Ah shit, how haven't I posted about this yet? I can't recall a more-hyped television series (Matthew Weiner does feature-lenth episodes in an anthology format!) that was met with less acclaim and regard. To illustrate it - I'm compiling year-end critical top ten (or twenty, or thirty, or whatever) lists and I've tracked down 67 of them. The average list is just under 20 shows long, and yes, I'm including honorable mentions. There are, weirdly, exactly 200 unique shows listed across those 67 lists. I think you can see where I'm heading here, but yeah, not a single one of the 67 lists includes The Romanoffs. I mean, God - Young Sheldon made someone's list. Suits made someone's list. But Matthew Weiner goes ahead and makes an anthology series of feature-length episodes for Amazon, and the entire world goes, "nah, no thank you."
Here's what you need to know about The Romanoffs. The first episode more or less sets the tone for what you're going to get. I liked it just fine, but it's easily the third-best episode. Then the third episode is an interesting little is-it-or-isn't-it-psychological-horror thing carried by Christina Hendricks, and it's easily the second-best episode. Then the seventh episode is an absolute doozy, a real delight, a total "strangers in a strange land" scenario with Kathryn Hahn and Jay R. Ferguson trying to adopt a baby from Russia as they're escorted around - "handled," really - by none other than Nina from The Americans.
The other five episodes range from forgettable to bad. Get ready for Season 2!
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