‘Mad Men’ creator offers up ‘The Romanoffs’

WHAT: “The Romanoffs,” streaming now on Amazon Prime Video

WHAT IT’S ABOUT: This anthology series from Matthew Weiner (his first TV series since “Mad Men”) is based on fictional stories about descendants of the Russian royal lineage, the Romanovs — spelled here “Romanoff,” perhaps to widen that fictional remove. The first episode, “The Violet Hour,” is set in Paris — also largely spoken in French, with subtitles — and is about Anushka (Marthe Keller), a widow with distant Romanoff ties, cared for by her American nephew, Greg (Aaron Eckhart). He hires for her a Muslim housekeeper, Hajar (Inès Melab). His ill-tempered aunt does not approve.

In the second part, “The Royal We,” Michael Romanoff (Corey Stoll) and wife Shelly (Kerry Bishé) are having marital difficulties when he gets called for jury duty, where he meets the alluring Michelle (Janet Montgomery). Shelly, meanwhile, goes on a cruise by herself, where she meets the alluring Ivan (Noah Wyle).

MY SAY: On July 17, 1918, 11 members of the royal family that had ruled Russia for 300 years were shot by the Bolsheviks. But the Romanov line did not end there. By 1920, some 35 members of the extended Romanov family had survived, and many managed to get out of Russia. Thousands (or hundreds? accounts differ) of their descendants are alive today.

All of which is interesting, but why base an anthology series on their fictional counterparts? Because as “Mad Men” fans already know, they would seem to embrace any number of Matthew Weiner obsessions — how the past informs the present; how humans seek meaning where there is none; how people embroider their personal histories to elevate themselves or hide from themselves. Don Draper, anyone?

And with something so inescapably exotic and tragic as the Romanov history, there must be a lot of stories, even fictional ones. With “The Romanoffs” as proof, there are, but like any anthology series, you also have to take the good with the bad. The two-part launch last week manages both extremes.

“The Violet Hour” is transgressive to the extent that it’s really a period piece set in present-day Paris, with the sort of screwball romantic payoff you’d expect from some congenial and antiquated TCM movie. In the Paris of “Hour,” there’s a bitter divide between the French native born and Middle Easterners and North Africans, some of whom, like Hajar, are native born, too.

“The Royal We” is absorbing in parts, and funny in parts as well, at least during a cruise where Shelly sees the eccentric Romanoffs at play. (The great John Slattery of “Mad Men” gets a nice, too-brief close-up.) But while the performances are good, the tone is wildly uneven, the story choppy and the end unsatisfying.

BOTTOM LINE: “The Violet Hour” is an elegant and surprising love story, while “The Royal We” is a sour disappointment. But the best news: A Matthew Weiner show is back on TV.