‘Victoria’ returns on ‘Masterpiece,’ spunkier than ever
“Victoria” returns on “Masterpiece” (8 p.m. Sunday, PBS, TV-PG) with the queen (Jenna Coleman) fresh from childbirth. She’s a little too fresh for her courtiers, who insist that she be carried around like an invalid and undergo a church ceremony to welcome her back to a cleansed state of sanctity after the ordeal of pregnancy and all of the carnality that contributed to it.
Tom Hughes returns as the queen’s rather studly consort, Prince Albert, and Rufus Sewell is back as Lord Melbourne, the prime minister and mentor to the young queen. Diana Rigg (“Game of Thrones,” “The Avengers”) joins the proceedings as the Duchess of Buccleuch, the “Mistress of the Robes” and a fount of experience and sage advice.
The first season of “Victoria” attracted a large audience for “Masterpiece,” the biggest since “Downton Abbey.” But like the first installment, this season of “Victoria” arrives on the heels of Netflix’s “The Crown,” a lavishly mounted and spectacularly expensive production. It’s simply unfair to compare the two. Budget aside, “The Crown” does try to hew closely to the history and the attitudes of its time. That’s what makes it interesting.
Rather than reflect the repressive 19th-century mores that were hallmarks of the so-called “Victorian” era, Coleman’s queen is shot through with “you go girl” gumption. She’s spunky, forthright and frank, as if she were the queen of California. This is the American Girl Doll version of history.
MORE ROYALTY
While we’re on the subject of royals, “The Coronation” (8 p.m. Sunday, Smithsonian) glances back at the 1953 Buckingham Palace ceremony that anointed Queen Elizabeth II. The special includes an interview with the queen, who recalls her ceremony as well as the 1937 coronation of her father, King George VI.
MESSY ‘DIVORCE’
“Divorce” (10 p.m. Sunday, HBO, TV-MA) returns for a second season. A slice of upper-middle-class life as unpleasant as the title implies, “Divorce” is very short on laughs.
Having endured the mother of all messy breakups, Frances (Sarah Jessica Parker) and Robert (Thomas Haden Church) meet in a lawyer’s office to sign their divorce papers and then face an awkward trip back to Westchester. On the same commuter train.
“Divorce” does a good job of creating the suffocating atmosphere shared by a divorced couple with shared custody of two high-schoolers and a small group of mutual friends.
Molly Shannon offers sporadic cartoony laughs as Diane, Frances’ neurotic friend whose love-hate relationship with her rich husband resulted in gunfire last season.
Frances is consumed by self-pity while Robert careens from being boring to simply being a jerk. Is their unhappiness well-deserved? Yes. Is it interesting? No. Funny? Never.
It doesn’t help that many of the details of this miserable milieu just ring untrue. During the divorce proceedings, Robert boldly announces that he wants all of the couple’s Eagles records. Not only is this equation of Robert, the straight white sales guy, as an Eagles fan a little on the nose, his sudden deal-breaking desire for some old LPs seems a decade or two out of date. Sad to say, folks who grooved to “Witchy Woman” on vinyl are closer to grandparent status now. It’s the little things that make or break a series. And a lot of little things add up to make this HBO comedy thoroughly skippable.
TITANS VS. PATRIOTS
Look for tonight’s NFL playoff game between the Tennessee Titans and New England Patriots (8 p.m., CBS) to grab the lion’s share of the broadcast television audience. So far this century, the AFC playoffs have been the Tom Brady show. The veteran quarterback and Coach Bill Belichick have led the New England franchise to the playoffs with frightening consistency, missing postseason play only three times since 2000.
While it’s slightly absurd to compare a team to a TV show, the era of the Patriots’ dominance has outlasted the reign of “CSI,” “American Idol” and other TV hits of the current century. Perhaps the best TV comparison is “Survivor,” on CBS since 2000. “Survivor” is also an apt name for Brady, a 40-year-old quarterback who shows little sign of aging as he tries to win his unprecedented sixth Super Bowl ring, all with the same team.
Contact Kevin McDonough at kevin.tvguy@gmail.com.