It’s interesting to watch dramatizations of events that I watched unfold as a child. It’s always going to be weird for me to watch any movie or television show centered around the September 11th attacks in the US. I remember distinctly being in French class during my sophomore year of high school. I also remember bits of pieces of the O.J. Simpson trial and the chaos that ensued beforehand. I remember watching the bronco chase because it was during the NBA finals when I was a kid between the Houston Rockets and New York Knicks, all of this while we were on vacation visiting my aunt and cousins in Mississippi. Watching both the ESPN documentary and Ryan Murphy’s dramatization in American Crime Story brought back memories of how much I didn’t understand about the situation as I watched it unfold. I do remember watching the news with my mom and hearing about what was going on with Princess Diana of Wales, and her death. Now that we’re seeing more content around Princess Diana lately, all those memories are coming back.
The Crown, created by Peter Morgan, tells the story of Queen Elizabeth II (Imelda Staunton) and various aspects of her reign in the United Kingdom. It explores her life, her relationships, her family, and the surrounding politics involving prime ministers. The Crown also offers a lot of commentary about the role of the royals in British society, in addition to the United Kingdom’s place in the world. The Crown season five is ten episodes and is currently streaming on Netflix.
The Crown season five takes place years after Prince Charles (Dominic West) and Princess Diana (Elizabeth Debicki) are married. Time has not been kind to their marriage, as they give off the appearance of having a happily ever after marriage. In reality, their marriage is in disarray. They are living apart, only really being married in front of the press, and Charles is secretly conducting an affair with Camilla Parker Bowles (Olivia Williams). Meanwhile, the Queen is wrestling with Diana struggling to maintain the appearance of a united royal family. She’s also struggling with a new world that is changing its view of what the British monarchy means to England and the whole world. There’s more scrutiny than ever for the royal family, as they are bombarded with embarrassing episodes and scandals.
I remember watching this unfold in real time when I was younger, and somehow this feels relatively tame compared to how this played out.
This season focuses pretty closely on the scandals of the royal family, which feels like they were grasping for anything to make for more juicy scandals. Season four starts laying down the groundwork for their marriage to fall apart, but I wish more could have been seen about what happened. Since this season focuses more on the royal family, it’s the first time I felt like there was a lot of filler to ensure more stuff was happening. I feel like there would have been more news coverage of certain events during this season.
In a rare turn for a great series, season five of The Crown not only sports a lackluster story but the performances are just okay. As a show that is constantly in the running for awards contention year after year, I don’t see a scenario where recognition is warranted. Staunton is good as Elizabeth, as she portrays an aging and increasingly out-of-touch queen that is struggling to figure out the monarch’s current place.
Charles, in particular, comes off as someone who cares a little too much about what the people want and is making Game of Thrones-style moves to get the queen to abdicate. I’ve read that this never happened, which is frustrating because it feels like the creative team is just manufacturing drama for the sake of trying to make a compelling story. The problem there is that if you have to make stuff up to make it more compelling, the story isn’t that great. Debicki feels like she’s doing an impression of Diana, trying to mimic mannerisms and vocal patterns.
They don’t have any chemistry together, which I realize is part of the point because their marriage is on the rocks.
They just feel lifeless together, when in reality, there should still be something there.
One of the stronger parts of season five is the prep for Diana’s bombshell interview with the BBC regarding her treatment, issues within the royal family, and just feeling isolated. The actual interview provides a little sympathy for her and Debicki portrays a desperate and alone Diana who is looking for any scenario to have her voice heard. The royal family feels like they have targets on their back constantly, as they are increasingly viewed with skepticism. This interview was a big deal because it was a rare real look at the royal family at their low point. It felt a little like The Wizard of Oz moment where you pull back the curtain and realize, “oh, this is how this is run.”
The other part of the season I enjoyed was the episodes involving Mohamed (Salim Daw) and Dodi (Khalid Abdalla) Al Fayed. The storylines involving them, although not a lot in the grand course of the entire season, are a great look at the hard work someone can put in to make a name for themselves. It’s a stark contrast to the royals, who inherit wealth and power because they are born or married into the family. It parallels nicely with Diana, who isn’t so much want power but looking to be different from what a Princess should be. I wish there were more of them throughout the season and I’m curious to see if they will be in the beginning parts of the final season where I’m sure Diana and Dodi’s death will be addressed.
The Crown season five is perfectly fine, a departure from a show that has historically been great.
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Maybe season five is supposed to be a metaphor for how the Queen’s status around England (and quite frankly the world) was starting to lose its luster. Maybe season five was supposed to parallel this loss of standing in TV circles. More than likely, season five might not be that good under almost impossible expectations for a show to be this consistently good. The queen’s death in real life casts a huge shadow on how season six will wrap up the series. In the face of growing scrutiny and more embarrassing incidents involving the royal family treating outsiders, I’m curious to see where season six will wrap everything up. Until then, the penultimate season of one of Netflix’s crowned jewels is missed opportunity.
Score: 7/10
