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shallownessI was going to wait until I was caught up with Victoria to post these, but have changed my mind, as it might become an epic, epic post by the time I did catch up. After the reviews, I am not feeling enthused about going to see Victoria and Abdul (or American Assassin either, even though there was a catnippy helicopter in the trailer).
Victoria 2.1
Afghanistan, knife crime, domestic abuse, being a working mother…but it’s still prime 9 o’clock on a Sunday night period drama Victoria (with a bigger budget than the last series given the scope of some scenes?)
Motherhood brought Victoria a new way of stopping her from walking down the stairs, but understandably she wasn’t having any of it. There was just a bit of a hint that Albert was enjoying taking over a little too much while also worrying about her, although for a man of science, that seemed like a lot of mollycoddling. No wonder she uttered gubbins about snazzy uniforms and charming officers when the mens weren’t letting her know the truth about how things were going in Afghanistan (badly).
I was as irate as her at the suggestion that she needed to be purified since giving birth.
Downstairs, no moustache, no Mrs Jenkins. Huh to the latter. The new cook needed to learn the relative importance of Dash in the royal household fast (and also that attacking humans with a knife is bad, too). And then it turned out he needed to learn to cook and there was another dog in the palace. (The rival dogs somehow did not become a plotline.)
So Victoria didn’t know about the Harriet/Ernst situation.
Sympathy switched between Victoria and Albert (mentioning Lord M being a red button for him), while she obviously felt she was being made to fight old battles.
Enter DIANA RIGG, elevating the material, which is often just a touch too crowd-pleasing.
Albert needed Ernst to point out why Victoria was so angry. Ernst as marriage counsellor is funny, given the eyes he was making at Harriet. We finally met her husband, and he was a stodge.
And Albert’s father is beyond vulgar. It might help Albert if he got rid of him, Uncle Leopold and all their ‘suggestions’.
The moustache was so cross with ‘Mrs’ ‘Skerrit’ that he wouldn’t come back (aren’t there other chefs in London, Liesen?) Fortunately, Lord Whoever had a brother who was essentially the Moustache’s employer, so Francatelli’s visions of freedom could be dashed from him so that he can have mildly unsatisfactory UST with Skerrit.
But Victoria was a good queen in extremis. And Albert made a dash to see her at it, and she apologised (not so much for chucking things at him), and all was right for now. But that was a bit of retconning from Victoria, who married for love, yes, but the match was totally arranged by their family. (And didn’t she arrange marriages for all her children? And wasn’t she less pretty than Jenna Colman is?)
Albert is such an overachiever, composing here, fashion designing there.
[Sorry, not sorry for all the uses of ‘dash’ as a verb.]
Victoria 2.2 The Green-Eyed Monster
This felt like a more normal episode, with Victoria having FEELINGS about the pregnancy she couldn’t deny any more, being an ignoramus, having everyone tell her what to do when she was Queen etc. etc. Lady Lovelace was pretty and clever and the viewers swooned because Lord M was back.
Lady of the Robes DIANA RIGG’s niece Wilhelmina is taken by Ernst (oh dear) and his angsty piano playing.
Skerrit had her first skirmish with Penge over her deputy because the show has remembered his characterisation, and she had far from her last skirmish with a moody moustache, and some urchin was wandering around the palace. (My first Carson would never… of the season.)
Liesen failed to teach Victoria biology AND maths. Oh dear.
I had forgotten that Ada Lovelace was Lord Byron’s daughter (oh dear…)
Albert’s father is AWFUL.
Even if the African American actor playing Othello was historical, not subtle show. (How many Shakespearian roles has Rigg played? She isn’t being subtle either, but her sheer gusto is magnificent.)
The show decided to make the most of Rufus Sewell being in this episode by turning Lord M into this week’s marriage counsellor, which was awkward, but he did the decent thing despite Leopold. Every time I see leeches in historical dramas, I am inwardly screaming ‘Bad idea!’
Is the urchin a cross-dresser, though?
A nice moment when Albert was the one playing the piano angstily and Ernst duetted with him. I think that Albert and Victoria talking (instead of arguing) might make for a healthier relationship, and stopping the pattern of their only doing so in the last scene of the episode might make for a better episode.
Victoria 2.1
Afghanistan, knife crime, domestic abuse, being a working mother…but it’s still prime 9 o’clock on a Sunday night period drama Victoria (with a bigger budget than the last series given the scope of some scenes?)
Motherhood brought Victoria a new way of stopping her from walking down the stairs, but understandably she wasn’t having any of it. There was just a bit of a hint that Albert was enjoying taking over a little too much while also worrying about her, although for a man of science, that seemed like a lot of mollycoddling. No wonder she uttered gubbins about snazzy uniforms and charming officers when the mens weren’t letting her know the truth about how things were going in Afghanistan (badly).
I was as irate as her at the suggestion that she needed to be purified since giving birth.
Downstairs, no moustache, no Mrs Jenkins. Huh to the latter. The new cook needed to learn the relative importance of Dash in the royal household fast (and also that attacking humans with a knife is bad, too). And then it turned out he needed to learn to cook and there was another dog in the palace. (The rival dogs somehow did not become a plotline.)
So Victoria didn’t know about the Harriet/Ernst situation.
Sympathy switched between Victoria and Albert (mentioning Lord M being a red button for him), while she obviously felt she was being made to fight old battles.
Enter DIANA RIGG, elevating the material, which is often just a touch too crowd-pleasing.
Albert needed Ernst to point out why Victoria was so angry. Ernst as marriage counsellor is funny, given the eyes he was making at Harriet. We finally met her husband, and he was a stodge.
And Albert’s father is beyond vulgar. It might help Albert if he got rid of him, Uncle Leopold and all their ‘suggestions’.
The moustache was so cross with ‘Mrs’ ‘Skerrit’ that he wouldn’t come back (aren’t there other chefs in London, Liesen?) Fortunately, Lord Whoever had a brother who was essentially the Moustache’s employer, so Francatelli’s visions of freedom could be dashed from him so that he can have mildly unsatisfactory UST with Skerrit.
But Victoria was a good queen in extremis. And Albert made a dash to see her at it, and she apologised (not so much for chucking things at him), and all was right for now. But that was a bit of retconning from Victoria, who married for love, yes, but the match was totally arranged by their family. (And didn’t she arrange marriages for all her children? And wasn’t she less pretty than Jenna Colman is?)
Albert is such an overachiever, composing here, fashion designing there.
[Sorry, not sorry for all the uses of ‘dash’ as a verb.]
Victoria 2.2 The Green-Eyed Monster
This felt like a more normal episode, with Victoria having FEELINGS about the pregnancy she couldn’t deny any more, being an ignoramus, having everyone tell her what to do when she was Queen etc. etc. Lady Lovelace was pretty and clever and the viewers swooned because Lord M was back.
Lady of the Robes DIANA RIGG’s niece Wilhelmina is taken by Ernst (oh dear) and his angsty piano playing.
Skerrit had her first skirmish with Penge over her deputy because the show has remembered his characterisation, and she had far from her last skirmish with a moody moustache, and some urchin was wandering around the palace. (My first Carson would never… of the season.)
Liesen failed to teach Victoria biology AND maths. Oh dear.
I had forgotten that Ada Lovelace was Lord Byron’s daughter (oh dear…)
Albert’s father is AWFUL.
Even if the African American actor playing Othello was historical, not subtle show. (How many Shakespearian roles has Rigg played? She isn’t being subtle either, but her sheer gusto is magnificent.)
The show decided to make the most of Rufus Sewell being in this episode by turning Lord M into this week’s marriage counsellor, which was awkward, but he did the decent thing despite Leopold. Every time I see leeches in historical dramas, I am inwardly screaming ‘Bad idea!’
Is the urchin a cross-dresser, though?
A nice moment when Albert was the one playing the piano angstily and Ernst duetted with him. I think that Albert and Victoria talking (instead of arguing) might make for a healthier relationship, and stopping the pattern of their only doing so in the last scene of the episode might make for a better episode.
