I have to agree with a previous reviewer. The issue of homosexuality in this time would be very hard to prove. Apparently, Victoria, like the mass of England, would have found it criminal sacrilege. The events never actually happened which cheapens the show. What was much more interesting was the incredible risk taken by Peele to rescind the Corn Laws. I find the politics to be the most engaging part of this show. I had it in my head that even in the time of Victoria, the monarchy had some power. Not the case, obviously. But an historically accurate vote takes place.
6 Reviews
Episode 206
bobcobb30117 August 2018
Warning: Spoilers
Another season winds down and another Prime Minister moves on. I get that you cannot ignore history, but it also seems like the show is mapping out its timeline to try to give us juicy moments near the end (and this wasn't even that juicy a moment).
The show is certainly watchable, but parts of Season 2 were a little too slow for me.
The show is certainly watchable, but parts of Season 2 were a little too slow for me.
Syphilis thy name is ignorance
gkeith_122 February 2018
Warning: Spoilers
Did Prince Ernst have syphilis in real life?
I thought it was always fatal in those days. Upon seeing Ernst with the doctor, I wondered about that.
I also was thinking about that doctors didn't even start washing their hands until the 1880s or so, at least in the U.S.
I looked up the real Ernst, and apparently he lived a long time.
Meanwhile, research upon our dear Prince Albert reveals that he really did have syphilis during his late teens and early twenties. Since he was near the age of Queen Victoria during that time period, how did that affect her?
How did she have all of those nine children? Does syphilis affect fertility?
Can't wait until Prince Albert brings that beautiful, glorious Christmas tree to the palace next week.
I thought it was always fatal in those days. Upon seeing Ernst with the doctor, I wondered about that.
I also was thinking about that doctors didn't even start washing their hands until the 1880s or so, at least in the U.S.
I looked up the real Ernst, and apparently he lived a long time.
Meanwhile, research upon our dear Prince Albert reveals that he really did have syphilis during his late teens and early twenties. Since he was near the age of Queen Victoria during that time period, how did that affect her?
How did she have all of those nine children? Does syphilis affect fertility?
Can't wait until Prince Albert brings that beautiful, glorious Christmas tree to the palace next week.
Spoiler Alert: Episode 6 - Victoria's Reign
Michael_Linder21 January 2018
Warning: Spoilers
***Spoiler Alert***
Oh, great. ITV creates two gay lovers out of wholly fictional cloth, then murders one in a deliberate blur of factual and anachronistic errors. Rather than reveal even a hint of the horrid reality suffered by homosexuals under Queen Victoria's reign with the granularity of, say, the Irish Potato Famine, or hint that these lovers might somehow overcome enormous odds in their quest for happiness, ITV terminates their story arc abruptly, and with a brutal killing.
They chose not to reveal Victoria's true colors on the subject which included her assent to the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885 and its infamous Labouchere Amendment which subjected gays to not more than two years in Her Majesty's squalid prisons, with or without hard labor. Victoria's assent also provided a convenient tool for random blackmail which, whether substantiated or not, led to untold numbers of suicides.
God forbid that ITV's whitewashed portrayal of Her Serene Highness should be sullied by her cruel disdain for homosexuals. It seems evident that by ignoring these truths ITV's sensibilities are today as primitive and prejudiced as those of England's homophobic past: The only good queer is a dead queer. That'll teach 'em.
Oh, great. ITV creates two gay lovers out of wholly fictional cloth, then murders one in a deliberate blur of factual and anachronistic errors. Rather than reveal even a hint of the horrid reality suffered by homosexuals under Queen Victoria's reign with the granularity of, say, the Irish Potato Famine, or hint that these lovers might somehow overcome enormous odds in their quest for happiness, ITV terminates their story arc abruptly, and with a brutal killing.
They chose not to reveal Victoria's true colors on the subject which included her assent to the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885 and its infamous Labouchere Amendment which subjected gays to not more than two years in Her Majesty's squalid prisons, with or without hard labor. Victoria's assent also provided a convenient tool for random blackmail which, whether substantiated or not, led to untold numbers of suicides.
God forbid that ITV's whitewashed portrayal of Her Serene Highness should be sullied by her cruel disdain for homosexuals. It seems evident that by ignoring these truths ITV's sensibilities are today as primitive and prejudiced as those of England's homophobic past: The only good queer is a dead queer. That'll teach 'em.
Turning point for the worse.
pyodell15 March 2022
Warning: Spoilers
This episode is truly the turning point where the entire show takes a spin down the toilet, and the fact that the Scotland episode (one of the show's highest points) is right before makes it even more shocking. A show that never really bothered to adhere to history or temporal accuracy just crams a bunch of negativity into a single episode and trashes characters it had actually succeeded in making us like beforehand, and made the remaining ones less interesting or likable. I'm going to say this contains spoilers simply because from this point forward the entire show never gets its footing again.
Unbelievable
aqueckboerner31 July 2020
Warning: Spoilers
After seeing episode after episode of the Duchess of Buccleuch criticizing everything from other cultures to African children we are suddenly to believe that she was so accepting of homosexuality? Unbelievable. Homosexuality at that time was illegal. Another good TV show ruined by pushing the gay agenda in a historically inaccurate way.
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