Victoria on PBS Masterpiece January 15th

melissatrv

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Feb 8, 2009
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I know a lot of us like these period dramas - this one on young Queen Victoria

The seven-episode drama follows Victoria (Jenna Coleman) from the time she becomes Queen in 1837 at the age of 18 through her relationship with Lord Melbourne (Rufus Sewell), her first prime minister and intimate friend, and her courtship and marriage to Prince Albert (Tom Hughes).

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/victoria/victoria-on-masterpiece.html

 
The casting makes her look gorgeous. She was tiny in her youth, but not Hollywood beautiful. I find it distracting. Like what else are they exaggerating.
 
Just the other day I was yelling at my TV--"why no more Masterpiece stuff?" (seriously, I was cleaning out my DVR lists and yelled at it) and then I saw a commercial for this show. I will be watching.
 
This looks like it is going to be very interesting. I have always thought Rufus Sewell (Lord Melbourne) to be such a great actor. He can jump from roles playing dastardly villains or the good guy without missing a beat.
 
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I had mixed feelings about this. Victoria's relationship with Melbourne was more of a father-daughter. His greatest achievement, according to historians, was not what he did as PM, which was not a whole lot, but his mentoring of Victoria. Once she married Albert, that role went to him. I did think it interesting that they included the Lady Flora episode because that is not as much discussed as her ladies-in-waiting debacle. They are portraying her unreadiness to rule pretty well and that was totally due to her upbringing by her mother and Conroy who wanted to control her. I hope they show more of her uncle Cumberland who was a total sleezeball. The British public was pretty vocal at that time and newspaper cartoons were ruthless. I think they are going to show her ups and downs because it is good drama.
 
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I thought it was a bit slow and didn't move smoothly at times. These side stories (rats, gloves, candles) were distracting. I understand that they were trying to get across the corruption and waste in her household but I got the gist of that after the very first storyline featuring the gloves was shown.
 
I thought it was a bit slow and didn't move smoothly at times. These side stories (rats, gloves, candles) were distracting. I understand that they were trying to get across the corruption and waste in her household but I got the gist of that after the very first storyline featuring the gloves was shown.
I agree and I thought it bordered on the ridiculous. The petty thievery may have been part of the staff life, but the rats were ridiculous. The side story with the maid/hairdresser and the chef was out there too and just padding for the series. Victoria should have had a proper ladies maid at this point and not some part timer from the household staff.
 
I'm more mad there were no commercials LOL

I enjoyed it and I liked how petty she was toward her mom lol
She was smart enough to realize that she was not being given the kind of education required for a future ruler. Even in Henry VIII's day, Elizabeth who was not expected to rule, received through grounding in languages, history etc. If her mother really had her best interests at heart, she would have been well educated instead of being brought up to rely on her mother and Conroy. This was all deliberate and was called the "Kensington System."
 
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I had mixed feelings about this. Victoria's relationship with Melbourne was more of a father-daughter. His greatest achievement, according to historians, was not what he did as PM, which was not a whole lot, but his mentoring of Victoria. Once she married Albert, that role went to him. I did think it interesting that they included the Lady Flora episode because that is not as much discussed as her ladies-in-waiting debacle. They are portraying her unreadiness to rule pretty well and that was totally due to her upbringing by her mother and Conroy who wanted to control her. I hope they show more of her uncle Cumberland who was a total sleezeball. The British public was pretty vocal at that time and newspaper cartoons were ruthless. I think they are going to show her ups and downs because it is good drama.
I chalk it up to historical license.... Overall, I liked it a lot.