The second part of the final season of The Crown has a more somber tone, compared to the first one which chronicled Diana’s dramatic exit. It now plays more like a family drama with a few episodes concentrating on Prince William’s rise to matinee idol-dom. So it doesn’t have much of a historical feel to it since the events it dramatizes are fairly recent.
As usual, each episode is brilliantly written by Peter Morgan. The dialog sparkles and tugs at the heart. Morgan is so good at what he does that we’re left hoping that the real monarchs he writes about are just as eloquent.
Admittedly, I wasn’t looking forward to the episodes about William. This generation of royalty hasn’t sparked my interest. They look more physically attractive, but somehow they lack a certain mystique. They also seem to be aging very quickly.
As for Harry, with all the brouhaha he and his duchess wife have caused, they’ve proven themselves to be boring in their own Netflix show.
But Peter Morgan has set up a moving story about William, who blames his father Charles (Dominic West) for the death of his dear mother. His eventual reconciliation is beautifully written and acted. As William, fresh out-of-drama school Ed McVey is so believable. I’ve never been familiar with the ways of the real prince he plays. I did see a documentary about him and his wife Kate. Their British accents are so thick I could barely catch up with what they were saying. Ed McVey’s portrayal makes him sound more like how we imagine members of royalty are supposed to speak.
Another episode has William meeting Kate Middleton (Meg Bellamy) at the University of St. Andrews. It’s a predictable boy-meets-girl and boy-loses-girl story, but according to the script, Kate’s pushy mother did what she could to make the boy win back the girl. A lot of these scenes are charming and cleverly written though they merely play like your typical Gossip Girl episdoe, but with aristocratic British accents and without the mean girl bitchery. Well, there is a bit of meanness because the script repeatedly has people marveling at William’s good looks while reminding us that he takes after his beautiful mother, and obviously not the Windsors.
William’s father had declared that his pinup was Barbra Streisand
In one of the more amusing scenes, Prince Philip (Jonathan Pryce) visits William in his dorm room to implore the boy to forgive his father. But before the serious stuff is discussed, grandpa observes his grandson’s taste in interior décor, which is best described as 1990s supermodel pinups, the anorexic period. Philip recalls that back in his day it was shapely goddesses like Rita Hayworth. He fails to mention Charles’ avant-garde taste in décor. William’s father had declared that his pinup was Barbra Streisand.
The most interesting episode shows us the final years of Princess Margaret, whose partying and jetsetting ways have caught up with her health. She was every inch the second daughter. Allow me to explain why I place emphasis on her being a second one. In my family, many female relatives suffer from what we dub the “second daughter syndrome.” It’s a “curse” that’s passed on to every generation. A second daughter is always more adventurous than her older sister. Or to put it bluntly, she’s a headache to their parents. This so-called curse is consistent in both my father’s side of the family and my mother’s. Other families appear to have undergone the same situation. Monaco’s Princess Stephanie is a second daughter and so was Princess Margaret. (Rest assured my relatives aren’t blue bloods.)
The Princess Margaret episode is compelling because she led a colorful life. For that reason I think she warrants an entire series of her own. In The Crown, every actress who played her managed to stand out. It’s a meaty part and for as long as the actress is suitable for it, she’s destined to run away with the show. Leslie Mansfield is up to the challenge of playing the ailing Margaret, who despite her health issues continued to drink, smoke, and party the night away. Despite the second daughter syndrome, the Queen remained patient and loyal to her.
A thrilling flashback has the two sisters sneaking out of Buckingham to join in the revelry brought about by the end of World War II. It’s such a joyous occasion that Elizabeth is lured into engaging in something illegal in a dance club. No, she doesn’t smoke anything. She merely dances the jitterbug which was deemed unlawful in the kingdom she would soon rule. This is the most exciting part of the final season as it accurately captures the euphoria of the moment. It’s easy to see then why the future queen would let her hair down and go dirty dancing.
Back to the present, ailing Margaret reminisces about that night and tells her sister that no one is aware of the tremendous sacrifice Elizabeth had made when she was crowned Queen of England. It wasn’t the crowning-of-thorns sacrifice though. It’s up to you to judge whether or not Peter Morgan meant to impart Margaret’s shallowness by making that kind of assessment. Or was it just a misguided tribute to the Queen?
In terms of intrigue and entertainment value, the rest of the episodes pale in comparison. We see the queen face the backlash of the public after Diana’s death. To save face, she is almost forced to do away with traditions that have cost taxpayers a lot of money. The final episode also has her in a quandary. With the Queen Mum and her beloved sister gone, she‘s rudely awakened by the realization of her own mortality. Again she’s confronted with another painful issue which is abdication.
This is when the show gets gimmicky. The queen’s younger selves suddenly materialize and give her their 10 cents (or is that shillings?) regarding abdication. Seeing the stars who played Elizabeth in the previous seasons—Clare Foy and Olivia Colman—is most welcome. Yet here again is a storytelling device that plays more like a spoof on Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. It’s too outrageous for a show with a serious subject matter.
There was a backlash on The Crown when the real queen passed away last year
There was a backlash on The Crown when the real queen passed away last year. Critics accused the show of concocting fairy tales about the royal family. Perhaps it’s the reason Peter Morgan chose to end the storyline with the events that transpired in 2005. The final scenes do play like a loving eulogy. As Philip tells the queen, the next generation of the British monarchy is nothing compared to her. With that exquisitely staged finale, Elizabeth’s legacy is secured.
At certain moments of the show, however, I felt fidgety because much as I wanted to finish the entire thing in one sitting, I just couldn’t. There lies the difference between previous seasons and this last one. Seasons One to Four were spiced with intriguing personalities, from Winston Churchill and Wallis Simpson to Jacqueline Kennedy and Margaret Thatcher. It was a most glamorous history lesson, though the lessons are according to what Peter Morgan thought had happened. Still the show was thoroughly entertaining.
Season 6 does without the juicy topics that the British tabloids gleefully reported on their front pages. Sans the palace intrigues, today’s generation of princes and princesses have really nothing to show for. This makes the last two seasons quite unsatisfying because we’re already familiar with what they’re famous or infamous for.
Yet it was interesting to see the lead cast finally get comfortable in the roles they play. Initially, I didn’t have any enthusiasm over Imelda Staunton, Jonathan Pryce, and Dominic West when they took over the roles of Elizabeth, Philip, and Charles, respectively. But they’ve grown on me as they’ve grown into their parts. They’re at their finest during the episodes about Prince William. They’re not my favorite episodes, but they do play like a well-made TV Christmas special that should collect a truckload of Emmy Awards next year.
Thus if you’re keen only on witnessing the splendor of Buckingham’s storied past, then don’t go beyond Season 4. But if you don’t mind watching a beautifully-crafted and expertly acted Father Knows Best type of TV special, finish the entire series. You’ll still be rewarded with that final scene that displays a majesty that would have done the late queen proud.
