Nolefan

There is no comparison between the two men (Sorry Prince Philip!!) And unless Daisy decides to rewrite history, which is very possible, and somehow credits Victoria with everything, Albert should be coming into his own very soon.

Well, that is exactly what Victoria and Albert did in real life, re: lounged around Osborne House until the threat of revolution passed. And Victoria and Albert were credited with saving the monarchy primarily because of the loving, down to Earth family image they projected to the public, including scenes from Osborne House (where Victoria appeared as the dutiful wife and mother), not because she was portrayed as an independent woman reigning alone.

I actually think the public fighting, Victoria throwing a drink at Albert, and Albert locking doors and Victoria pounding on them is historically accurate. And this is the type of stuff that I am glad they include in the show, because it is a historical representation of what Victoria and Albert’s relationship was really like, a very ”unroyal” real love affair that was passionate on both extremes. Although it was petty, honestly I don’t blame him for locking her out. Victoria yelled at the dinner table about how Albert treated Bertie — saying something in regard to Albert not being able to see how hard Bertie is working to please him and all he gets is criticisms and rebukes — is how Victoria has treated Albert. I fell like the man has done everything physically, emotionally, and intellectually to please her, and all Victoria had done is backhandedly told him that it is not good enough. He gets rebuked for the political advice he gives her, he gets cut off and ignored when he is trying to tell him about the poor, she calls the house he created on Osborne for his family “your house,” as if she doesn’t like it, publicly chasitises him (calling him a bully) and throwing things at him in her assessment of how he wants to raise their children, then basically tells him that the love he has shown her is “not enough” to fillful her needs. Is Albert also sending subliminal and blatant messages to Victoria of her shortcomings as well, which Victoria alludes to in the bedroom scene in Osborne? HECK YES. But, Victoria isn’t some innocent victim her, either. I am looking forward to them resolving their issues.

I was a little floored that the show went there to the point of Victoria accusing Albert of bullying HER son. Even the fact and fiction stuff that PBS sends on Twitter says that IRL BOTH Victoria and Albert were concerned about Bertie to the extent of being harsh with him. Why on Earth did Daisy Goodwin then choose to make only Albert look like the bad guy and actually have Victoria look like some protecting mama bear?? Sometimes I feel that Daisy has a low key dislike for Prince Albert, which causes her to twist things to always paint him in the most unflattering light possible. And if you read the fact and fiction stuff from PBS, it seems that all the good things that Victoria is shown doing on the show are revealed as fiction (the Chartist storyline, her not liking the Isle of Wight, the ship speech from S2). So Daisy paints Victoria as better than she was, and compares her to real life Albert, which makes Victoria look like some superhero standing up for women’s rights. I LOVE this show, but sometimes....

Albert is the hottie. Love the banges, especially when they blow in the wind like in yesterday’s episode. LOVE Victoria, but she is only tolerable to me with Albert challenging her. Sometimes I think he has the patience of Job when Victoria starts her Scarlett O’Hara routine. The wine throwing was accurate. However, I guess it is domestic violence when a man does it. Luckily, Albert is there to teach Bertie not to hit girls, as shown in the show. Joseph is the spitting image of a young Rufus Sewell, which I am 100 percent convinced is on purpose. His beach frolicking did nothing for me — looked like some stupid frat dude. Actually, felt bad for the poor actor and embarrassed as a woman if the powers that be think they need to do stupid stuff like this to get women to watch.

I saw it more like Victoria being despondent because her people did not love her anymore, and Skerrett resigning was just another person who she thought adored her taking their love away. My view was solidified after the snarky comment Victoria made to Skerett later in the show when she finished brushing her hair. I disagree that it doesn’t really make much difference to the children. The children had the gardening, beach, fishing — they got to be away from Court Life in London, and appreciate being kids not Royals, which was important to Albert. Also, because Albert designed the house, it was special to him. Victoria from the time she got the news about the Chartists spent her time criticizing everything that was important to him. They were both being selfish and childish.

I agree there is a strategy involved in keeping yourself visible. But, it is a balancing act. It is like being a celebrity. But like a lot of celebrities, too much self promotion while ignoring your family destroys your family. At that point, she better hope her people’s love will fill the hole left in her life when Albert is gone because he is not feeling attended to.

I don’t think Victoria had a clue and probably did not care to know. The reason Victoria seems to like the servants is that they all focus only on her. This is the main reason she liked Lehzen so much. Lehzen only served her and she did not have to share Lehzen’s affections with anyone else (and while Lehzen’s job was caring for her children, Lehzen was ready to drop the kids to go on trips with Victoria and did not seem that concerned when Vicky almost died). I think one of the reason Victoria hates Osborne so much is the amount of time Albert focuses on their children while there, instead of on her.

I was a little shocked at the extent to which Victoria was so mean to Skerrett when she resigned. Not even a “Congratulations” or “While I am devastated to lose you, I am glad you are happy.” Nothing to even acknowledge that Skerett was a person and not just her dresser. I thought is was really cold.

I thought it was written very clearly that Victoria is needing adoration. Actually, I feel like the show is hitting us over the head about it. The way she was basking in the glow of the crowds cheering for her while she sat alone by the window in her room after the return to Buckingham Palace really cements this to me — she almost had a pathological look on her face. Was it clear that Victoria didn’t want to be at Osborne House? Yes, but sometimes you have to do things to make your spouse (or family) happy (like actually going on vacation and spending quality time with them without letting your work interfere) but (as a recurring theme in this show) sometimes it is unclear when Victoria is acting as the Queen or Albert’s wife. Was Albert being petty and childish when he laid that bit of honesty on her in their bedroom at Osborne? Heck, yes. But, on the other side of the coin, she seemed to come across to me as uninterested in her husband and family.

I don’t think that Albert thinks he is King. The Osbourne bathroom picture shows me that Albert knows his place is to assist Victoria. I just think he feels he has lost his wife’s respect because he always seems to give her the wrong advice on state matters (ex. the ship speech from S2 and the Chartist stuff). Now Victoria is looking to another man for advice, Palmerston — a man he thought was a buffoon but is looking more knowledge than him. Funny you mentioned Lord M, because this is how Albert was shown to feel about Lord M., too. And to add to Albert’s feelings of inferiority, it seemed to me that Victoria was low key flirting with Lord Palmerston right in front of Albert. As for Bertie, Albert was way out of control, but I feel his heart was in the right place and did not intend to bully him. I thought that it was interesting that Albert took Victoria’s criticism of him re Bertie to heart and was much gentler with Bertie in the archery scene. I think Victoria is too permissive with Bertie’s bad behavior, and Albert is too strict. They both need to find some middle ground.

I thought that maybe when the Duchess told Penge that he was with her that Penge then thought that both the Duchess’ story and Joseph’s stories were half true — that Joseph was with the Duchess nude swimming or something else inappropriate. Penge was then kinda in awe that Joseph get himself a Duchess.

LOL!!! Os-porn house!! This scene so much reminded me of the Clockwork Prince S1 episode when Albert saw the begging children and the girl selling matchsticks, then witnessing Victoria feeding Dash off the table and Victoria not even letting people finish their food at dinner (so you could image the amount of food that just got thrown away). Especially the way the scene cut to Bertie feeding the dog off the good china. When Victoria told Albert in the last episode that he didn’t know how the people were living it made me want to yell at the TV because I remembered his passion about the poor from what he witnessed back then. I guess Albert has gotten so caught up living the good life with Victoria, or has been so sideline by her (or is only able to work on the things she finds important), he must have forgotten about all the poor people in England. My guess is that he is not going to wait for Victoria’s permission to act to do things to really make a difference for these people and it’s going to cause strife with Victoria, as she will view it as taking away her power.

I thought that the way it was depicted, Victoria was acting differently or like she did in S2 when she was suffering from postpartum depression. Albert found her crying on the ground in the garden, where she specifically told him that the anchor note of her life (i.e. the love of her people) was gone and that basically she was lost now. I think it was reasonable to conclude that the depression she seems prone to experiencing after giving birth might be contributing (or the real source) to her sadness. Moreover, Albert has been consistently portrayed as being very protective of Victoria (probably a bit overly protective). But, I totally got where he was coming from in this episode. Although things turned out fine, he had no way of knowing that. Heck, in Episode 1, there were Chartist members advocating for the overthrow of Victoria (Mr. Chaffy??, the guy who was leading the mob at the gate) and nowhere in Episode 2 was it ever explained whether or when he changed his mind. So, although Sarah Bartlett told Victoria the Chartists were peaceful and did not want to depose her, this was not true or was never explained to the audience. I also don’t understand why more (or all) of the Chartists weren’t arrested when the police found the boxes of weapons at the Chartist headquarters. I would have thought a raid like that would have shut the whole operation down. I was also confused as to why or what Victoria would have done if she remained in London? The Chartists were walking to present their Petition to Parliament, not Victoria. She said she didn’t want to leave because it would make her look like a coward. So, did she want to be defiant in the face of a potential overthrow by her people? Or, was she concerned that she would look like she was afraid of her people asking for additional rights? While, Albert kept saying that he believed the Chartists were in the right because the English people had been failed by the ruling class, I cannot recall Victoria making any statement about her views on the Chartists’ cause. The only concern she voiced was her fear that her people no longer loved her.

I am still not feeling this storyline. I’m expecting this whole storyline to be tedious then turn into a nothing burger in the end like the Skerrett secret identity stupidness from S1 and S2. I’m expecting that Victoria will be totally ok with the marriage and break protocols to allow both of them to continue their jobs at the palace, after Albert is shown acting like an insensitive jerk about not wanting rules broken to accommodate them. I am betting the couple even get their own cottage and any children they have are raised with V&A’s children. Never mind showing the real sacrifices the servants had to make to keep their jobs and then being left all alone with no family of their own when they are no longer needed or their job ends.

So hoping for more Ernst, too. And Leopold is a weasel, but he is a lovable weasel who supports Victoria and Albert’s marriage, unlike Feodora.

Seems like a lot of conflicting stories about Victoria and Albert as parents. What I find interesting was how Osborne House (featured in this episode) gives a glimpse into them as parents. Albert designed the house so that the children’s bedrooms were in the same part of the house as V&A’s, so the kids were welcome to spend time with V&A in the mornings and evenings, but this arrangement also necessitated the famous door lock. Also, each child had his/her own garden, and the kids used the produce to cook meals for their parents in the children’s Swiss playhouse. And the children wore less expensive play clothes while there. Outside of Osborne, I found it interesting that the children all stayed home growing up and weren’t shipped away to boarding schools (like Prince Charles).

Well, he did get literal instructions from an “expert” before his marriage. And there seems to be some recurring theme of Victoria and Albert role playing. Even in that scene, Victoria started with the “But Albert, Osborne is your realm...” before Feodora interrupted them. Albert also had a larger custom bed made for Osborne House. And Osborne House had the famous door lock. Too bad they didn’t use it at the time.

I guess that could explain it, but I thought I noticed a real change in Victoria at the point where she met with Lord Palmerston alone in the garden, where they spoke of safety vs popularity. Then I sensed some foreshadowing when Victoria was talking to the former King of the French about whether running away would make her look cowardly and he told Victoria that life was more important than a crown and that she has a family. I feel that the reason she was furious in the end was because the popular people, i.e., Lord Palmerston, were in London during the historical deliverance of the Charter and she was not there for the people to see her as a Queen for the People.

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After her breakdown over her lost love from her people during this episode, I fear that Victoria is heading for some narcissistic bender to rival Lord Palmerston in a quest to be popular. Was it just me or did Victoria seem to be kinda pushing Albert away? I mean, Albert told Victoria she was his anchor note, but Victoria did not respond in kind. Then, Albert grabbed her hand on the train to Osborne and, while Victoria didn’t push him away, she didn’t seem to hold his hand back. This made me wonder what Victoria’s want of popularity will mean to her relationship with Albert, as Albert is not loved by the British public. How will Victoria, wanting to be a “cool kid,” deal with being tied in marriage to Albert, the “nerd”?

Call me shallow, but I like Hollywood Victoria and Albert. I feel like both actors, though, have done an incredible job subtly aging through their acting skills since S1 — from being sheltered teenagers to young parents.

In response

Actually, nude paintings and sculptures all over Osborne House is historically accurate, and Albert did buy that painting referenced in the episode for Victoria. I think the problem Albert had about the painting in Paris was that it was an erotic painting of one of Louis-Phillippe’s mistresses on display. Albert definitely does not have a problem with an adventurous sex with his wife. He just doesn’t believe in fornication or adultrey. I am little afraid that Feodora is going to go all Single White Female on Victoria. Wearing her clothes (granted Victoria made her borrow them, but anyway) and sneaking her jewelry. By the way she had her hand on Albert’s arm, I am half expecting her to try to sneak into bed with him.

I think he looks a lot like Rufus Sewell. Same look. Same build. The guy could play Mr. Sewell’s son or a younger version of him.