, seemingly insignificant moments throughout each episode. Sometimes it wasn't until the end of the episode or even the season that we realized how everything clicked together seamlessly. And even then, rewatches were crucial, because there were so many details that might have been missed. In many ways, it feels as though Weiner is trying to make The Romanoffs a larger, even more culturally relevant text than Mad Men. But therein lies the issue. Mad Men meticulous details felt natural while The Romanoffs feels indulgent in comparison. There are truly beautiful moments sprinkled throughout “The Violet Hour,” but considering that 84-minute runtime, the episode runs out of steam well before we reach the anticlimactic conclusion – one that many will spot within the first 15 minutes.
The performances in this first episode are compelling, particularly Keller and Melab, whose chemistry is electric if underexplored. But these characters needed more room to grow. As it is, they remain caricatures. They have motivations but little else. Bourgoin’s Sophie suffers the most from this. She's portrayed as nothing more than a shrill, gold-digging socialite – which sounds like a fun character on paper. But in the actual episode, her role falls flat because there is nothing else there.
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It’s very difficult, as a long-time Mad Men fan, to avoid comparing it to The Romanoffs. I absolutely do not want them to be the same show but, that said, Weiner demonstrated such precision and depth in the past, that I worry he’s losing sight of what made Mad Men such a worthwhile television experience. Despite an extensive running time, this story felt undercooked and the characters were sketches rather than portraits.
Still, I remain optimistic for future episodes, especially with the exhaustive list of incredible actors popping up. Will Weiner stick the landing of this ambitious premise?