No masterpiece, but sure to rule viewers
YOUNG queens – think of them as a way to get your mind off old presidents. Victoria, premiering on Sunday on PBS Masterpiece, stars Jenna Coleman as the teenager who in 1837 became England’s queen for the next six decades. It joins Queen Elizabeth II drama The Crown as yet another escape into the opulent, occasionally melancholy history of British royalty.
Victoria, created and written by Daisy Goodwin, is sure to please public television’s core audience, who are happiest when hoofs clop, gravel crunches and maids curtsy.
Predictable to the bone, Victoria too often feels like a period drama about the making of a period drama, rather than a deep, authentic breath of rarefied air.
To be honest, the excellence of The Crown (which won two Golden Globes last week, including best actress for its star, Claire Foy) pretty much steals most of Victoria’s thunder, while making its weaknesses more apparent. Goodwin delays giving Victoria much of a personality for several episodes, perhaps because the queen herself was such a blank slate at 18. The series opens on the morning she learns that the time has come for her to ascend the throne (she’d been preparing for it most of her young life) and spoiled Victoria impetuously sets about ignoring the advice of her stressed-out mother, the Duchess of Kent (Catherine Flemming) and her scheming adviser, Sir John Conroy (Paul Rhys).
The young queen immediately warms to the country’s prime minister, Lord Melbourne (Rufus Sewell), who carefully teaches and advises Victoria on all the things she doesn’t know. Not only does she depend on him, she develops a serious crush on him – as does the viewer, because Sewell is so much more interesting than anyone in the palace.
The task of pairing Victoria with the perfect spouse takes up the bulk of the first three episodes.
Although Alexander, the future Russian czar, piques her interest, two of Victoria’s first cousins, Albert (Tom Hughes) and Ernest (David Oakes) are brought in to try their luck. Though he feigns disinterest, Albert nevertheless falls for Victoria and she falls for him. – The Washington Post