DISCLAIMER: The following review contains minimal spoilers for The Crown Season 5. Proceed at your peril.
The Crown‘s fifth season has landed on Netflix; with it, a resuscitation of interest in drama involving royal, obscenely wealthy white people. There’s nothing better than watching the painfully unaware and privileged essentially fold in on themselves. Also, can anyone say “Camillagate”? Watching that transcript adapted verbatim for the screen was … interesting. I’ll never resist shuddering when I hear or read the word “Tampax” again.
Peter Morgan’s juicy period series takes plenty of historical liberties. As an American, I’m well aware that it’s not an accurate portrayal of events, but the truth is never quite as entertaining, is it? It was easy to feel far removed from the show when it chronicled Queen Elizabeth’s reign from before I was born. However, now we’re in the ’90s, and while I was young, I recall reading about the House of Windsor’s messy antics in the tabloids (not that they were utterly factual, of course).
Undoubtedly, a shadow hangs over The Crown following the long-reigning monarch’s death in September. For some, it might even present specific events through a new filter. One thing’s for sure: Season 5 belongs to Elizabeth Debicki.
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In a somewhat tepid and weaker season of The Crown compared to its predecessors, Debicki shines as Princess Diana. Despite the meticulous (and frivolous) dissection of the physical differences between Debicki and Diana on social media, she looks the most similar to the People’s Princess than any onscreen portrayal I’ve seen thus far. It’s not only her appearance — Debicki embodies Diana to a tee.
From Diana’s speech patterns and vocal inflections to her facial expressions and physicality, Debicki inhabits this role more than any other actor on the show with their respective parts. You believe you’re watching the late princess onscreen. Debicki brings kindness, empathy, fire and searing vulnerability to her performance. She captures all the nuances and facets of this beloved public figure’s troubled life. If she isn’t nominated for an Emmy next year, there is no justice in the acting world.
Do the writers of The Crown show heavy bias toward Diana? Perhaps. It’s decisively evident in episodes like “No Woman’s Land” when she decides to participate in the Panorama interview and Charles’s ostensibly genuine apology to her after their divorce. Yet we see much of Charles’s perspective and even the viewpoint of a closely involved third party: Queen Elizabeth.
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The “War of the Waleses” significantly consumes most of Season 5, becoming a focal point for audiences that thrusts the queen onto the back burner. It’s fitting, given the season’s theme centering on modernity and the usefulness of an outdated monarchy.
We see senior family members refusing to keep up with the times, perpetually stuck in the past while upholding Victorian values. Newspaper headline after newspaper headline debates whether there’s a need for a sovereign, with the majority of the UK on the series claiming it’s time to ditch the monarchy. The younger generation steps to the fore as then-Prince Charles endeavors to modernize the Crown and look toward the future. Even at that time, three decades ago, he was sitting in heir apparent territory for longer than usual. His impatience for his mother to step aside and let him take charge smacks of manbaby grousing. Dominic West conveys this perfectly.
While Debicki is a scene stealer, other seasonal standouts include leading players West, Imelda Staunton as Queen Elizabeth, Jonathan Pryce as Prince Philip and Lesley Manville as Princess Margaret. That said, Manville is woefully underutilized here.
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Having watched her play the larger-than-life Lydia Quigley in Harlots, I know she has the emotional breadth and versatility to portray the lively yet unpredictable Margaret. We only glimpse this in flashes, though, through no fault of Manville’s. This season is missing that fiery spark from previous installments, and Margaret contributed tremendously to injecting said spark.
In addition to questioning the monarchy’s relevance and need to adapt to a modernized world, Season 5 addresses the Crown’s colonizing ways, pervasive racism and abhorrent oppression of marginalized communities/countries. We see this notably through Mohamed Al-Fayed and his son Dodi’s stories. Via flashbacks to Mohamed’s childhood, we hear his family rebuke the British for invading and controlling Egypt. However, Mohamed admires them and wants to become more like his oppressors. It’s a strange sort of Stockholm Syndrome.
Salim Daw and Khalid Abdalla are excellent supporting players who will undoubtedly have larger roles in Season 6 as we loom closer to Diana and Dodi’s tragic deaths. Jonny Lee Miller is another solid performer as the beleaguered prime minister John Major. (According to the real-life Major, Charles never planned to usurp the queen with his aid. He criticized that bit as a “barrel load of malicious nonsense.”)
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The Crown gets a little hamfisted with the symbolism this season, in imagery and dialogue, while packing it on for emphasis. The most prominent symbol is the now-defunct Britannia, Queen Elizabeth’s royal yacht. The season opens with the queen in her younger years christening the ship for its maiden voyage and ends with it taking its last trip. After Philip crafts a laundry list of mechanical issues, renovating the Britannia becomes a big to-do, one the royal family expects taxpayers to cover, expense-wise.
Here’s where the stunning lack of awareness comes into play: the queen expects hardworking, lower-class citizens to pay for her flashy boat with their hard-earned money. Admittedly, these scenes made my eyes roll.
Circling back to the War of the Waleses — The Crown relies so much on the Diana and Charles of it all that if you remove them from the equation, the season would be pretty dull. Even though I understand the “why” behind it, it’s jarring to shift focus almost entirely from the queen, Philip, Margaret, etc., after having four seasons of them participating in the A-plot. While Season 4 spotlighted Charles, Diana and Camilla, it also didn’t sideline the whole reason this show exists.
That’s why Elizabeth Debicki deserves that Emmy. She practically carries this season on her back. Though the pacing is slower (sometimes painfully so) and the narrative too reliant on the power of Diana’s charms (and powerful they are), Season 5 is at least worth watching so you can parse out what’s real and what’s not. Then, we can all tune in for Season 6 to see how the series handles the death of an ’80s/’90s icon. Here’s hoping it’s with grace for the sake of her family.
The Crown Season 5 is now streaming on Netflix.
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What I do: I'm GGA's Managing Editor, a Senior Contributor, and Press Coordinator. I manage, contribute, and coordinate. Sometimes all at once. Joking aside, I oversee day-to-day operations for GGA, write, edit, and assess interview opportunities/press events.
Who I am: Before moving to Los Angeles after studying theater in college, I was born and raised in Amish country, Ohio. No, I am not Amish, even if I sometimes sport a modest bonnet.
Bylines in: Tell-Tale TV, Culturess, Sideshow Collectibles, and inkMend on Medium.
Critic: Rotten Tomatoes, CherryPicks, and the Hollywood Creative Alliance.
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