Royal drama

PBS’ eye-catching new drama Victoria has all the makings of a great show. There’s a fascinating historical main character (Queen Victoria), splendid costumes and sets, a supremely confident Jenna Coleman playing the lead role, and other onscreen greats like Rufus Sewell and Alex Jennings.

Two problems, though, are evident early on in the series: First, the upstairs/downstairs “servant drama” perfected by Downton Abbey (which Victoria creators clearly tried to emulate) falls short in Victoria—mainly because at this point, it’s unoriginal.

Second, in the first three of seven episodes, screenwriters spend hardly any time on the political, “thinking” side of the show compared with that spent on Victoria’s royal family drama. Of course, this may be an intentional choice to start the series, reflecting how the real Victoria was isolated at Kensington Palace by her mother and a controlling adviser for her entire childhood.

Still, Victoria’s familial challenges do not lack depth. As a very young queen, Victoria is surrounded by people looking to take advantage of her. One is Sir John Conroy, the aforementioned adviser, who at one point sneers, “What can a girl like you, unformed, possibly do to serve her country?”

Audiences watch Victoria wrestle to find a balance between making her own choices and leaning on the right advisers, while making several mistakes along the way. The show is strongest when it focuses on this theme, a timeless struggle for queens and peasants alike: When thrust into leadership, how much should we trust our own instincts? When should we seek outside advice? It’s too bad the show doesn’t depict Victoria’s faith journey at this crucial time in her life.

Victoria premiered in the United States nearly five months after doing so in the United Kingdom. It also arrived several weeks after we’d already had our first taste of Netflix’s award-winning period drama, The Crown, about Queen Elizabeth II. Had Victoria been released first, it might have made a fine appetizer for The Crown, which is the meatier of the two.

Some audiences—especially those that already love other PBS hits like Poldark and Sherlock—may find Victoria to be a fine break from Sunday Night Football. But don’t plan to use it for history class anytime soon, unless it’s as a critical thinking exercise to help clarify the difference between fact and fiction: There’s no evidence, for example, that a young Queen Victoria fell in love with—and proposed marriage to—her first prime minister, as the show portrays.

The first three episodes of Victoria are safe for all ages, with occasional adult themes, like a suspected pregnancy in the court. It airs Sunday nights on PBS Masterpiece and has already been renewed for a second season.