I don't know enough about British history to understand where Victoria is in her life plans and expectations. She has been queen such a short time. Is it necessary for her to marry right now. Maybe it is. This whole episode would lead us to believe that the world is desperate to get her hooked up with someone, anyone. Just so it's a man who can get her under control and direct the kingdom. It is becoming more and more obvious that Lord Melbourne is not a possibility--mostly by his own choice. There is a ball where King Leopoldo of Belgium, her uncle, tries to intimidate her into marrying his son. The Russian is there. Also, Albert is becoming a possibility, but Victoria has met him before and found him incredibly dull. As all this is going on, we find out about the Chartists, who are demonstrating, at the risk of their lives, to try to get a vote for everyone. What happens at Brocket Hall has made Victoria's life much more complicated.
4 Reviews
Midget rocks.
gkeith_123 January 2017
Warning: Spoilers
Spoilers.
Midget Queen Victoria tells the men a thing or two. She is tired of her uncle telling her what to do. She tells uncle to buzz off. How dare she get a husband just so he can rule her life? Besides, she is attracted to Lord Melbourne, and tells him so. He majorly rejects her. She is shattered and heartbroken. Again, she tells a man what she thinks, but he has demurred out of a set of vague and murky reasons.
She keeps being bombarded by so-called worthy and eligible bachelors. She is not interested in any of them. What to do? What to do? People keep mentioning Albert. Victoria finally sees him, and apparently is smitten. Is this the guy she later marries and with whom she has nine children? Apparently so. It isn't a life with Lord Melbourne, but what the hey?
Sir John is still an idiot. Victoria is able to get rid of him.
Victoria even buys new clothes for her poverty-stricken mother.
Remember, Queen Victoria's story is way more important than that of Downton Abbey. Downton was only about a poor-as-heck English lord who lives off the fortune of his American wife.
Victoria is about the queen of England who had an over 60 year reign. Take that, King of the Crawleys. You don't even have six pence to have your shoes shined.
Besides, Downton has enough of the downstairs intrigues that I don't need to see repeated in the new Victoria series.
Victoria's downstairs staff has similar villains and heroes to Downton Abbey. There is the man in red who wants to rule everybody. You can never compare him to Mr. Carson. Then, there is the dark-haired woman with a nephew going to capital punishment. Is she the Mrs. Hughes here? Or is she the Crawley downstairs villainess, who conspired with the bad guy to cause trouble?
Victoria's mother: get a life. You can do better than Sir John.
Uncle Leopold: you are an obnoxious moron.
Midget Queen Victoria tells the men a thing or two. She is tired of her uncle telling her what to do. She tells uncle to buzz off. How dare she get a husband just so he can rule her life? Besides, she is attracted to Lord Melbourne, and tells him so. He majorly rejects her. She is shattered and heartbroken. Again, she tells a man what she thinks, but he has demurred out of a set of vague and murky reasons.
She keeps being bombarded by so-called worthy and eligible bachelors. She is not interested in any of them. What to do? What to do? People keep mentioning Albert. Victoria finally sees him, and apparently is smitten. Is this the guy she later marries and with whom she has nine children? Apparently so. It isn't a life with Lord Melbourne, but what the hey?
Sir John is still an idiot. Victoria is able to get rid of him.
Victoria even buys new clothes for her poverty-stricken mother.
Remember, Queen Victoria's story is way more important than that of Downton Abbey. Downton was only about a poor-as-heck English lord who lives off the fortune of his American wife.
Victoria is about the queen of England who had an over 60 year reign. Take that, King of the Crawleys. You don't even have six pence to have your shoes shined.
Besides, Downton has enough of the downstairs intrigues that I don't need to see repeated in the new Victoria series.
Victoria's downstairs staff has similar villains and heroes to Downton Abbey. There is the man in red who wants to rule everybody. You can never compare him to Mr. Carson. Then, there is the dark-haired woman with a nephew going to capital punishment. Is she the Mrs. Hughes here? Or is she the Crawley downstairs villainess, who conspired with the bad guy to cause trouble?
Victoria's mother: get a life. You can do better than Sir John.
Uncle Leopold: you are an obnoxious moron.
Rufus Sewell is an absolute artist
rjmeredith338229 August 2023
Warning: Spoilers
There is the scene at Brocket Hall where Victoria unburdens her heart and reveals that she loves Lord Melbourne (Rufus Sewell), and he gently, carefully lets her down. Sewell plays this so masterfully and emotionally, it truly gripped me. I love it when the actor is able to enter so deeply into their character that you feel what they feel. This series has not disappointed. The interpersonal relationships of the main and secondary chapters is moving in perfect harmony with what I know of the time period. The coldness and ruthlessness of her mother and Sir John make me shudder. I have not seen any anachronisms creeping in, a weakness of period pieces that ruin them.
Brocket Hall
Prismark1016 October 2016
So far detractors have been circling around Victoria being critical of her youth her height, her inexperience to be a monarch. Still there is the fictional relationship with Gladstone, her rock which has kept viewers satisfied.
However it is not to last, we know Albert is around the corner. Well in Germany actually. Victoria has learned fast and decided to isolate those who are an obstacle. She will dispatch Conroy to Ireland with a fancy title and an annuity which is essentially a bribe.
However there are other pompous people about like King Leopold who wants Victoria to be matched with his nephew so his influence can criss cross Europe by a grand alliance of marriage between different monarchs. Albert (Tom Hughes) is someone who met Victoria when they were children. He is not the only suitor as other aristocrats view Victoria as a catch, the certainty to rule with her a mighty empire, more then adequate compensation for her lack of height.
However how the ordinary people live is not forgotten. Albert certainly has not, he wants to see what ordinary life in England is like and whether the populist would revolt. The Chartist rising will is brutally met by Melbourne. Victoria's dresser Jenkins is from the same Welsh village as some of the Chartist who are to be executed. Victoria decides to be more lenient.
Third episode in and despite being pretty to look at, almost Mills and Boons romance, I have to regard the series as a load of old tosh far departed from the real life of Queen Victoria. This is a fictional re-imagining and future episodes will have to be assessed in that regards. Just hope the script improves.
However it is not to last, we know Albert is around the corner. Well in Germany actually. Victoria has learned fast and decided to isolate those who are an obstacle. She will dispatch Conroy to Ireland with a fancy title and an annuity which is essentially a bribe.
However there are other pompous people about like King Leopold who wants Victoria to be matched with his nephew so his influence can criss cross Europe by a grand alliance of marriage between different monarchs. Albert (Tom Hughes) is someone who met Victoria when they were children. He is not the only suitor as other aristocrats view Victoria as a catch, the certainty to rule with her a mighty empire, more then adequate compensation for her lack of height.
However how the ordinary people live is not forgotten. Albert certainly has not, he wants to see what ordinary life in England is like and whether the populist would revolt. The Chartist rising will is brutally met by Melbourne. Victoria's dresser Jenkins is from the same Welsh village as some of the Chartist who are to be executed. Victoria decides to be more lenient.
Third episode in and despite being pretty to look at, almost Mills and Boons romance, I have to regard the series as a load of old tosh far departed from the real life of Queen Victoria. This is a fictional re-imagining and future episodes will have to be assessed in that regards. Just hope the script improves.
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