Textual Analysis of Victoria

 

I love Victoria. I'm not someone who usually watches ITV (or live TV for that matter), but when Victoria started airing in 2016, it  was one of the few times I'd ever turned on my TV to catch a show live. For the entirety of Season 1 and Season 2, I was there watching. Eventually, my family joined too. We are all big fans of the Victoria series now.

What sold me, a Doctor Who fan, was getting to follow a much beloved main actor, Jenna Coleman, onto the job she left Doctor Who for. What made me stay was the wonderful supporting cast (Rufus Sewell in particular performed tremendously well), the rather brilliant soundtrack, and endearing writing, which occasionally surprised me with moments of brilliance that I wouldn't normally expect from a 9pm drama. There was the period sets, the period dressing and the exploration of Victorian against modern values  (which were, admittedly occasionally cliche and sometimes a tad forced) that formed the backbone of the show that I loved. 

Rufus Sewell and Jenna Coleman's dynamic is what runs through most of Season 1

Season 2 stars primarily Jenna Coleman and Tom Hughes as Victoria and Albert

I will not oversell it, however, as this show is decidedly a generic drama at its heart too. Writer Daisy Goodwin herself admits she makes use of her creative license in how she chooses to recount the events, so much so that I was wary of labelling this show as a "factual" programme in my listings table. It isn't the most historically accurate drama, but it really can't particularly be either because it's ITV prime-time 9PM drama during one of most important/peak months of the year; August to October, when many people are watching TV. This placement requires the TV show to be quite simple, well paced and dramatic enough to keep people's attention. History doesn't usually happen so perfectly in real life.

What Victoria does particularly well in my opinion is representation of a period. While yes, there are some rather bad CGI exposition shots, I love the use of beautiful sets and wonderful wardrobe choices to really create the feel of a romanticised Victorian Britain. It's clear a lot of thought has been put into the mise-en-scene of the show.

Gorgeous, well thought out settings like this really make watching the show special

I love the colour palette, the symmetry and the flowing dresses

Even though this probably a real location, there's something about the editing that makes it seem like it belongs in a fairy tale. It's something quite beautiful. 

To study the camera work, I will focus on a single episode that I randomly selected, Season 1, Episode 2. The main plotline for most of Season 1 is Victoria establishing herself as the Queen and the woman in power. To reinforce this idea through more than the dialogue and plot, when we see her, we always see her from a slightly low-angle shot, or a eye level shot.

As an example, in this shot, where Victoria is placed within a mini-conflict with another character we see her being positioned quite high on the frame, emphasising her high ground on the matter.

Looking at the relationship between two other characters, similar framing and camerawork techniques are used to subconsciously drive in narrative points. The two images below are from a back and forth sequence between a man, Penge, who is making use of his upper hand on a matter over a woman, Lehzen. Note how the camera is placed from a low angle that gives Penge stature, while on Lehzen, the camera seems to be looking down, from a slightly higher angle, thus showing who really has the power here in this situation; Penge.

The cinematographers behind Victoria also love using symbolism as way to create meaning. I notice it a lot through out the series, but here are two examples within this episode in particular that I think are relevant.

This framing can be interpreted in two ways. Firstly, it could represent how he is the centre of the stage, or of operations, for the plan he is executing. Secondly, it could also mean how he is alone in his ambitions, or maybe more foreboding, how he will be left alone...

Like in the other image, this framing draws attention to Lord Melbourne as he cuts ties with the Royals; symbolising his new found loneliness even as he among others. The symmetry of the framing is really quite beautiful, and it emphasises the elegance of Royal lifestyle he's chosen to leave behind. 

Victoria follows a pretty linear narrative, with a vague hold on time, often eliding periods of time to keep a succinct story-line. Within the series as a whole there are several narrative strands to focus on the relationships between some side characters, and almost every episode tries to touch upon a part of those narratives, but of course, they're all somehow or another influenced by the most important narrative, Queen Victoria's life. 

I've already mentioned how much I love the music for the show, but to go a bit deeper than that, I love how the music enhances the feel that the show is magical. There is rarely a moment in the series that isn't backed up by soft orchestral music. I noted that even where there isn't background music, attention is paid to replace it with appropriate sound expected from the setting (such as sounds of cutlery when in the kitchen, or sound of hushed voices when outside). Emotional moments are smothered in smooth, deep melodies carefully composed for the show itself by Martin Phillips.

I decided to analyse Victoria because it's a drama that ITV put on on the same schedule block as they did Broadchurch, but yet it's something so vastly different. It's also different from the type of programme I'm aiming to create, with it a period drama. It's execution as a show however, has lessons for all. In many ways, it does a lot of things similar to Broadchurch in the basics, but they combine to create a completely different end result. Victoria, to me, is overall a typical high quality ITV production, and it embodies the standards I should be aiming for with my production.