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Virginia Lewis is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the Hallmark Entertainment's, and NBC's 2000 cult miniseries The 10th Kingdom by Simon Moore. She is played by Kimberly Williams.

Production

The Times reports that "Williams prefers to work in film and theatre rather than television. 'Because TV happens so fast, I feel a sense of panic,' she explains. Yet, despite the misgivings, she could not resist the offer to star in The 10th Kingdom alongside Dianne Wiest, Jimmy Nail and Rutger Hauer....'Simon has woven together all the old fairytales and updated them, exploring what happened after Happily Ever After,' explains Williams, whose character Virginia is a New York waitress thrust into a parallel world inhabited by trolls, talking dogs and evil stepmothers."

Fictional character history

Prior to the events of the miniseries, Virginia was born in Manhattan to wealthy businessman Tony Lewis and his glamorous wife, Christine. Ho wever after a misguided business venture of Tony’s resulted in the Lewis family losing their fortune, Virginia and her family moved to an apartment block in another area of Manhattan where Tony got a job as a janitor. Shortly after this, Christine walked out on them. Virginia cannot remember the night Christine left and Tony will not speak of it, nor of Christine. Whenever Virginia asks her grandmother (Christine’s mother) about her, her vain and wealthy grandmother merely talks about high society and Christine’s debut and her own debut and tries to persuade Virginia to join high society as well. Virginia however doesn’t want to as she wants to marry a man for love, not money.

Virginia grows into a beautiful, headstrong young woman and despite excelling at school she gets a job as a waitress which she dislikes. She lives with her father and looks after him which she admits is “a bit sad.” Hiding her emotions behind a veil of sarcasm and cynicism, Virginia is in fact a romantic who hopes for love and excitement in her life but is deeply hurt by her mother abandoning her as a child.

In the series

The story begins with Virginia's narration as she takes in the view of Central Park, day-dreaming away her free time, before finishing her chores and heading out for her shift as a waitress at the "Grill on the Park", going through the motions that she does everyday when her father, Tony, as he moans on about his woes and troubles, Virginia manages to insert: "Your Barbecue ribs are on top of the Microwave", before she watches as her father suck up to the building owner, Mr. Murray, as Tony is holding on to his job by a fine line.

Virginia is on her way to work, cycling through Central Park, when her path (and her bike) collides with a crash into a dog, and they lay for unconscious for a short while, until they both come to and Virginia, with the dog in tow, head through the park, Virginia discovers that she has lost her wallet, but is unwilling to linger any longer as she's now already late for work. Greeted by her co-worker/waitress, Candy' Fitzsimmons - who has a fetish for dogs, names him 'Prince'. Virginia later learns that Prince is in fact a Prince from another world who has been transformed into a dog by an evil queen. Virginia and her father, Tony are forced to accompany Prince through a Transportation Mirror to the world of the Nine Kingdoms where accompanied by an anthropomorphic wolf (simply named Wolf) they battle the Evil Queen’s plans for domination of the Nine Kingdoms.

Virginia meets Snow White in the Fourth Kingdom and receives a Magic Mirror of her own.

Virginia and Wolf fall in love during their adventure and Tony who was previously selfish, cowardly and lazy becomes brave and selfless. Prince Wendell also becomes less selfish and spoiled and Virginia allows herself to give in to her feelings more. Wolf meanwhile wrestles with his darker, more primal instincts.

Toward the end of the series, Wendell is abducted by the Evil Queen’s Troll minions and brought to his palace which the Queen has made her residence.

Virginia uses her Magic Mirror to find the Queen and when Tony sees her image in the Mirror he immediately recognises her as Christine, his ex-wife and Virginia’s mother who walked out on them.

At the climax of the series Virginia, Wolf and Tony infiltrate the palace and rescue Wendell. Virginia is forced to kill Christine with a poisoned comb and she returns to New York with Wolf, leaving Wendell to rule the Nine Kingdoms in peace with Tony's help. However her words at the end of the series imply that there is more to tell:

I'd like to say that Wolf and I lived happily ever after, but our lives were almost immediately interrupted by another crisis in the kingdoms. But that's not this story; this story is done. And when you live every day with all your heart then you can be happy ever after, even if it's only a short time. My name is Virginia... and I live on the edge of the forest. And this is the end of the first book of The 10th Kingdom.

— Virginia Lewis

Personality and traits

Virginia could adequately be described as a dreamer, she wants romance - but she is usually somewhat repressive of her own feelings which are hidden behind her sarcastic and cynical exterior. Virginia has depressive tendencies and usually puts practicality over her own sentimentality.

Despite the fact that she was seven on the night Christine tried to drown Virginia then ran out on her, Virginia doesn't remember any of it, possibly as the result of Psychological repression, something which Christine also exhibits behaviour consistent with.

Reception

The character as portrayed by Williams has received a mixed reaction from critics. Ron Wertheimer describes Virginia as "that plucky waitress...on her way to self-confidence." John Levesque writes that "Kimberly Williams is annoying yet somehow captivating as Virginia." Laura Fries aserts that "Kimberly Williams is doe-eyed and pretty and is heavily featured throughout, but 10 hours is a lot for this star to carry on her shoulders."

References

1. Jane Burchard, "TV REVIEW: NBC miniseries '10th Kingdom' offers an escape," The Post (03-02-2000).
2. Arnold van Oostrum, "10th Kingdom, The," DVD.nl (01-05-2002).
3. Editors of TV Guide Magazine, TV Guide: TV on DVD 2006: The Ultimate Resource to Television Programs on DVD (Macmillan, 2005), 247.
4. Clive King, "Kimberly Williams I," The Times.
5. "The 10th Kingdom," Elbakin.net (Nov 5, 2004).
6. John Leonard, ""The 10th Kingdom": NBC modestly bills its through-the-looking-glass fantasy as "The Epic Event of the Millennium,"" New York Magazine (Feb 21, 2000).
7. Ron Wertheimer, "A Fairy Tale For Adults (Watch for Snow White)," The New York Times Television Reviews 2000: The New York Times (New York: Routledge, 2001), 98.
8. John Levesque, "'10th Kingdom' isn't perfect, but it is creative," Seattle Post Intelligencer (February 24, 2000).
9. LAURA FRIES, "The 10th Kingdom Review," Variety (Feb. 21, 2000).

External links

• "Virginia Lewis (Character) from The 10th Kingdom (2000)," The Internet Movie Database

• Articles lacking sources from June 2008
• 10th Kingdom
• Fantasy television characters
• Fictional characters from New York City