IR TV Review: A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW - EPISODE 1 (“A Master Of Circumstance”) [Showtime/Paramount+]
The essence of loyalty and pride plays a distinct role in the essence of Count Rostov in "A Gentleman In Moscow". Set in the aftermath of the revolution of 1918 in Russia, the aristocracy was taken to task by the common man. Lenin's name is mention but it is the hate and frustration of those placing these orligarchs away is what leads eventually to the Communist regime. One evil begets another and back and forth. Ewan McGregor plays Rostov with a lightness but also an optimism as he is sentenced the entire of the rest of his life at the Hotel Metropol, not in his former suite he occupied after his house burned down but a small room upstairs for the servants.
In Episode 1 entitled "A Master Of Circumstance"), Rostov is given that room but still has avail of the restaurant and its bar (a suspect luxury) but one he doesn't allow to get him down. After the initial intent sets in, it is about seeing that the hotel is just a way for the party to spy on its inhabitants to get more intel. Rostov is befriended by Nina (Alexa Goodhall), a young girl left to her own devices while her father, a general, takes care of business elsewhere. She becomes his key to the hotel in many ways. The death of Rostov's sister but also his diversion with his former best friend at the same time plays into both his decision to stay in the hotel but also the way he lives his life.
When one of his friends Prince Nickolai (Paul Ready) visits the hotrel as a music player, stripped of his stature, one sees the hurt but also the knowledge that others (including Rostov's grandmother) have escaped and are in exile, waiting for some degree of perspective. Beyond the style, the music in the series really gives it a sense of romanticism and foreboding at the same time. No one is safe but the balance between decorum and revolution is slight. As the manager of the hotel tells Rostov, The Metropol is dangerous, especially for Rostov, which is also an interesting parallel as McGregor played the grown up Danny Torrance in "Doctor Sleep" where a hotel also determined his fate. B+
By Tim Wassberg
