November 6, 2024

THE CROWN – SEASON FIVE (2022) – Another excellent season!

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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Crown hasn’t had a new season in two years, so its return is greeted with eager anticipation more so in light of Queen Elizabeth II’s recent tragic passing. Every new block of two seasons features a completely new cast. The Queen this time is portrayed by Imelda Staunton, who some of us may recognise from her role as the nasty Professor Dolores Umbridge in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. If I have to draw comparisons with the prior seasons, I will say Imelda’s Queen is the least effective and likeable rendition. Perhaps this is because she is featured less strongly as before, and her role overshadowed by the more illustrious events involving Prince Charles and Princess Diana.

Elizabeth Debicki (who was in TENET), does a remarkable job not only looking and behaving like the real Lady Diana, but also gave a performance that was authentic and never making it feel like she was just mimicking the real person. Her performance reminded me how awful Kristen Stewart and Naomi Watts were in Spencer and Diana respectively. The rest of the cast members were uniformly superb as exhibited uncanny resemblances to their counterparts for real with their body posture, mannerism and costumes. Peter Morgan aptly provided a script that is worthy of the subject and is always intriguing and perfect. He cleverly inserts actual footages, news clips and excerpts from reported incidents to add to the feel of authenticity. Case in point being the almost verbatim reenactment of the intimate phone conversation between Prince Charles and Camilla in 1989 that was illegally intercepted and recorded. The entire conversation was eventually published several years later causing a major scandal.

The real Diana in 1994 on the left, and The Crown's version on the right
The real Princess Diana in 1994 on the left, and The Crown’s version on the right

Season Five was conscience not to be focus only on Charles and Diana. There were episodes that diverted the attention to the activities of other members of the royal family such as Prince Philip’s close friendship with another family member that border lined on being more than that, and Princess Margaret reminiscing her forbidden love affair with Captain Peter Townsend. It was a rare treat to see James Bond alumni Timothy Dalton in action again playing an older, but still dashing version of Peter Townsend in that episode. Then there were some distractions involving the young Prince Williams’ enrolment to the famous Eton College, and an episode involving the Anglo-Russian relationship. However, none of these were remotely as absorbing and explosive as when the story revolves around Charles, Diana and Camilla.

Season Five begins with a flashback of the christening of the Royal Yacht, Britannia in 1953 and ends with its decommissioning in 1994. These serve as the season’s “bookends,” marking the passage of time and drawing attention to the stark difference between the upheaval in between. The excellent calibre of the series has been effectively upheld by Season 5, and we eagerly await its continuation.

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