The Crown - Netflix's most expensive show to date - is good. In fact, it's fairly spectacular. And I say that even though my interest in Queen Elizabeth's life is lukewarm at best (Ol' Bertie was a far more interesting monarch).

Two and a half episodes in now. Everyone is perfectly cast. The main actress has the voice and mannerisms down perfectly. The sets are gorgeous. The costume designs are perfect.

Emmy nominations incoming, I expect.

 

I'll be throwing a watch party for it tonight. Review to come later.

 

Relevant necro---season 3 is out on Netflix. I'll check in later when I've watched a few episodes.

 

What episode does Mountbatten go fishing?

 

Not in the first three.

 

Not in this season

 

Again relevant necro. Season 4 was released yesterday.

Now, I'm against the monarchy, but seeing how terrible these people were to poor Diana only makes me be against it even more.

I mean, I knew the story before watching this show, but seeing how cold and unfeeling these people were it's no wonder that she felt terrible all the time.

Of course, I realize that this is very fictionalized, but being aware of Diana's fate doesn't make one trusting in the royal family.

 

The 70s to 90s is definitely one of the uglier periods in modern British monarchy history. I wonder where they're going to end the series? Di's death?

Older actors have already been cast for season 5 and 6.

Also... Gillian Anderson feels like a miscast for Thatcher. She's playing it more like a caricature, whereas all the other parts feel like real people.

 

@KHAAAAAAAN!! Series will be 6 seasons in total, covering the 20th century period of Elizabeth's reign. From Wikipedia:

Btw, Imelda Staunton, who will play the Queen in S5 & 6 is the actress who played Dolores Umbridge.

I binged S4 yeserday. Some thoughts:

Agreed with Khan on Anderson's portrayal of Thatcher, it felt kinda off. I find no fault with the rest of the cast, this has always been one of the show's strengths.

On one hand I can sympathize with the royals---their position sort of thrusts them into this theater of pretending be to be content and dignified in public while suffering from general misery and rich people problems behind closed doors. There is the, I suppose, natural instinct of a not-rich person of wanting to scoff at the characters on the screen ("oh you're being a petty bitch because you've been waited on by servants your whole life, boo-fucking-hoo"). But in the same way royals can never really understand "normal" people, I can never truly understand them.

The show tries its damndest to portray them as real people and I do feel for even assholes like Charles in the marriage department--he clearly was into Camilla, but in S3, the people he was closest to essentially conspired to make that marriage impossible. Otoh, the show doesn't shy away from showing that much of the trouble with his marriage to Diana was of his own making--he couldn't stand her being so charming, capturing people's attention and attracting their admiration while he was left as the boorish, awakward one, throwing tantrums when someone dared laugh during a speech or when he all but called Diana a slut for dancing on stage. Anne put it very well--the age chasm between them was just too great.

That moment when Diana hugged the Queen having come to her clearly desperate and the Queen froze up, all stiff--jesus, this family is so stunted that they don't understand such a basic show of affection as a hug. S3 & 4 make a point of showing that the Queen, whether by temperament or through the circumstance of her position, has grown cold and unfeeling, like she thinks she needs to be made of stone to get through the day.

Lots of nuance here to ponder. I continue to enjoy the show for what it is.

 

While the show does hit all the major historical events, I think this is what I like the best about it. Since the advent of television, the royal family hasn't really allowed themselves to be "real" in public. They are obsessed with maintaining the outward semblance of perfection, in part because their ceremonial role silently mandates it, but largely because the 'royal hunter' paparazzi are so goddamn ridiculous in their pursuit of scandal.

I'm mostly certain that the Royals are not actual lizard people behind closed doors (Harry and William seem very nearly to be normal dudes), but the show is made from an onlookers pov, so it definitely flavors all the drama toward the suggestion that the outward stiff persona is also the inward persona. And yet at the same time everyone still manages to be believable and likeable (or dislikeable when the show cues it).

 

Keep in mind this is exactly what the show writer wants you to come away feeling - the reality of history is very different. Diana was not the poor little waif that she's mythologised as. Charles wasn't a good husband, but neither was Diana a good wife. And honestly...this season has strayed much further away from the "dramatised but mostly honest" style that previous seasons stuck to. There's very clearly an agenda in the writing and direction to make Diana a victim here, or at least there is so far. I'm most of the way through the season, but not quite finished.

There's also been a few...questionable moments like their suggestion that Andrew is the Queen's favourite, and foreshadowing the whole sex scandal. Weird choice, my perception is that episode was written very much to turn people against Andrew and the Queen.

Basically I've got very mixed feelings about this season. Previous seasons were great, because they hit a good middle road. They kept it interesting, but mostly avoided leading the viewer into any particular conclusions. This season has abandoned that all together, and is being pretty clearly anti-royal.

On a personal level, I'm reasonably anti-royal anyway but I think its a big shame to abuse the neutral reputation that the show had previously garnered this way.

 

I swear every camera shot of Thatcher shows her leaning at a 45 degree. It’s a very odd portrayal.

 

Just finished the last couple of episodes last night. Definitely not up to the standard of previous seasons, purely on the basis of the clear bias in the story telling. Everything else was of the same high quality as previous, but genuinely disappointed that, at best they decided to move away from their previous neutrality, at worst they decided to abuse their previous neutrality.

 

Season 4 of the Crown was miserable watching. Every time I saw Charles’s name in the next episode summary, I wanted to turn off Netflix and go away.

I don’t know much about the history of Charles or Diana, and I hope to god it wasn’t as one-sided as the show portrayed. Obviously, Diana didn’t understand Charles at all, and I’d personally be humiliated by the public stunts she pulled, but jesus. Where’s my coffeeshop AU fanfic where Diana dumps his miserable ass. Knowing the real life ending of it all (Diana dies tragically, Charles gets to happily marry the love of his life) just makes it bitter.

Honestly, it makes me not want to watch anymore of the series.

I’d also agree that Thatcher didn’t feel like a real person. Just overacted in general, I felt.

 

It wasn't, if the majority of second hand accounts are to be believed. Diana was apparently a bit of a self-involved snowflake behind closed doors, and although it was a good relationship in the beginning, they started to have massive rows over their actions in public, over their differing personal tastes, and over Charles' lingering friendship/affair with Camilla. Charles started to spend more and more time with Camilla, while Diana had an affair with her bodyguard, Barry Manakee. It was all downhill from there.

 

That's pretty much exactly it, theirs was a pretty shitty relationship all round. Diana should have known exactly what she was getting into, both in terms of joining the royal family and marrying Charles specifically. She moved in the same circles as the royals, so she had to have known what the life was like, and she also moved in the right circles to have known about Charles' long term love affair with Camilla, and the whole story behind it. You choose to marry a man is blatantly in love with someone else, and you're asking for problems unless you're willing to let those indiscretions slide. She seems to have thought she could bend the royal family in general, and Charles specifically, to her whims. And when it didn't work out like that, she threw a fit and decided to try and burn the place down around her.

 

Apparently the Secretary of State for Culture is asking Netflix to put a "health warning" style advisory on season 4, warning viewers that the contents are highly fictionalised and should not be taken as a factually accurate retelling of history. He's concerned that viewers who didn't live through the events being portrayed may not be aware of how significantly they differ from historical reality.

Not sure that it'll happen, but Netflix might just take the easy route and agree to slap the warning on in order to avoid a fight.

 

What a world we live in, where a TV show telling an obviously fictionalized version of events needs a warning about being a fictionalized version of events.

 

People are idiots. Twitter users started laying into Charles & Camilla in the replies to tweets on their account based on what was portrayed in the show – it got pretty bad by the time someone had the good sense to disable the replies.

It’s actually been rather fascinating to watch and I kinda wish I could‘ve fit this into my Master‘s thesis, which dealt (in part) with portrayals and perceptions of the Royal Family in film & television.

 

I think the problem is that there's just enough obvious truth and easily verified truth in the show that people who don't have much awareness of the events find it easy to think that the whole thing is broadly true.

You get a lot of people saying "I know it's fictionalized but there's got to be a lot of truth in there".