Victoria "Doll 123" Review

Now then guys and girls while I have done reviews of British TV episodes before they have mainly been Doctor Who episodes and well I wanted to branch out a little bit. As luck would have it I happen to have the first series of a British TV series on DVD and so this one really wasn't a tough choice at all and so I would add a touch of class to this review by reviewing the very first episode of Victoria with the episode being called "Doll 123" enjoy.

The plot of this episode is Princess Alexandrina Victoria of Kent inherits the throne of England after her uncle King William IV dies and so the new queen finds herself tested by both her new responsibilities and her loyalties. I have to say that I really did like the story that was being told in the episode altho the story for the episode would have been better suited being spread across the entire first series just because there's enough plot there to fill the entire first series of the show but like I said it was still an enjoyable story to see play out.

Starring in the episode and the rest of the series are Jenna Coleman as Alexandrina Victoria and Catherine Flemming as The Duchess of Kent. Also starring in the episode and the rest of the series are Daniela Holtz as Baroness Lehzen , Nell Hudson as Miss Skerett , Ferdinand Kingsley as Charles Francatelli , Tommy Knight as Brodie , Eve Myles as Mrs Jenkins , Paul Rhys as Sir John Conroy , Adrian Schiller as Penge , Peter Firth as The Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale and Rufus Sewell as Lord Melbourne.

To say that the acting in was superb would be a huge understatement because my god is the acting fantastic. I really cannot give the acting in this episode enough praise because every actor in this episode gives a truly great performance alot of that tho does come down to the script which was written by show creator Daisy Goodwin who gives each of the characters so many layers and so all the actors have to do is say her wonderfully written dialog and boom great performances by everyone in the shows cast.

Now there is some CGI in the episode and I cannot say for sure who it was done by but it was either Goodbye Kansas Studios , Milk VFX or Rowley SFX as all three are listed as providing CGI effects for the series. I honestly feel that the CGI in this episode was alot better then what it really had any right to be since when you hear of CGI being used in a TV series it usually means that the effects aren't that good and well the opposite is true here since all there doing really in enhancing what's already there and so the effects don't stand out as much and so they look just as stunning.

I've given this episode alot of praise and trust me ill be giving it alot more by the time this review is done but there is one thing I have to talk about. That's the fact that this episode packs so much into it hour and nine minuet running time that I wouldn't blame anyone if they said they found it hard to keep up because honestly I was the same and that's why I feel that several story elements from this episode would have been better served being spread across the entire first series since it makes this episode a little bit easier to follow and it eases the fans in to the show a little bit better.

It would be foolish of me to talk about this episode and not talk about Jenna Coleman because she's is just so freaking good not only in this episode but in this series. She fits this character perfectly and she does such a good such a good job portraying this truly iconic person. It would have been very easy for Jenna to slip up here because like I said she's playing an actual person but no she get's the character perfectly even down to her rebellious nature and quick wit which is something that I really loved in this episode.

I honestly cannot bash this episode that much because I really freaking love it because of how well written the episode is. Nothing in this episode feels like a cliche or feels like i've seen it done better in something else everything about this episode and about this script feels very original and that makes the episode more fun to watch since you really have no idea about what's coming next and for me that's a great thing.

Even tho this film episode is over an hour long we don't really get to find out alot about the side characters. Which is something that I kind of expected since this is a TV show and so they will get more into detail about these characters in later episodes but even so for a first episode we barely get any scenes with these characters which I honestly didn't like since we're also not really given a reason to care about the characters either.

As mentioned before this episode is an hour and nine minuets and it really doesn't feel like it in my opinion. Yes the episode does have the amount of story to cover that running time and the episode does take it's time telling the story and it helps that the pacing for the episode is overall really good but the pacing does get slightly bad near the end of the episode when scenes start to drag on but like I said overall the pacing is really good.

Now then boys and girls this is a drama and so that means that we have to talk about the drama that's in the episode itself. Honestly this episode wasn't really that heavy on the drama pr at least not as heavy as I thought that it was going to be since it's more focused on telling a good story and setting up the character of Victoria and all the other characters but what little drama we did get I thought was really well written and well acted.

Overall this episode was really stunning in every way possible and it's one that I highly recommend people track down and watch. Now I won't say that this is a perfect infact i've listed some of the issues that I found with the episode in this very review but this episode does a good job of making you want to see more from this show and that's one of the things that a good debut episode should do in my opinion and so this episode gets an 8.5 out of 10 from me.

All images used in this review were gathered from the UK Amazon and the official Victoria fandom wiki page. I'll straight up admit I wasn't hopeful that there would be any high definition images for this episode but I was pleasantly surprised by how many images that were high definition hell even the above image is pretty HD as such I have no choice but to recommend you use the official Victoria fandom wiki page if you like this series and want high definition images from the series or even this episode and in case your wondering where this show aired in the UK it aired on ITV and in America it aired on PBS.

 

 

Victoria "The King Over The Water" Review

Hello there Victoria fans i do apologize for not giving you a review last week only for these past few weeks i've not been feeling to good but i will not leave you hanging this week so here is my review of Victoria Series 2 Episode 7 "The King Over The Water".

The plot of this weeks episode finds the Queen and the Prince up in Scotland. That's really all there is in terms of plot for this weeks episode since if i mention anything it would give away what happens to them and since there is very little plot i won't mention what i thought of the story.

Of course we have Jenna and Tom in this episode and once again they kill it since most of there scenes in this weeks episode is just with the two of them you get to see how they are as husband and wife and guest starring in this episode is Denis Lawson aka Wedge from the Star Wars movies and he's pretty good in this episode but for me the other guest star is something i'll get into later.

Now i mentioned another guest star well for me it's Scotland itself it's so beautiful and filmed so well to me it gets treated like another character on the show and this time i know for a fact they filmed up in Scotland so it was nice to see them go up the the north i only wonder if they went to the Scottish highlands or not.

This episode does something that i don't think has been done in British drama before since it's so good i cannot post the picture of it nor can i mention who it involves since it would be a give away but i will say that if those characters got caught by the police they could have been in deep trouble and i'm glad that laws like that don't exist today.

Now it's not that often that i comment on the music for this show because it's always been top notch stuff but in this episode the music was beyond the usual music heard in this series and i loved it and i loved the fact that they used Scottish instruments and the tracks that had singing in them were beautiful to listen to.

Overall this was a fantastic episode with it's only issue being the weak plot for me this episode is a 9 out of 10.

Victoria "Entente Cordiale" Review

I know that this review is a late but if you saw my last review of Victoria then you'll know why i wasn't able to get a review out but i'm here this week with a late review so here we go with my review of Victoria series 2 episode 5 Entente Cordiale.

The plot of this episode finds the Queen and her husband in France in order to persuade the king to not let his son marry the young Spanish Queen. I really loved this episode i thought that the story was light hearted enough to enjoy and yet serious enough that you could feel the weight of what they were trying to do.

Of course we have Jenna and Tom in this episode and they both do a really great job and i think that Jenna should have her hair down all the time. For me Diana Rigg once again stole the show even tho her scenes don't have an impact on the plot she's just great in all her scenes and it's in those scenes that we get most of the comedy for this episode.

I want to know if the production went to France to film this episode because everything just looked so beautiful but given the high quality production values that this show has it wouldn't surprise me if they stayed in London.

It's not all sunshine and flowers tho as for most of the episode the Prince is dealing with something that happened last week (thanks to the recap at the start of the episode for that little nugget) and to be honest i'm glad that they didn't just forget about it they had that plot point come into play in this episode and i have to give them credit for doing that.

Overall this was a fun episode and one that i would say so far is the best of the series for me this episode gets an 8.5 out of 10.

Victoria "Warp and Weft" Review

Sorry for this late review but here we are with episode three of series 2 of the hit British TV series Victoria and there might not be a review of next weeks episode since i'll be on holiday so here we go with this weeks episode.

The plot of this weeks episode was The Queen decides to throw another ball and receives some devastating news.I have to say that this weeks episode was the best of the series so far and i loved the plot of the episode as well as for a while it looks like it going one way but then right at the end it hits you in the gut not once but twice.

By now we should all know who's in the series so i won't bother saying who's in the episode but i will say that in the second to end scene Jenna killed it yet again now i wish i could say who i thought was the standout but i i list there name it might give away the ending but i will say that i will miss this character and if you saw the episode then i apologize for the above picture.

 Now apart from the two end scenes which i thought were really well done there was two other scenes that i thought were so well done and they both revolve around the ball in some way as well it was how well they mixed the music with what was being seen and in case of the first scene bits of audio as well they were both just well edited.

Prepare the tissues because they will be needed that's really all i can say about the end scenes because there spoilers but trust me you will need them and the ending is so sad even the creator of the show cried that's how good they were.

Overall this was the best episode of the series so far and i cannot wait for next weeks episode i give this weeks episode a solid 9.5 out of 10

  

Victoria "The Green-Eyed Monster" Review

Well then fans of British TV and British people here we are yet again with another review of the hit TV series Victoria this time taking a look at The Green-Eyed Monster.

The basic plot of this is without giving anything away Victoria discovers something that will shock her. that's the only bit of plot i could give since anything else would be considered a spoiler but i will say that the thing that get's discovered will have an effect on the rest of this series.

Now of course we have all the regular cast members in this episode and i have to say that Jenna and Tom do a great job as always in the episode and again Diana Rigg is the true standout performer of the episode everything she says and does is brilliant and the episode also introduces us to Tilly Steele who's playing new maid Cleary and i can't say which other cast member comes back because of spoilers.

This film actually featured a few laugh out loud moments which i honestly wasn't expecting from this series but i'm glad they were included since they provided a nice break from all the dramatic moments i won't spoil what the scenes are but i will say that one of them also forms a running joke through out the episode.

I have to admit it was great to see this show tackle the expectations of women in that era it's something not many drama shows dare to look at but due to the premise of the show it was only a matter of time before it commented on this subject but it was still great to see and i'm glad it was present in this episode.

Overall this was a great episode sorry it's so short but there's not really much i can go into without spoiling the episode for me this episode gets a 7.5 out of 10.

Victoria "A Solider's Daughter" Review

Hello there TV fans / British people / British TV people i thought that since Doctor Who is on break until Christmas that for the next eight weeks i'd review the second series of hit series Victoria since i loved the first series so much i bought the DVD and the book so here we go with series 2 episode 1.

The plot of this episode is that cracks are beginning to show in Victoria and Albert's marriage all the while the British army are heading towards the Khyber Pass. No matter how i summarized this episode i couldn't do it justice because there's so much more going on including all the side characters but i have to say that i love that this show shows the difficult side to being married to a queen the only issue i have with the episode is that the pacing is a tad bit off for my liking.

Returning as Victoria and Albert are the always stunning Jenna Coleman and Tom Hughes there's more returning characters of course but there's so many to name so i thought i'd mention those two in terms of new cast the only note worthy member is Dame Diana Rigg herself who has left the lands of Westeros and has shown up in London in terms of the returning cast i cannot praise them enough both Tom and Jenna are great not only in there roles but also in this series and Diana Rigg is great as always.

This show has always had great looking sets and i have to say that this episode and hopefully this series continues that because all of the sets in this episode looked great the palace looks like a place where a queen would really live and it wouldn't surprise me if the production team got some pictures of how the palace looked in the victorian era.

I have to mention Diana Rigg again because her character The Duchess of Buccleuch was easily the best character in this episode she has a lot of sass to her that actually reminded me alot of her Game Of Thrones character but i hope that they don't meet the same fate.

The last series had used very few CGI scenes and i hope this remains the case because i hate spotting scenes that have CGI when they don;t really need it but based of this episode so far this is the case but then again the CGI in the last episode was very subtle so there's a chance they might have used some CGI and i wouldn't even notice.

Overall this is a great start to the second series and i cannot wait for next weeks episode i give this episode an 8 out of 10.