The adoption of Russian children by American parents has played a crucial role in Russian-American relations since 2012, when the Russian Duma, in retaliation for U. S. sanctions imposed upon Russia in the Magnitsky Act, prohibited the U.S. adoption of Russian children. Conversations between officials in the 2016 Trump campaign, his son Don Jr., and Russian operatives - allegedly about the Russians helping Trump in the election in return for Trump's promise to work to end the Magnitsky Act - have been a large part of what the Mueller team has been examining in its investigation of possible collusion between Trump and the Russians in 2016.
The American adoption of a Russian baby in 2008 thus makes a highly timely topic for the 7th episode of The Romanoffs. The American would-be mother, Anka, is cousin to Victoria, mother to the boy with hemophilia and Romanov descendant we got to know in the superb previous episode in Mexico City. Anka and her husband Joe are thrilled when they first arrive in Vladivostok (end of the Trans-Siberian Railroad, and hence the name of the episode). But the euphoria soon turns to despair, anger, and discord, when the couple discover that the baby they came to adopt may be suffering from fetal alcohol syndrome. The aftermath contains some of the most searing dialogue of the series (which is saying a lot), when Joe, for example, tells Anka that she came to Russia to adopt a white baby because she was too snobbish and racist to adopt a healthy black baby in L.A.
There is a clever, happy end of sorts - I won't tell you what it is - but it's truthfully a little hard to feel happy after all the ugliness and insecurities of the human soul bared earlier. Excellent acting by Annet Mahendru (Nina from The Americans) as the Russian broker, and Kathryn Hahn and Jay R. Ferguson as the adoptive parents. And kudos to Matthew Wiener for putting together a series of episodes with a common thread as different from one another as episodes you might see in seven different series.
Next week is the season one finale.
See also: The Romanoffs 1.1: The Violet Hour: Compelling, Anti-Binge Watchable Comedy of Manners ... The Romanoffs 1.2: The Royal We: A Walk on the Dark Side ... The Romanoffs 1.3: House of Special Purpose: Ghost Story ... The Romanoffs 1.4: Expectation: Unfulfilled ... The Romanoffs 1.5: Bright and High Circle: Music and Abuse ... The Romanoffs 1.6: Panorama: The Royal Disease ... The Romanoffs 1.8: The One that Holds Everything: Writer on a Train
It all starts in the hot summer of 1960, when Marilyn walks off the set
of The Misfits and begins to hear a haunting song in her head,
"Goodbye Norma Jean" ...
1 comment:
It was a great episode.
The husband not believing his heartless wife, and the wife not believing his inconviniently charitable husband.
It really pictures well the situation nowadays with the pseudo-feminist movements supporting various things and making audacious statements.
I loved the husband expression in the end.
That was the last thing the episode shows you.
One could even say that was the true ending.
I only wish they hadn't portrayed Russia so badly. It made me constantly worry about wether that was USAs faulty perception or actual situation of the country.
Post a Comment