Three queens, left to right: Olivia Colman, Imelda Staunton and Claire Foy in The Crown (The Crown/Netflix)
“The Crown” is a fast-paced, marathon series that spans nearly 60 years of history in six seasons of serious drama and frivolous gossip. Sometimes moving quickly through the decades, sometimes plodding through the minutes, the show has been destination television since 2016, a lavish, low-stakes detour in a time of confusing turmoil.
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Does the series have a deeper meaning beyond the impressive feat of expensive storytelling? It's hard to know.
As we contemplate a future in which we'll be forced to judge new royal events without the help of The Crown, it's time to present the first (and final) annual Crownie Awards.
The Crown has always oscillated between emphasizing the actors' resemblance to their real-life counterparts (Alex Jennings, uncannily imitating the Duke of Windsor) and seeming indifference (Dominic West, clearly better looking and more competent than his character, Prince Charles). ). ).
Luther Ford as Prince Harry and Ed McVey as Prince William in the sixth season of The Crown (The Crown/Netflix)
Still, it was a shock to see Prince Heinrich in the final season. Played by Luther Ford, Henry looks like a bitter, charmless Ron Weasley with strange Prince Valiant-style bangs.
The Crown often dressed its actors in replicas of their characters' most recognizable clothing, which gave a nice sense of verisimilitude. (See, for example, the wedding dresses of Princess Elizabeth, Lady Diana Spencer and Camilla Parker-Bowles.)
Elizabeth Debicki as Diana in the fifth season of The Crown (The Crown/Netflix)
As in real life, the best outfit of all was the stunning Christina Stambolian dress that Diana (Elizabeth Debicki) wore in Season 5 when Prince Charles appeared on television at a party in Kensington Gardens that same evening and confessed that he was Camilla Parker-Bowles was unfaithful.
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It was exciting to see Debicki's performance in this dress: figure-hugging, off-the-shoulder, with an asymmetrical hem and a chiffon train that cascades mischievously from the waist; an impressive recreation of this unforgettable moment.
The Crown was peppered with sharp comments and snobbish scorn, and the best insults came in the third season when the Duke of Windsor briefly returned to London from his unfortunate Paris exile for his brother's funeral. He asks for money after his family threatens to cut off his allowance and demands that his wife, formerly known as Wallis Simpson, should be given the honorary title of Her Royal Highness due to her close royal status.
Derek Jacobi in the third season of The Crown (The Crown/Netflix)
No one is particularly understanding, and this hardens their hearts. England, he writes to Wallis, is a “cold, sunless hell.”
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“And what a collection of ice-cold monsters my family is,” he continues. “How cold, bitter, boring and chubby.”
Who is this kindly old man who, in recent episodes, exudes benevolent wisdom, asking people how they feel, recalling his days as a young father and, in his wedding speech to Carlos, praising Queen Elizabeth for overcoming “the agony, “that you went through” successfully kept secret? and Camilla?
Jonathan Pryce and Imelda Staunton in the final season of The Crown (The Crown/Netflix)
Surely it can't be Prince Philip (Jonathan Pryce), the Queen's cantankerous husband, who in real life had a reputation for being a petulant grump who reveled in his own hurtful attitude. (“You're a woman, right?” Felipe once said to a Kenyan woman who offered him a gift. While speaking to an Aboriginal leader in Australia, he asked, “Do you still throw spears at each other?”).
Earlier seasons of The Crown showed Philip's harsher, more frustrated side, and in the later episodes there were some echoes of the old grumpy spirit, such as when he tells an incompetent officer, “For God's sake, take the damn picture already.” “! ” But most of all, he looked like a wise old patriarch.
Kate Middleton's mother Carole has always proven to be a model of elegant discretion and admirably good character. She exudes helpful motherly enthusiasm and a supportive smile for her daughter and son-in-law. She never seemed eager to attract attention or exploit her royal connections, at least not in public.
Eve Best as Carole Middleton in The Crown (The Crown/Netflix)
So it was disturbing to see her portrayed in season six as a humorless social climber whose only goal was to push her daughter to capture Prince William.
Middleton is undoubtedly happy that Kate and William got together. Perhaps, as Tina Brown wrote, she actually initiated Kate's decision to go to the University of St. Andrews, where Prince William enrolled, with the aim of setting her daughter on the prince's path.
But the show's depiction of Carole (Eve Best) reacting with complete dissatisfaction when Kate brings home her non-William boyfriend, a harmless aristocrat named Rupert, and then violently berating Kate for not catching the prince? That seems not only unlikely, but also unfair.
Camilla's job on The Crown is to be cheerful, supportive and humble, no matter how tortured and miserable Carlos is and how often he makes her listen to his complaints on the phone and whine about his problems. When he calls her on the eve of their wedding, he excitedly speculates about the possibility of his mother abdicating and leaving the throne to him.
Olivia Williams in The Crown (The Crown/Netflix)
“Just think about the kids,” Camilla (Olivia Williams) tells him, suppressing her dismay at the prospect so as not to make him uncomfortable. But as he told her in the famous “tampon scandal” conversation in 1989, “Your greatest accomplishment is loving me.”
(The runner-up in this category is Kate Middleton, played by Meg Bellamy, who also spends a lot of time on the phone, where she listens more than she talks.)
In the final season, a variety of spirits emerged from the ethereal world to calm, advise, and declaim the various living characters. This device worked well when Queen Elizabeth (Imelda Staunton, in the latest version of The Queen) was visited in the past by her ghosts, played by Clare Foy and Olivia Colman; They served to emphasize the poignancy of the passage of time in his long life.
Khalid Abdalla and Elizabeth Debicki as Dodi and Diana in The Crown (The Crown/Netflix)
But did we really need to see Dodi's spirit and Diana's spirit ease the guilt of those they left behind? NO.
Who knows how the royal family actually talks to each other behind closed doors. But it seems unlikely that their real-life conversations would contain so many long, explanatory comments about royal protocols, precedents, duties and history, “parentheses that seem copied from Wikipedia,” as Helen Lewis wrote in The Atlantic.
“What would he know about Alfred the Great, the Rod of Justice and Mercy, Edward the Confessor, William the Conqueror or Henry VIII?” Queen Mary calls out to Elizabeth in the first season, speaking of Prince Philip, who is from the Greek exile comes from the royal family. “It is the Church of England, my dear, not the Church of Denmark or Greece.”
The characters of “The Crown” also had a habit of articulating their emotions and exposing their interpersonal conflicts in ways that would be embarrassing even in 21st century American families, let alone the repressed and rigid British aristocrats of the past.
A family portrait in The Crown (The Crown/Netflix)
“Brother has really turned against his brother,” King Edward tells his younger brother, the future King George, as the two argue over Edward's abdication in season three.
In the same season, Prince Philip requests a private meeting with American astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins at Buckingham Palace. He's going through some sort of identity crisis. “I wasn’t able to achieve what I would have liked,” he tells the astonished guests.
What a study in the contrasts between Queen Elizabeth – so responsible and overwhelmed by history – and her sister, Princess Margaret, who was seemingly put on earth to have passionate and ill-advised love affairs, smoke and drink excessively and to celebrate . until late at night in Mustique. “I would rather die than play sports,” Margarita says in season six when Isabel suggests ways to cheer herself up after a series of strokes.
Viola Prettejohn and Beau Gadson as young Isabel and Margaret (The Crown/Netflix)
But the two share a rare intimacy and deep affection. “Hello, you,” they greet each other and Isabel is a tender and loving nurse for her sick sister. Their final scene together comes at the end of an exuberant flashback to the night they snuck away to celebrate with the crowd on Victory Day in 1945.
At the end of the evening, the two princesses return to Buckingham Palace and Elizabeth asks Margaret, now the older version, played by Lesley Manville, if she is going in.
“I’m afraid not,” Margarita replies. “But I will always be by your side, no matter what.” It is the most touching moment of the entire series.
© The New York Times 2023