‘The Artist’ is a starry, oddball comedy-mystery

Historical characters do ahistorical things in this Gilded Age-set free streaming show.

- ROBERT LLOYD

ZACHARY QUINTO is among the ace cast of Aram Rappaport's "The Artist."

(The Network)

The first, or maybe the second thing to be said about "The Artist," a sixpart comedy written and directed by Aram Rappaport, is that it streams from the Network, a free ad-supported streaming service Rappaport created to release his previous series, "The Green Veil. The first three episodes premiere Thursday; the concluding three are due at Christmastime.

The second, or maybe the first thing to say about it is that it comes pulling a tramload of heavy talent - including Mandy Patinkin, Janet McTeer, Danny Huston, Hank Azaria, Patty Lupone, Zachary Quinto - which begs for it to be taken seriously, though that might not be the best way to take it.

Set in 1906, peopled with ahistorical versions of historical figures, the series is set largely in and around the Rhode Island "country home" of Norman Henry (Patinkin), identified by a title card as "an eccentric robber baron," and seemingly what we'd call a venture capitalist today. (And one seemingly in need of capital.) Norman begins the series dead, carried out rolled in a carpet and set on fire like a Viking, before we skip back in time, meeting his wife, Marian (McTeer), who narrates from her journal and advises "the reader" that it is only on the final page that "you might be well enough equipped to tell fact from fiction, hero from villain." I've seen only the first three episodes, so I have no idea, apart from where the story misrepresents its real-life characters. But that's just poetic license and, of course, perfectly acceptable.