Victoria double-bill
Victoria 1.5 An Ordinary Woman
I watched this the night after it aired and for REASONS lost the notes I’d written, so of course I’m convinced they were witty and insightful, but (oh the hardship) I decided it was best to rewatch the episode to prod my memory, but I only got around to it last night.
On the downstairs stuff, Eve Myles’s face notwithstanding as Mrs Jenkins enjoyed finding out about Penge’s love life with the German dresser, I don’t care about the attempt to make him more sympathetic, though I was amused by some of his lines the second time around. I wasn’t much feeling Skerrit’s angst either, tbh, she’s got a good job. The chef seemed to be guilty of slightly less emotional blackmail.
Oh, and I only realised with this episode that Peter ‘To The Manor Born’ Bowles has been playing Wellington (quite the grump this episode) and that Sandra Goldbacher, who directed the previous episode (and Me Without You, which is 15 years old, yikes), directed this, and I wanted to praise the use of candlelight in the final scene.
But to the beginning, and Victoria just wanted to lose herself in the romance of it all, but Albert needed his position sorted. And again he was being pressured by his uncle Leopold (who would, ironically, be a big reason why Albert would get a lower allowance and there’d be resistance to the marriage. ‘Charity work’.)
Then we intercut between Germany, where Albert was doing (presumably historically accurate) fencing, and England, where Victoria was starting to learn that men can be cads and inventing the modern wedding. I did think that Ernest really hadn’t been paying attention to what his brother was like or that he was pretty head over heels with his fiancee with taking him to a brothel the night before Alfred left for his wedding. Minor tension as Victoria learned that even her father had feet of clay and Albert retired to a bedroom with a whore, but Albert passed the test and one hopes that Gretchen did them the kindness of sharing her top tips out of respect.
It was made clear that Victoria (and Albert) were reacting against what had come before in the propriety that would become codified as Victorianism. (That’s pretentious, but I hope you know what I mean.)
We had another reminder that Albert has abandonment issues, and why he’ll have a soft spot for his aunt/mother-in-law.
So they were both wound up to a high pitch by the time Albert returned, although SRSLY he was expecting a seat in the House of Lords??? Cue a spat and they let the sun go down on their quarrel. Fortunately, Lord M’s relationship counselling service - main advice: don’t do what we did in my marriage - was on hand so that Victoria could do a dash (heh) through what I thought were smoke machines, but then realised were wee fires, to have it out with Albert. Aww.
Oh, I heard what you did with the music at the wedding ceremony, show.
The final scene with Lord M was lovely - you felt he deserved the acknowledgement in an episode where Sewell again played him struggling for ironic detachment, but mainly doing the right thing. And it ended with Victoria running away from him - to her husband, to her future and HANDS in the carriage. (This episode featured lots of swoony material I expect to see in vids set to music I won’t like.)
Victoria is going to have a second series - will we see Jenna Coleman transform into Judi Dench? Will the Beeb put Poldark up against it?
1.6 The Queen’s Husband
Time for my casting flail: Mr Collins (1995 flavour) is playing the Duke of Sussex!!!! This makes all the P&P borrowings even more amusing.
And the honeymoon is over, but the Baroness had better get used to the changes in the bedroom.
Victoria hadn’t really considered children? Weren’t heirs part of the reason she was being pushed to get married? (I am blasé about it because history tells me it’ll be fine.)
Lots of nineteenth-century racism on display - apparently the sickness round Skerrit’s patch was suffering cholera was because of foreigners. Basically this, the anti-German attitude and the anti-slavery stuff lands very differently now to when envisaged when written, I think.
The plan to find Albert an appropriate consort shaped niche was foiled at the first attempt, but he is neither horse nor woman...Cue at least one Princess Diana joke from certain quarters.
But more seriously, although there was a lot of pressure on Albert to give the monarch a baby Victoria is the one who would be pregnant and give birth, so it’s easy enough for him to be broody.
Lord M was giving the newlyweds space. Aww.
Victoria’s code for stuff is so bad (see also her first attempt at telling Lord M she’d got engaged last episode), but jumping 10 times? Not going to work.
On the other hand, she did the right thing in acknowledging Sussex’s wife, elevating her and wanting to meet her - and making her point to Sussex. Didn’t need Lord M to work that out, but didn’t need Albert either.
Albert bonded a little over Shakespeare with his secretary, and then realised perhaps he wasn’t Lord M’s spy, but rather someone who he could respect and work with, who did his duty. Also, it occurred to me that Lord M thought ‘and his German is good so that’ll help Albert’ when appointing him.
Mr Chef, I don’t think that your protection is much better than Victoria’s, and your going to Seven Dials could bring the whole royal household down with cholera.
If Ernest’s flirting partner, a married duchess, couldn’t see that seeing the best of him wasn’t dangerous, well...but we were reminded that he was an abandoned son too, now losing his brother. (But riddled with STDs?)
I liked Victoria quickly grasping what the secretay was suggesting to her and giving Albert his moment - getting the accent right must have been a challenge for Hughes.
As it’s not a fairy tale, I guess that it’s okay for Skerritt to give her real name. While the fact that that’s what he wanted is reassuring, his ease of access to her bedroom...Carson would not be impressed.
This entry was originally posted at http://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/254487.html.
I watched this the night after it aired and for REASONS lost the notes I’d written, so of course I’m convinced they were witty and insightful, but (oh the hardship) I decided it was best to rewatch the episode to prod my memory, but I only got around to it last night.
On the downstairs stuff, Eve Myles’s face notwithstanding as Mrs Jenkins enjoyed finding out about Penge’s love life with the German dresser, I don’t care about the attempt to make him more sympathetic, though I was amused by some of his lines the second time around. I wasn’t much feeling Skerrit’s angst either, tbh, she’s got a good job. The chef seemed to be guilty of slightly less emotional blackmail.
Oh, and I only realised with this episode that Peter ‘To The Manor Born’ Bowles has been playing Wellington (quite the grump this episode) and that Sandra Goldbacher, who directed the previous episode (and Me Without You, which is 15 years old, yikes), directed this, and I wanted to praise the use of candlelight in the final scene.
But to the beginning, and Victoria just wanted to lose herself in the romance of it all, but Albert needed his position sorted. And again he was being pressured by his uncle Leopold (who would, ironically, be a big reason why Albert would get a lower allowance and there’d be resistance to the marriage. ‘Charity work’.)
Then we intercut between Germany, where Albert was doing (presumably historically accurate) fencing, and England, where Victoria was starting to learn that men can be cads and inventing the modern wedding. I did think that Ernest really hadn’t been paying attention to what his brother was like or that he was pretty head over heels with his fiancee with taking him to a brothel the night before Alfred left for his wedding. Minor tension as Victoria learned that even her father had feet of clay and Albert retired to a bedroom with a whore, but Albert passed the test and one hopes that Gretchen did them the kindness of sharing her top tips out of respect.
It was made clear that Victoria (and Albert) were reacting against what had come before in the propriety that would become codified as Victorianism. (That’s pretentious, but I hope you know what I mean.)
We had another reminder that Albert has abandonment issues, and why he’ll have a soft spot for his aunt/mother-in-law.
So they were both wound up to a high pitch by the time Albert returned, although SRSLY he was expecting a seat in the House of Lords??? Cue a spat and they let the sun go down on their quarrel. Fortunately, Lord M’s relationship counselling service - main advice: don’t do what we did in my marriage - was on hand so that Victoria could do a dash (heh) through what I thought were smoke machines, but then realised were wee fires, to have it out with Albert. Aww.
Oh, I heard what you did with the music at the wedding ceremony, show.
The final scene with Lord M was lovely - you felt he deserved the acknowledgement in an episode where Sewell again played him struggling for ironic detachment, but mainly doing the right thing. And it ended with Victoria running away from him - to her husband, to her future and HANDS in the carriage. (This episode featured lots of swoony material I expect to see in vids set to music I won’t like.)
Victoria is going to have a second series - will we see Jenna Coleman transform into Judi Dench? Will the Beeb put Poldark up against it?
1.6 The Queen’s Husband
Time for my casting flail: Mr Collins (1995 flavour) is playing the Duke of Sussex!!!! This makes all the P&P borrowings even more amusing.
And the honeymoon is over, but the Baroness had better get used to the changes in the bedroom.
Victoria hadn’t really considered children? Weren’t heirs part of the reason she was being pushed to get married? (I am blasé about it because history tells me it’ll be fine.)
Lots of nineteenth-century racism on display - apparently the sickness round Skerrit’s patch was suffering cholera was because of foreigners. Basically this, the anti-German attitude and the anti-slavery stuff lands very differently now to when envisaged when written, I think.
The plan to find Albert an appropriate consort shaped niche was foiled at the first attempt, but he is neither horse nor woman...Cue at least one Princess Diana joke from certain quarters.
But more seriously, although there was a lot of pressure on Albert to give the monarch a baby Victoria is the one who would be pregnant and give birth, so it’s easy enough for him to be broody.
Lord M was giving the newlyweds space. Aww.
Victoria’s code for stuff is so bad (see also her first attempt at telling Lord M she’d got engaged last episode), but jumping 10 times? Not going to work.
On the other hand, she did the right thing in acknowledging Sussex’s wife, elevating her and wanting to meet her - and making her point to Sussex. Didn’t need Lord M to work that out, but didn’t need Albert either.
Albert bonded a little over Shakespeare with his secretary, and then realised perhaps he wasn’t Lord M’s spy, but rather someone who he could respect and work with, who did his duty. Also, it occurred to me that Lord M thought ‘and his German is good so that’ll help Albert’ when appointing him.
Mr Chef, I don’t think that your protection is much better than Victoria’s, and your going to Seven Dials could bring the whole royal household down with cholera.
If Ernest’s flirting partner, a married duchess, couldn’t see that seeing the best of him wasn’t dangerous, well...but we were reminded that he was an abandoned son too, now losing his brother. (But riddled with STDs?)
I liked Victoria quickly grasping what the secretay was suggesting to her and giving Albert his moment - getting the accent right must have been a challenge for Hughes.
As it’s not a fairy tale, I guess that it’s okay for Skerritt to give her real name. While the fact that that’s what he wanted is reassuring, his ease of access to her bedroom...Carson would not be impressed.
This entry was originally posted at http://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/254487.html.