--- title: Romanoffs on Amazon Prime: TV Review description: In his anthology series The Romanoffs, Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner dreams up operatic scenarios straight out of classic Russian novels. canonical: https://time.com/5418212/the-romanoffs-amazon-review/ author: Judy Berman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-10-10T14:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T21:40:29.421Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Mad Men's Matthew Weiner Gets Weird in The Romanoffs og:description: The Amazon anthology series packs all the pathos of a classic Russian novel og:url: https://time.com/5418212/the-romanoffs-amazon-review/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5f4a8142b699109a/69893c4497cdff4f5a6b66e3/the-romanoffs-amazon-violet-hour.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: The Romanoffs Amazon Violet Hour TV Show og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Mad Men's Matthew Weiner Gets Weird in The Romanoffs twitter:description: The Amazon anthology series packs all the pathos of a classic Russian novel twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5f4a8142b699109a/69893c4497cdff4f5a6b66e3/the-romanoffs-amazon-violet-hour.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Amazon's _The Romanoffs_ Is an Incredibly Strange Experiment From the Creator of _Mad Men_ > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Judy Berman](https://time.com/author/judy-berman/)  ## Judy Berman TV Critic Oct 10, 2018 2:00 PM UTC  From episode: The Violet Hour From episode: The Violet HourChristopher Raphael–Amazon  by [Judy Berman](https://time.com/author/judy-berman/)  ## Judy Berman TV Critic Oct 10, 2018 2:00 PM UTC In the annals of history, the name “Romanoff” is written in blood. As one character points out in _Mad Men_ creator Matthew Weiner’s odd new Amazon series _The Romanoffs_, if you know one thing about Tsar Nicholas and his family, it’s that Bolsheviks shot them to death in a basement during the aftermath of the Russian Revolution. And if you haven’t heard the story, the show’s pitch black opening credits sequence will catch you up: Clad in ghostly white, the aristocratic clan is massacred, their royal blood staining the dusty wooden floorboards. Yet one girl, presumably the storied Anastasia, escapes—and emerges from the subway a century later, smartphone in hand. The soundtrack: Tom Petty’s “Refugee.” A historical drama about the last days of a dynasty might have been a worthy project for Weiner, one of several powerful men who’ve [recently faced accusations of sexual misconduct](http://time.com/5018277/mad-men-creator-matthew-weiner-sexual-harassment/) and emerged with career intact. But _The Romanoffs_ isn’t a period piece; it’s a narrative experiment in the form of a madcap anthology series that follows characters who claim to be descendants of the tsar. In the premiere, elderly Anushka (Marthe Keller) languishes in a palatial Paris apartment filled with Russian artifacts, while her nephew (Aaron Eckhart) and his nasty girlfriend (Louise Bourgoin) wait for her to die and leave it to him. The second of two episodes that will begin streaming on Oct. 12 (with subsequent installments appearing every Friday) involves a cruise for Romanoff descendants. Each 90-minute installment feels like a standalone movie, allowing Weiner—who directed and co-wrote all eight of them—to test out multiple genres: domestic drama, romantic comedy and, in the best of the three episodes provided for review, a compact psychological thriller starring Christina Hendricks and Isabelle Huppert. Other big names (Diane Lane, Kathryn Hahn, Amanda Peet, Noah Wyle) join _Mad Men_ alums including John Slattery and Cara Buono in the enormous cast. Weiner still has an eye for talented newcomers, too: The young French actress Inès Melab steals the first episode as Anushka’s self-possessed Muslim caregiver. Some typical Weiner themes emerge: family, entitlement, repression, self-creation and self-delusion, the alienation and paralysis that come with obsessing over the past. At times, the show seems to be riffing on epic Russian novels by Tolstoy or Dostoyevsky, throwing characters driven by unruly emotions into plots steeped in infidelity, murder and conspiracy. It can be disorienting to watch contemporary problems crescendo to such operatic climaxes—but, divisive though they’re bound to be, the inconsistency of tone is surely deliberate. Weiner has always had a weird, dark sense of humor: Remember [dead Bert Cooper’s “The Best Things in Life Are Free” dance number](https://youtu.be/FKgPTkIulEI) from _Mad Men_? _The Romanoffs_’ anything-goes storylines give that perversity free reign, with results that range from sublime to irritating. There is a nagging sense of incompleteness about even the best of these stories. The characters are compelling but not quite multidimensional. As riveting as they are in the moment, the episodes’ histrionic conclusions can leave you wondering, “So what?” Watching _The Romanoffs_, I often got the impression that Weiner—who published a novel, _Heather, the Totality_, last year but hasn’t helmed a serialized drama since _Mad Men_ ended in 2015—had purposely avoided making the kind of show that could be compared to his masterwork. Yet none of this makes the show’s stellar performances, sharp dialogue and lush sets any less pleasurable to take in. Will _The Romanoffs_ ever cohere on a thematic level? We won’t know until it’s over, but Weiner certainly has a knack for memorable finales. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5418212/the-romanoffs-amazon-review/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5418212/the-romanoffs-amazon-review/"},"headline":"Amazon's The Romanoffs Is an Incredibly Strange Experiment From the Creator of Mad Men","datePublished":"2018-10-10T14:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T21:40:29.421Z","description":"The Romanoffs isn’t a period piece—it’s a madcap, fascinating yet uneven anthology series that follows contemporary characters who claim to be descendants of the slain Russian royal family.","url":"https://time.com/5418212/the-romanoffs-amazon-review/","keywords":["Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5f4a8142b699109a/69893c4497cdff4f5a6b66e3/the-romanoffs-amazon-violet-hour.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Judy Berman","jobTitle":"TV Critic","url":"https://time.com/author/judy-berman/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5f4a8142b699109a/69893c4497cdff4f5a6b66e3/the-romanoffs-amazon-violet-hour.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"The Romanoffs Amazon Violet Hour TV Show","caption":"From episode: The Violet Hour","creditText":"Christopher Raphael–Amazon","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/television/","name":"Television"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5418212/the-romanoffs-amazon-review/","name":"Amazon's The Romanoffs Is an Incredibly Strange Experiment From the Creator of Mad Men"}}]}] ```