Epic Victoria post is epic
May. 13th, 2019 07:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallowness3.5 A Show of Unity
Oh dear, we’re on to Ireland and Victoria’s understanding thereof, as helped by Bolshier Voice of the People that is Not!Skerrit. Ah well, it takes us and Duchess Not!Diana and her awful husband to meet Lady P, as Victoria realised how awful the Duke of Monmouth was and we all learned that the Palmerstons had an open marriage and seemed to make it work for them.
Feodora continued to suck up to Albert with no-one noticing, questions arose about Bertie’s new tutor but she didn’t notice, proving her sound judgment by ordering wine for brekkie for her kids.
Victoria and Albert took their tensions with them on their trip, so there was no good time for her to tell him she was pregnant. Again. But I liked that he took her to see the empty village for herself, and I loved her riding habit, the colour, but also the hat she wore. He got mad and outplayed by Palmerston, while she took counsel and pulled off some symbolic politicking. But this meant that she had to tell him about the latest pregnancy while he was being self-recriminatory and sturm-und-drangy about having high-handedly hired the bad tutor.
Lawrence Fox continues to have a whale of a time.
3.6 A Coburg Quartet (watched a few weeks later after the previous episode, so I caught up on the next two episodes over the last week and watched the finale live.)
A whole pregnancy later and Uncle Leopold has turned up, having somehow failed to get to know ‘neighbour’ Feodora over the ears, although they didn’t seem to develop any tension there. Feodora was instead busy stirring with Palmerston and making everything a mildly irritated Victoria did seem like POST-NATAL PSYCHOSIS.
Albert’s quip about being an elderly father of seven would have worked better had Tom Hughes looked a day older than he did in those flashback scenes. All that’s changed since season 1 is the servants have fewer plotlines, which is not necessarily a bad thing.
The shilling (but not decimalisation) and intrusion of royal privacy by the press were invented. Vicky was still looking like the better future monarch, while her brother was being Just Bertie – and the likeness of daughter to father and son to mother was made. Heh.
Who’d be a duchess? Pressure from her footman to not let what happened in Ireland stay there, while her husband (channelling Richard Roxborough in Moulin Rouge!) still thought Palmerston was the other party and wanted to humiliate her at the Queen’s ball. Averted, by antagonising him.
Meanwhile, Victoria got properly irritated by Feodora and finally noticed all her stirring, mainly as directed at Bertie. However, her ‘just knowing’ that phrenology was spurious, even if later historically accurate made me roll my eyes. I know, they were pushing emotion (Victoria and Bertie) vs. rationality (Albert) all episode.
I was mildly concerned that Vicky and Bertie would chance upon the extramarital shenanigans, but Emma was on the case.
Victoria finally turned on Feodora, who let her see her resentment, even if Victoria failed to get Albert to see the truth about her half-sister.
Leopold made what ought to be an useful intervention to Albert over Bertie, and there was a real shift of power as Palmerson gave V useful advice, while Prime Minister Whoever continued to be inappropriately snarky. (Backed up by the incident with the mouse, although I’d have sacked their nanny by that point.)
Victoria tried to stand up to Feodora, but couldn’t even send her home and realised too late that she’d lost Albert to her (half-)sister’s scheming. Shame Hughes wasn’t a bit more still when the focus was on her after their fight, but her claims to Bertie that love never dies were a touch heartbreaking.
The Duke finally realised where his wife’s affections/attentions lay. Loved her gown in the Christening scene the most, BTW.
If I were Victoria, I’d invite Feodora’s hated husband over, myself.
3.7 A Public Inconvenience
Poor Victoria, wandering around like a ghost in her own life, with more than her nose out of joint. At least Albert had his enthusiasm over his great exhibition, and a blindspot as to why Feodora irritated V.
Penge’s irritation with Joseph led to him…spending his afternoon/day off not being scrupulous. How many pieces of silver were in that purse?
I know she’s been barred from spending much time with her son, but is Duchess Sophie seriously considering leaving him behind? Monmouth teased the crazy card and then she realised that Joseph had seducing form, so he had to grovel and claim it never meant anything like this. In fairness, his affections do seem sincere.
After letting Palmerston get away with doing what he wanted to in Greece by not asking about the details, Victoria was still a bit vague when she brought him in for a scold, so I didn’t feel like she’d learned her lesson. She was also basically asking everyone for advice on her marriage. Feodora got snarky about her not knowing her niece’s name, but Feodora’s never mentioned anything about her kids for however long it is she’s been in England.
Palmerston got away with it, although I could raise a couple of points of pedantry about his rousing speech.
As the true drama of the episode lay in the state of the royal marriage, the scene where Monmouth made out that his property (wife) was crazy (for cheating on him) and it was only a surprise to naïve Sophie, wasn’t that high impact for me. Albert had reverted to Bohemian storming about in the rain, whereas Victoria had been steered towards Believing in him and loving him for who was, which finally broke through with him.
(I’m fairly sure the army would prefer to be led by someone who had experience.)
You could see him swell. Also, V used Palmerston’s advice for her own purposes, although he eventually realised he’d been giving marital advice.
Bertie is smitten (by his half-first cousin, right?)
Despite the actors giving it a lot of emotion, the last scene between Victoria and Wellington felt a bit forced as we haven’t quite see them develop that relationship. And this would be the time Emma dropped the truth bomb about Melbourne’s seclusion. (Was Victoria older than Wellington when she died?)
But we ended with Victoria and Albert laughing together – been a while, as she hinted at earlier in the episode. He tried to pretend that he hadn’t hurt her badly by not telling her he still loved her before. Yes, she was hearkening back to their first love period, but still, he had pretty much communicated that his love for her had shrivelled last episode.
3.8 The White Elephant
Queen Victoria seemed on the ball in an end-of-the-series way. Where to begin? How my patchy knowledge of history made me tut at Albert and co’s matchmaking (it didn’t stop the first world war, you guys) and wonder when he died. I’m fairly sure Palmerston did make PM, but even if I wasn’t, I would put great store in the fact that his wife had decided to be the prime minister’s wife.
All this had the effect of nixing Feodora’s grand dreams of having an Empress as a daughter and putting her little stepsister in her place. I keep thinking that one of the things Feodora failed to understand was that being Queen by birth is a different kettle of fish to being a Queen by marriage.
Heidi seemed surprisingly nice given that she had an embittered viper of a mother, and her refusal of Bertie hinged around the pertinent fact that he was too young (‘I don’t want your chocolates!’ is hardly a cry to make one change one’s mind and think ‘Mistake! Should have married him.’) And filial obedience.
Bertie’s crush was kind of absurd fun. I’m sure a psychologist would have views on Victoria’s claim that his feelings were too big for his body – I mean, he also has terrible impulse control and I’ve seen little to back up Albert’s claim that he’d make a great king (did he anyway?) I recently realised that the boy playing him and the girl playing Vicky must be related because their faces are so similar.
Costume queries: did Victoria invent pink for girls here, and why should the Prince of Wales be associated with kilts?
Which leads us on to New Skerrit, moonlighting as Victoria’s own private investigator. Everything Victoria did WRT the awful Monmouth was on point. Claiming his wife was mad when she’d been spending time with the queen was never going to wash. He was probably too dense to know that that was a sore point with Victoria, just coasting on a power trip. I liked that Victoria (a good mother again in this episode) also saw the maternal claim on Sophie, which Joseph couldn’t do anything about, while Monmouth had tried to smother it by separating mother and son. Another point that no-one made was that it would surely be better for William to have a non-Monmouth influence in his life. After appreciating after once glance that Sophie had been carrying on with one of her footmen, Victoria made herself the guarantor of Sophie’s liberty.
But it almost looked like Sophie was going to take that liberty and run, and make a fool of her queen.
Penge repented of his unscrupulousness or got over his dislike of Joseph enough (which was not unfounded) to realise Monmouth’s awfulness and refuse to go along with it. Kudos for adding a bit of light and shade to this plotline, although I think Poldark did it better with Morwenna.
But it was mainly about the Great Exhibition and Victoria having to tend to her husband’s need for sleep and food, and tend to his vanity a bit. It all went well, and of course there was the sweet victory of Albert finally seeing the truth about Feodora’s conniving. And for him getting cheered by the crowd thanks to his son. Cue snark about him letting popularity get to his head. But just as it looked like they were going to celebrate, down he fell, and I was left wondering where are servants when you need them?
Oh dear, we’re on to Ireland and Victoria’s understanding thereof, as helped by Bolshier Voice of the People that is Not!Skerrit. Ah well, it takes us and Duchess Not!Diana and her awful husband to meet Lady P, as Victoria realised how awful the Duke of Monmouth was and we all learned that the Palmerstons had an open marriage and seemed to make it work for them.
Feodora continued to suck up to Albert with no-one noticing, questions arose about Bertie’s new tutor but she didn’t notice, proving her sound judgment by ordering wine for brekkie for her kids.
Victoria and Albert took their tensions with them on their trip, so there was no good time for her to tell him she was pregnant. Again. But I liked that he took her to see the empty village for herself, and I loved her riding habit, the colour, but also the hat she wore. He got mad and outplayed by Palmerston, while she took counsel and pulled off some symbolic politicking. But this meant that she had to tell him about the latest pregnancy while he was being self-recriminatory and sturm-und-drangy about having high-handedly hired the bad tutor.
Lawrence Fox continues to have a whale of a time.
3.6 A Coburg Quartet (watched a few weeks later after the previous episode, so I caught up on the next two episodes over the last week and watched the finale live.)
A whole pregnancy later and Uncle Leopold has turned up, having somehow failed to get to know ‘neighbour’ Feodora over the ears, although they didn’t seem to develop any tension there. Feodora was instead busy stirring with Palmerston and making everything a mildly irritated Victoria did seem like POST-NATAL PSYCHOSIS.
Albert’s quip about being an elderly father of seven would have worked better had Tom Hughes looked a day older than he did in those flashback scenes. All that’s changed since season 1 is the servants have fewer plotlines, which is not necessarily a bad thing.
The shilling (but not decimalisation) and intrusion of royal privacy by the press were invented. Vicky was still looking like the better future monarch, while her brother was being Just Bertie – and the likeness of daughter to father and son to mother was made. Heh.
Who’d be a duchess? Pressure from her footman to not let what happened in Ireland stay there, while her husband (channelling Richard Roxborough in Moulin Rouge!) still thought Palmerston was the other party and wanted to humiliate her at the Queen’s ball. Averted, by antagonising him.
Meanwhile, Victoria got properly irritated by Feodora and finally noticed all her stirring, mainly as directed at Bertie. However, her ‘just knowing’ that phrenology was spurious, even if later historically accurate made me roll my eyes. I know, they were pushing emotion (Victoria and Bertie) vs. rationality (Albert) all episode.
I was mildly concerned that Vicky and Bertie would chance upon the extramarital shenanigans, but Emma was on the case.
Victoria finally turned on Feodora, who let her see her resentment, even if Victoria failed to get Albert to see the truth about her half-sister.
Leopold made what ought to be an useful intervention to Albert over Bertie, and there was a real shift of power as Palmerson gave V useful advice, while Prime Minister Whoever continued to be inappropriately snarky. (Backed up by the incident with the mouse, although I’d have sacked their nanny by that point.)
Victoria tried to stand up to Feodora, but couldn’t even send her home and realised too late that she’d lost Albert to her (half-)sister’s scheming. Shame Hughes wasn’t a bit more still when the focus was on her after their fight, but her claims to Bertie that love never dies were a touch heartbreaking.
The Duke finally realised where his wife’s affections/attentions lay. Loved her gown in the Christening scene the most, BTW.
If I were Victoria, I’d invite Feodora’s hated husband over, myself.
3.7 A Public Inconvenience
Poor Victoria, wandering around like a ghost in her own life, with more than her nose out of joint. At least Albert had his enthusiasm over his great exhibition, and a blindspot as to why Feodora irritated V.
Penge’s irritation with Joseph led to him…spending his afternoon/day off not being scrupulous. How many pieces of silver were in that purse?
I know she’s been barred from spending much time with her son, but is Duchess Sophie seriously considering leaving him behind? Monmouth teased the crazy card and then she realised that Joseph had seducing form, so he had to grovel and claim it never meant anything like this. In fairness, his affections do seem sincere.
After letting Palmerston get away with doing what he wanted to in Greece by not asking about the details, Victoria was still a bit vague when she brought him in for a scold, so I didn’t feel like she’d learned her lesson. She was also basically asking everyone for advice on her marriage. Feodora got snarky about her not knowing her niece’s name, but Feodora’s never mentioned anything about her kids for however long it is she’s been in England.
Palmerston got away with it, although I could raise a couple of points of pedantry about his rousing speech.
As the true drama of the episode lay in the state of the royal marriage, the scene where Monmouth made out that his property (wife) was crazy (for cheating on him) and it was only a surprise to naïve Sophie, wasn’t that high impact for me. Albert had reverted to Bohemian storming about in the rain, whereas Victoria had been steered towards Believing in him and loving him for who was, which finally broke through with him.
(I’m fairly sure the army would prefer to be led by someone who had experience.)
You could see him swell. Also, V used Palmerston’s advice for her own purposes, although he eventually realised he’d been giving marital advice.
Bertie is smitten (by his half-first cousin, right?)
Despite the actors giving it a lot of emotion, the last scene between Victoria and Wellington felt a bit forced as we haven’t quite see them develop that relationship. And this would be the time Emma dropped the truth bomb about Melbourne’s seclusion. (Was Victoria older than Wellington when she died?)
But we ended with Victoria and Albert laughing together – been a while, as she hinted at earlier in the episode. He tried to pretend that he hadn’t hurt her badly by not telling her he still loved her before. Yes, she was hearkening back to their first love period, but still, he had pretty much communicated that his love for her had shrivelled last episode.
3.8 The White Elephant
Queen Victoria seemed on the ball in an end-of-the-series way. Where to begin? How my patchy knowledge of history made me tut at Albert and co’s matchmaking (it didn’t stop the first world war, you guys) and wonder when he died. I’m fairly sure Palmerston did make PM, but even if I wasn’t, I would put great store in the fact that his wife had decided to be the prime minister’s wife.
All this had the effect of nixing Feodora’s grand dreams of having an Empress as a daughter and putting her little stepsister in her place. I keep thinking that one of the things Feodora failed to understand was that being Queen by birth is a different kettle of fish to being a Queen by marriage.
Heidi seemed surprisingly nice given that she had an embittered viper of a mother, and her refusal of Bertie hinged around the pertinent fact that he was too young (‘I don’t want your chocolates!’ is hardly a cry to make one change one’s mind and think ‘Mistake! Should have married him.’) And filial obedience.
Bertie’s crush was kind of absurd fun. I’m sure a psychologist would have views on Victoria’s claim that his feelings were too big for his body – I mean, he also has terrible impulse control and I’ve seen little to back up Albert’s claim that he’d make a great king (did he anyway?) I recently realised that the boy playing him and the girl playing Vicky must be related because their faces are so similar.
Costume queries: did Victoria invent pink for girls here, and why should the Prince of Wales be associated with kilts?
Which leads us on to New Skerrit, moonlighting as Victoria’s own private investigator. Everything Victoria did WRT the awful Monmouth was on point. Claiming his wife was mad when she’d been spending time with the queen was never going to wash. He was probably too dense to know that that was a sore point with Victoria, just coasting on a power trip. I liked that Victoria (a good mother again in this episode) also saw the maternal claim on Sophie, which Joseph couldn’t do anything about, while Monmouth had tried to smother it by separating mother and son. Another point that no-one made was that it would surely be better for William to have a non-Monmouth influence in his life. After appreciating after once glance that Sophie had been carrying on with one of her footmen, Victoria made herself the guarantor of Sophie’s liberty.
But it almost looked like Sophie was going to take that liberty and run, and make a fool of her queen.
Penge repented of his unscrupulousness or got over his dislike of Joseph enough (which was not unfounded) to realise Monmouth’s awfulness and refuse to go along with it. Kudos for adding a bit of light and shade to this plotline, although I think Poldark did it better with Morwenna.
But it was mainly about the Great Exhibition and Victoria having to tend to her husband’s need for sleep and food, and tend to his vanity a bit. It all went well, and of course there was the sweet victory of Albert finally seeing the truth about Feodora’s conniving. And for him getting cheered by the crowd thanks to his son. Cue snark about him letting popularity get to his head. But just as it looked like they were going to celebrate, down he fell, and I was left wondering where are servants when you need them?
