Victoria

It took me more than half a season to figure out how to approach the series. In the end, I opted for fiction set in the Victorian era, partially based on historical events. If you don’t require historical accuracy and you can get over some exuberant romance, you'll probably have a good time. After a certain disillusionment, I managed to understand the creators’ intention, I stopped being unnecessarily critical, and I wasn’t disappointed or bored in the end. (28/05/2019)

"I enjoy movies and series from the time when Britain was still Britain and not the current parody of itself, so from this perspective, the first episode was perfect. It also entertained me with the typical English mix of reserve and cunning intrigue, so if the series continues in this way, I will definitely enjoy it." (26/05/2019)

The second episode lost some pace compared to the first one and I was a bit disappointed that the political intrigues took a backseat to the household servant's shenanigans. However, Rufus Sewell was excellent here as well, although the other actors somewhat fade next to him. (26/05/2019)

This time I watched a slightly modified fox hunt, instead of a fox tail, the trophy was the queen's hand, and I thought I would give this "race" five stars because there was once again skillful politicking, but I was unpleasantly surprised by a significant increase in romantic atmosphere, so in the end I decided on four pieces. (26/05/2019)

I silently hoped that it wouldn't happen, but it was in vain. The creators completely deviated from the political (historical) storyline in the fourth episode and created a nearly purely romantic part with typical back and forth between he loves me- he doesn't love me, but I expect something else from this series. (26/05/2019)

No, nothing has actually changed from the previous episode, all the matters that interest and entertain me (history and politics) were pushed aside, while the essentially uninteresting romantic storyline got the maximum amount of space. The opening episode, which I praised, actually misled me, it seems to be a completely different genre than I expected. (26/05/2019)

After watching the sixth episode, I returned to a four-star rating because I was very pleased that the creators stopped focusing on the Red Library and returned to significant matters. I was so happy that I didn't lower my rating even for the anti-slavery conference, which became the most important event of this episode, and yet I couldn't find any mention of it anywhere. Well yeah, it's probably a challenge when you're filming a Victorian period series and you want to put a black person in front of the camera... (28/05/2019)

So, yeah, I gave up on historical accuracy and started approaching the series as a fiction from the Victorian era. This approach worked for me, so I could comfortably rate the seventh episode, which clearly showed why the nineteenth century was the "century of steam," with four out of five pieces. (28/05/2019)

The final episode of the first season did not deviate from the standard quality of the previous two episodes. Since there was no return to unsuccessful attempts at unnecessary romance, as the creators demonstrated in episodes 4 and 5, there was no reason to lower the rating. (28/05/2019)

Apart from the unfortunate Christmas episode, it was a great season, even better than the first one in my view. In any case, I’d appreciate it if there were fewer romantic scenes in favor of political and historical events (historical according to HBO, of course). I wasn’t happy to see that political correctness managed to seep into this series, too, I was secretly hoping it wouldn’t. (20/08/2019)

The opening episode of the second season was definitely not perfect, but based on my experience with the previous season, I would rate it as a standard four-star episode that continued the quality of the first series episodes. It did bother me a bit that the events in Afghanistan received the same amount of attention as the chef's troubles, but oh well. (19/08/2019)

And then, it's supposed to be the century of steam. You can barely blink and instead of a steam engine, we have a computer here (well, at least no steam was coming out of it). The episode was not extremely interesting, in addition, romance strongly leaked into it again, but as a whole, it surprisingly worked well. (19/08/2019)

The third episode was one of those that brought a more detailed look at the vast difference in living conditions for people "above and below the stairs". It amused me how the ladies shed tears over the difficult fates of the fictional characters, without realizing that reality is even worse, and yet they don't care about anyone. It reminds me of the current practice of sending money to children in Africa, while those who are right in front of everyone's noses are not of any interest, because it's not "in". (19/08/2019)

For the second time this season, I came across an episode that didn't bring any key events (except for the heir to the throne), and yet I didn't get bored at all. I am quite disappointed that I will have to do without Rufus Sewell in the series anymore, but if the creators maintain their standard, it will be fine. (19/08/2019)

When I was watching the European marriage policy, I remembered the episode "The Beard of the Spanish Queen" from the first season of Black Adder and I was expecting to hear any minute: "Cheswick, fresh horses!" There was a meeting between my favorite Britain and my extremely disliked France, and I was ensured entertainment. (19/08/2019)

Finally, I was able to rate an episode with the maximum number of stars. The romantic fluff was pushed to the sidelines so that the creators could fully focus on the Great Irish Famine. The duration didn't allow for the full severity of this tragedy to be shown, but the story was still very powerful, they did a great job with this. (20/08/2019)

Compared to the previous episode, the seventh episode was completely different, yet I was not dissatisfied with it. Romanticism prevailed over romance this time, which actually didn't disappoint me at all. I have always liked Scotland, so the only thing that bothered me was that both boys transitioned from a latent phase to an active one. (20/08/2019)

The creators focused mainly on political events this time, which I praise, and on events in the royal household, which didn't impress me as much. Compared to the previous episodes, the plot was noticeably weaker, and I was considering giving it three stars, but I had to add a little something for the agile resolution of the testosterone relationship. 4* (20/08/2019)

The Christmas special really disappointed me. I was really pissed off that even in a Victorian-era TV series, the creators couldn't avoid bowing down to the spreaders of political correctness. Well, I guess I shouldn't be surprised, given that Britain, which I always loved, has turned into some sort of absurdistan where statues of scientists and philosophers must disappear from universities just because they were white people who aren't liked by the present majority population. (20/08/2019)

I realized this wasn’t a standard historical series in the very first season and I quickly got used to the fact. However, after a better second season, I was still expecting something slightly better. The third season wasn’t bad, but it was spoiled again by the annoying political correctness and the evil sister with a basketful of intrigue straight out of a soap opera. (09/11/2019)