Victoria

          Queen Victoria is possibly one of the most-known monarch’s in history.  That’s probably because she reigned for so long and wore mourning dress for the rest of her life after her husband died, which was decades.  Her early years I have not heard as much about, which is part of the reason why I found the idea of the show Victoria so fascinating.  It follows the early years of Victoria’s reign and her marriage to Prince Albert.  What we learn is that pretty much everything is anything but smooth.    

                The king has died and a messenger has arrived at the home of a young Alexandrina (Jenna Coleman) to let her know she is now queen.  One of the first things Alexandrina must decide is what she will call herself.  Her mother, the Duchess of Kent (Catherine Flemming), and her mother’s friend, Sir John Conroy (Paul Rhys), are willing to “help” Alexandrina make this decision, whether she likes it or not.  Her actual name of Alexandrina is turned down as sounding too foreign, and for some reason Sir Conroy does not like the name Victoria (which is Alexandrina’s middle name).  He decides that Elizabeth is the name to go with, so Alexandrina goes with Victoria.  Why she does this, I’m not sure, but part of it may have been in defiance.  Victoria does not like Conroy at all, and she is not particularly fond of her mother either.  That is why Victoria is not exactly pleased when both of them assume that Conroy is going to be her secretary.  They believe that with him as secretary, they will be able to control Victoria and have her do their bidding.  Boy, are they wrong.  Even though Victoria is only eighteen, she knows what she wants, and it isn’t them.  That’s why when Prime Minister Lord Melbourne (Rufus Sewell) offers to be her secretary, it does not take long for Victoria to agree.

                Very quickly a close relationship forms between Victoria and Lord Melbourne.  It becomes so close that some speculate that something other than political discussion is happening between them.  These people would be right.  Slowly, as Lord Melbourne helps her acclimate to being queen, Victoria falls in love.  She originally saw Melbourne as a father figure, but as time went on that changed, for Melbourne too.  Being so much older than Victoria, and with their different positions in the world, Melbourne knows a romantic relationship between them will not work.  He does his best to separate himself from Victoria, but she is determined and persistent, always finding some way to bring him back to her.  The only solution that will finally separate themselves from each other, and get the other politicians off her back, is for Victoria to marry.  They just have to find the right person.

                While more than one man is put in front of her, the one Victoria has the most antipathy for is her cousin, Prince Albert (Tom Hughes).  To be honest, Albert is not exactly fond of Victoria either.  They don’t agree on much of anything, including how to spend one’s free time.  Both of them take cuts at each other when they can, yet somehow they manage to fall in love.  Madly in love, which makes their scheming uncle, who put the match together, very happy.

                After she is married, the concentration of everyone around Victoria is that she must create an heir.  This is something Victoria is perfectly happy to put off.  She wants some time alone with Albert and will do anything she can to keep that from changing.  Well, almost anything, because it isn’t long before Victoria is expecting her first child.

                Being pregnant does not sit will with Victoria.  From practically the start her mother wants her to be in bed and do nothing.  Then, as the pregnancy goes on, Victoria gets fed up with everyone only ever worrying about the baby’s well-being, never hers.  This only alleviates somewhat when there is an assassination attempt on her life, and Albert realizes again how important Victoria is to him.  Unfortunately, this new-found appreciation does not take away Victoria’s fear of childbirth.  The only reason she is queen, after all, is because someone else died doing the same thing.

                To make matters worse for Victoria, Albert isn’t very helpful during the pregnancy.  Instead, he tries to take over Victoria’s duties without asking her.  Other duties he tries to take away from people Victoria has assigned them to.  Again, he does this without asking Victoria, and then sulks when he does not get his way.  In all honestly, Albert does a lot of sulking.  From the very start of their marriage he does this, because he does not get that no matter how much he wants her to, Victoria cannot just declare things.  There is a Parliament that everything needs to go through as well.  If Albert were to just exercise some patience, Victoria would figure out how to get Albert what he wants.  She does pretty much every time, even while fighting the politicians over their distrust of Albert because he is German.

                Below stairs there is a lot going on as well.  Victoria has put her German governess, Baroness Lehzen (Daniela Holtz), in charge of the household staff.  This does not go well, because not only do some of the staff not trust Germans, but more than one member is pilfering things from the estate and selling them on the street.  New workers are also joining the household, and not necessarily to the warmest of welcomes.  The most notable is Miss Skerrett (Nell Hudson), a new dresser for Victoria.  The appearance of Miss Skerrett does not go over well with Victoria’s original dresser, Mrs. Jenkins (Eve Myles).  She wants nothing to do with Miss Skerrett, until one day Miss Skerrett steps in when a situation with Baroness Lehzen arises, and keeps Mrs. Jenkins out of trouble.  From them on Mrs. Jenkins feels Miss Skerrett can be trusted, which makes things go much smoother for her.  That does not mean Miss Skerrett does not still find herself caught between a rock and a hard place at times, because she does, even when it comes to falling in love. 

                Throughout this first season I felt so badly for Victoria.  She has to deal with a lot of creepy people who either don’t want her to be queen or think she can’t handle it, if not both.  The thing is, all of the people with these opinions are spouting them without really knowing Victoria.  Despite her young age, Victoria is extremely strategic.  Yes, she can be impetuous or impulsive at times, which usually gets her into trouble, but most often she has a plan in place which leads her to getting what she wants.  Except for everyone commenting about how short she is.  That one Victoria still has not figured out how to get people to stop doing.

                While I felt badly for Victoria, Albert drove me crazy.  He did so much sulking and pouting when things did not go his way.  Then he took it out on Victoria as though somehow it was always her fault.  In many ways Albert used Victoria’s love for him against her.  He used it as a manipulation tool to get her to do something for him either by professing his own love or dismissing hers, and taking away his, entirely.  As the series goes on, I can only hope his behavior improves, but I am doubtful.

                Something else I hope improves is the relationship between Miss Skerrett and the chef, Francatelli (Ferdinand Kingsley).  They had a really sweet relationship going (although, I’ll be honest, I kept waiting for Francatelli to turn into a bad guy, as so often happens in these stories), but someone got into Miss Skerrett’s head.  Now they are apart, and I can only hope that somehow they find each other again.               

                I am really curious to see how far this show is going to go.  The first season ended with the birth of Victoria’s and Albert’s first child.  I already mentioned that Victoria spends decades in mourning after Albert’s death.  It will be interesting to see if the show goes that far in the story, or possibly even further, because truly, after Albert’s death, there is still a lot of story left to be told.