masterpiece

Season three of Victoria is almost here (it premieres Sunday, January 13 at 8:00 pm)! In the meantime, catch up on everything we've posted about the previous two seasons of the series: recaps, recipes, features, and more.

The chef who takes an interest in Skerrett on Victoria, Francatelli was a real-life cook who worked in the hottest restaurants and published several cookbooks, making him one of the first celebrity chefs. Baked sheep's head or bullock heart, anyone?

The palace is embracing change, as Victoria copes with a pregnancy, Albert and Sir Peel tout locomotives, and Francatelli and Skerrett innovate in the kitchen.

Paul called this custard dessert "one of the tastiest things we've ever chosen" for The Great British Baking Show, so it's worth trying this Victorian dessert yourself.

Upstairs or downstairs, loyal husband or charming playboy, no-nonsense house manager or complicated mother?

Folk contraceptive methods, forbidden romances, an outbreak of plague, squabbles over court hierarchy, noble oration: this episode's got it all. 

Try a big wadge of this hearty meat pie in a recipe from Paul Hollywood. Queen Victoria would approve.

Victoria and Albert's relationship hits some bumps. Mainly because Albert doesn't want to be dependent on Victoria, and so demands a large allowance. It also doesn't help that Victoria is learning how many extramarital affairs occur at court.

Learn to bake a Victorian era classic dessert with a recipe from The Great British Baking Show.

Victoria and Albert are slowly overcoming their dislike of each other and growing closer. This episode is a literal bodice-ripper, a classic opposites-attract story. Too bad Albert is a bit of a prig-Victoria's word, not mine.

Numerous suitors are competing for Victoria's attention, while various people at court-her uncles, Sir John, her mother-try to influence her towards one or another in order to gain more power. Victoria's relationship with Melbourne deepens and becomes more complex.

This finale is intense, and entirely unprecedented and unexpected. It provides a moral summation of the entire show, and everything that came before can be fitted in, both plotwise and in terms of the message. 

No one believes the 18-year-old Victoria can be Queen without help: not the bewhiskered statesmen of Parliament nor her mother and her friends. Only Lord Melbourne supports Victoria's independence. And she's going to fight for it.

Photos from the finale of Sherlock season 4 reveal nothing, but "The Final Problem" is sure to be an explosive episode. 

Are you the fresh-faced "A Study in Pink," or the sexy "Scandal in Belgravia?" Do you seek secret agent thrills like "The Six Thatchers" or do you prefer cheery conversation like "The Sign of Three?"