If you follow me on social media you know I am much more of a movie person than TV. I prefer the brevity of a movie with 2 hours of a story and then I’m done and can move on with my life. So if I stick with a television show for an entire season it is pretty compelling. If I watch it for multiple seasons than you know I love it. Well, I just finished season 3 of the PBS show Victoria, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Victoria consists of 8 episodes each season and tells the story of Queen Victoria beginning when she assumes rule at 18 in 1838 and her marriage with Prince Albert in 1840. Victoria and Albert were a real love match and had 9 children together.
The show does such a good job capturing the highs and lows of a marriage. Jenna Coleman is fantastic as Victoria and she has such chemistry with Tom Hughes as Albert. She is a strong woman obviously as the queen but he is not without his own source of strength. They feed off each other so well and it feels like they are actually married!
Season 3 starts in 1848 and Victoria is facing a time of upheaval with a group called the Chartists that are seeking better conditions for the working class.Victoria, believing they are a work of peaceful protest wants them to be able to deliver their charter while Lord Palmerston (Laurence Fox) and others are against it. Members of Victoria’s own staff become involved when her handmaid Nancy (Nell Hudson) becomes engaged and then married to the cook Mr Francatelli (Ferdinand Kingsley). I also really enjoyed Abigail Turner as a castle employee (not sure what her role is) who is both intrigued and disappointed by the revolutionaries.
The dreaded cholera comes into play and Prince Albert is very involved with a hotheaded scientist and inventor Henry Cole (David Newman). The Irish famine is ending and people are journeying to America. We get a little elicit side romance between Duchess Sophie (Lily Travers) and a footman (David Burnett).
Finally there is lots of debate and conflict over how Albert and Victoria are going to raise their children and what their various roles mean. Albert becomes in charge of the Great Exhibition of 1851. This is all very compelling, well acted, directed and of course costumed! It’s delicious programming!
The only part that didn’t work for me is a plot thread involving Victoria’s half sister Feodora (Kate Fleetwood). I know she is supposed to be selfish and devious but I found her character more annoying than a satisfying adversary. It just didn’t work for me and I found myself looking away whenever it got back to her story.
Other than that it was 8 episodes of great programming! I highly recommend it. It’s a rare show that has kept up its quality through 3 seasons. We will see if it can do 4 after what happens in the finale. A lot of the credit goes to writer and creator Daisy Goodwin who has read Victoria’s diaries and seems to have a real admiration and love for her. Jenna Coleman naturally deserves the other half of the credit. She’s remarkable in the role and deserves all the emmys if you asked me!
Have you gotten to see Victoria Season 3? What did you think of it? Let’s talk in the comments section.
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