I should have been moved to tears. Instead, I burst out laughing.
The sixth and final season of The Crown (Netflix) is about the death of Lady Di, which I remember like it was yesterday even though it happened on August 31, 1997.
It should have been touching, dramatic, sensitive.
Instead, the series features… the ghost of Lady Di casually interacting with the Queen and Prince Charles!
Ridiculous! All he was missing was a sheet with two holes in it for his eyes!
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Ghostbusters
What a disappointment! Not only do we resort to this stupid process of bringing the dead back to life, but the dialogues between the ghost of Lady Di and her ex-husband and mother-in-law are completely crazy!
Peter Morgan, the series’ creator, even imagined the ghost of Dodi Al-Fayed (Diana’s lover, who also died in Paris in 1997) appearing to her father Mohamed Al-Fayed.
My God, as they say at Buckingham Palace!
Dodi appears before his father to accuse him of being a bad parent. Diana appears before Charles to tell him how good he looked when he visited her at the morgue. And Diana appears before Queen Elizabeth to tell her that it is time for her to listen to her people.
But what kind of stupid dialogues are these?
I’ve always hated it when a dead character reappears in a movie or TV series. It always seemed to me to be a lazy storytelling process because screenwriters lacked inspiration.
Photo from Netflix website
But when it comes to very real public figures, the process is even more grotesque!
Given the outcry that his use of “ghosts” caused, Peter Morgan had to justify himself in an interview. “It was a way of showing that it is still alive in the minds of those who are left. Diana was one of a kind and that inspired me to find a unique way to portray her. She deserved special narrative treatment.” Ah, that’s special, it’s special.
But then why did you offer the same “narrative treatment” to Dodi Al-Fayed?
Speaking of Dodi: Why did the author fabricate dialogues between him and Lady Di on the fateful evening, implying that he had proposed to her?
However, according to British police investigations, “there is no evidence that the Princess of Wales intended to become engaged or marry Dodi Al-Fayed.”
DODI VS JOHN
In the series, Dodi Al-Fayed’s father complains that “no one talks about his son’s death.” And he asks, “Why do they hate me?” Is it the fate of the Arabs to always be hated by the West?
Firstly, it is wrong to say that no one spoke about Dodi’s death. Secondly, it wasn’t because he was Arab that Lady Di was in the spotlight! Because the princess was the most famous and popular person on the planet!
Even if Dodi had been named John Smith, his death would have been overshadowed by the death of the “People’s Princess.”
Perhaps the ghost of Lady Di should come visit us again to clarify the matter.
