The Crown (Netflix)

[jon-el87]

Season 4 was released yesterday. Watched the first three episodes of the season, will watch the fourth later today.

Liked Diana's introduction. The bit with the stag in the second episode reminded me of the bit with the stag in the 2006 film The Queen (written by the creator of this show). One wonders if they'll do an episode, dealing with Diana's death in season 5, or will the show's creator feel that he's already explored that? Maybe he'll do it, but go with a different angle.

Really got uncomfortable, almost wanting to get out, during episode 3. Though, I suspect, that was intentional. Diana is uncomfortable, so we get to be uncomfortable with her. I'm okay that we didn't get to see the actual wedding. Doubt a recreation would've served any narrative point, other than to recreate something that you've likely seen a thousand times and can just check up on Youtube. Recreations of moments often annoy me, as they often don't get details right (sometimes feeling like they didn't put in the effort). These days, recreations (though, mostly stuff from movies and TV shows) feels like lazy writing. Just throwing in a reference. Not commenting on it, or building on it. Just a reference. So, I appreciate that they don't recreate something unnecessary. It's Diana's life, in the weeks leading up to the wedding, that matters. How it affected her, and what she would've had to go through.

They did recreate Diana's dress (which I never got the appeal off. Always felt it was a bit much, even for the 1980s) for the actress to wear. So we did get to see her in the iconic dress. No CGI-double here. No, she actually wore it.

[jon-el87]

Episode 4.

Got mixed feelings about Charles. My first instinct is "what a jerk". He has married a woman, doesn't treat her the best and keeps running after another woman (buying a house like 15 minutes from her). At the same time, his position (heir to the thrown) robs him of the right to choose. He couldn't just marry anyone he wishes. Especially not a married woman, who'd have to divorce for them to be able to get married. Doesn't make what he's doing right, though.

[jon-el87]

Episode 6 ("Terra Nullius"). No, Charles, you're pathetic. You make your wife's life miserable, constantly calling Camilla. Then, when things looks to start turning around, you get cranky because Diana gets more attention than you.

It's odd that this was episode 6 (out of ten), and we're only in 1983. I thought that season 4 would deal with the whole Thatcher era (1979-1990). Of course, a lot (Crown related) happened in the years that the first six episodes dealt with. Thatcher becoming the first female prime minister. The killing of Lord Mountbatten. Charles and Diana starting to date, then getting married. The Falklands War (the British victory of which ensured a second term for Thatcher). The Buckingham Palace intrudor. The birth of Prince William.

[jon-el87]

Episode 8 ("48:1"). Fun seeing Claire Foy back. Hopefully, we'll see something similar, when they conclude the series with season six (with both Foy and Olivia Colman). Good to see them explore aparteid.

[jon-el87]

Episode 9 ("Avalanche"). Fun recreation of Diana's dance performance with Wayne Sleep. Diana clearly puts more effort into the relationship. Sure, they're both depicted as having something on the side, but Diana is at least willing to break it off with her suitors (and putting an effort into the marriage); meanwhile, Charles keeps seeing Camilla. Diana listens to Queen in the car. Freddie and her were friends. Apparently, there is an urban myth that Freddie once took her (disguised as a man) to a gay bar, without Diana being recognized.

[jon-el87]

Episode 10 ("War"). Thatcher's gone, at last. Had no idea that Camilla's great grandmother had been the mistress of Edward VII (perhaps it was brought up, in an earlier episode, and I just forgot).

Season 4 covered the Thatcher era. I would've liked to have seen the royal family reacting to Spitting Image, where the royal family were regularly parodied. According to Stephen Fry, Diana once told him that the royal family hated Spitting Image, but Diana loved it. Would've made for an interesting depiction of changing times. In the early seasons, the royal family is depicted as being revered. Newspapers are discouraged from writing negative things about the royal family, because they'd then be denied access to the next royal event (censorship by any other name, still smells the same). Even in this season's episode "48:1", the media is still depicted as giving the palace a heads up, when they're about to drop news about the monarch. Suddenly, in 1984, this satirical puppet show turns up, poking fun of the royal family on a weekly basis.

[jon-el87]

Season 1, episode 1: "Wolferton Splash".

Yeah, that was clearly a body double and not Matt Smith.

Decided to start rewatching season 1. It's good that they didn't jump directly into Elizabeth becoming queen. The episode is allowed to focus on the life of Elizabeth and Phillip, as a young married couple. Showing their life, before she becomes queen. It covers several years, but manages to give you an idea of who the characters are.

[jon-el87]

Season 1, episode 2: "Hyde Park Corner".

I remember the first time that I watched this. Couldn't help but think about the death of Princess Diana, when one saw all those reporters and photographers in Kenya reacting to Elizabeth becoming queen. They want their story and their pictures, but kept their distance. Of course, these are actual reporters, working on assignment from newspapers, while the death of Diana involved paparazzi.

As they've had these first two episodes to demonstrate dynamics, prior to Elizabeth becoming queen, you notice the sudden shift in relationships. Suddenly, everyone (even Queen Mary, who was over 80) had to bow before Elizabeth, and no one is allowed to walk before her. Appears to even be rules, about the order that her family members are supposed to follow. Margaret can't go second. She has to wait for Phillip.

Given what happens later to the character of Venetia Scott, it's good that she is already given a presence. Rather than showing up, out of nowhere, in the fourth episode. Rather having her have a minor presence in these first two episodes.

Winston is showing his age, and is started being questioned about whether he is too old (born 1874. This is set in 1952) for the job. It's quite interesting that, by this point, the world was half-way through the 20th century. Yet, Great Britain would not get a Prime Minister, born in the 20th century, until 1963 (Alec Douglas-Home, born 1903). It took that long, before the country got a Prime Minister born AFTER the Victorian era. Only a few years before had the United States gotten its first President born in the 20th century (JFK). I mean, I get that a country doesn't get a Prime Minister or President, born in the new century, within the first 30 years of it (my own country took 46 years, with Tage Erlander)... but after more than half of the century has already passed?

[jon-el87]

Season 1, episode 3: "Windsor".

Enter the Duke of Windsor, played by Alex Jennings, who played Prince Charles in The Queen (2006).

Liked seeing the family tensions between him and the others.

Also liked the bit where Queen Mary started having a conversation in German. It's almost like the House of Windsor was, prior to 1917, called the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (and was of German descent). Only changing it because of anti-German views brought on by WWI (not the best time to remind people (both the ones getting killed in the trenches, and their families), that the leader of the enemy (Kaiser Wilhelm II) is cousins with the monarch). Prior to the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Britain was ruled by the House of Hanover. Basically, the British royal family is a bunch of Germans.

[jon-el87]

Season 1, episode 4: "Act of God".

According to Queen Mary, the monarchy gives ordinary people and ideal to strive towards... that implies that anyone could reach their position, rather than being the exclusive sphere of people born into it. Granted, in more recent years, you've got some more common folk marrying into monarchies, but that would still limit it to those able to marry into that status. Either way, it's not something that you can reach, simply by working hard. Really shows the delusions of some involved in it.

Had never heard of this incident, prior to watching the episode for the first time. Really hits you harder, when you watch it during a pandemic. Kept thinking about how the current situation will be depicted in the media nearly 70 years from now.

No idea if Venetia Scott was a real person. It was smart to have her be present in the earlier episodes, rather than having her show up out of nowhere, and being superimportant to Winston, at the start of this episode (which is often the case on TV shows).

[jon-el87]

A Swedish version is apparently in development (though, not for Netflix). I wonder who they'll cast as Hitler and Göring. Or are they going to ignore that bit of history?

[jon-el87]

Took forever to get through season 5. Basically, there are some breakdowns of royal marriages in the 1990s. That's about it for the royal family in the 1990s, up to this point. Clearly, past decades were more eventful to both the royal family, and Great Britain, than the 1990s.

The season ends in 1997, with Blair having just been made Prime Minister, and Diana is still alive. The sixth season is supposed to be the last, but they've still got 25 years of the Queen's life to get through. Because of her real-life death (which hadn't happened, when season five was written and entered production), I'd imagine that they'd want to close out the show with her death (and the crown being passed on to the next generation).

[jon-el87]

Hopefully, the final six episodes of season six will be an improvement over the first four episodes. The four episodes really linger at the final weeks of Diana's life and her death, which has already been dealt with in other projects. Most notably in a 2006 movie, written by the same writer as this show.

I'm still expecting the final episode to deal with the death of Elizabeth II, and the crown being passed to Charles. Meaning that those six episodes would have to cover 25 years, or do a massive time jump between the 9th and 10th episodes of the season.