The Crown (netflix)

[52-80 19159]

51 minutes ago, DDD Dad said:

She was pretty good as Anne Boleyn in Wolf Hall (which I highly recommend if you've not seen it).

have the series lined up for my occasional english history binges

[naija 2854]

Debicki is timeless

[Bama Chick 28596]

Forgot we had a separate thread for this, so cross posting from the Netflix thread -

Dominic West is entirely too sexy and charismatic and confident to be a believable Prince Charles.

Charles is a jug-eared, ruddy faced, insecure yet vain jealous man.

And the whole nonsense storyline of Charles and Camilla being star-crossed lovers who were only kept apart due to The Firm is revisionist history.

Camilla wanted no part of the RF and was besotted with Parker-Bowles and Charles had three other mistresses between his on-again, off-again affair with Camilla.

And leaving out the true depth of Diana’s relationship with Dr. Kahn was a bad choice. The show made it seem like a brief dalliance. It actually lasted a long while and she made a trip to Pakistan with him to meet his family and they were talking about getting married.

Until The Firm found out and went to work. They wouldn’t countenance the mother of the future king being married to a Muslim immigrant.

That relationship is allegedly what started the surveillance.

And I hated the casting of Imelda Staunton as QEII and Johnathan Price as Prince Phillip.

They did portray his relationship with Penny Knatchbull accurately though. And the fact that QEII allowed it.

This was my most anticipated season and ended up being my least favorite.

Elizabeth Debecki was the only bright spot as Princess Diana but I thought they only showed her troubles and virtually ignored all her charity work - the AIDS work and land mine work. The only charity work they showed was used as a plot device to show her pursuing Dr. Kahn.

[4th&Five 41556]

Agree. Pretty meh. 

[Js1 85346]

Yeah I was mad they didn’t show more of Diana’s charity work but I worry that would have been too “Team Diana.”

the end of the season really was Charles thinking he was going to be King within 5 years. Try 25. 

I enjoyed Dibecki and Staunton. 

[Carl Spackler 3483]

Three episodes in to season 5 and it's clearly inferior to prior seasons so far.  Most of the casting is dreadful, esp. West as Prince Charles and Staunton as QEII.  Storylines plod and/or aren't very interesting.  I'll finish it out just because, but I hope it gets better. 

[52-80 19159]

7 hours ago, Carl Spackler said:

Three episodes in to season 5 and it's clearly inferior to prior seasons so far.  Most of the casting is dreadful, esp. West as Prince Charles and Staunton as QEII.  Storylines plod and/or aren't very interesting.  I'll finish it out just because, but I hope it gets better. 

Agreed. Watching the uncertainty of the early queen and how their dynamic with parliament was intriguing. Now its just the banality of old charles being a miserable cunt

[Dewey 3286]

I don't mind it, I liked watching them squirm at the thought of paying for anything. What a fucking life they live. 

[Pokoloco 1281]

The episode about the Romanov's was amazing.

[Js1 85346]

12 hours ago, 52-80 said:

Agreed. Watching the uncertainty of the early queen and how their dynamic with parliament was intriguing. Now its just the banality of old charles being a miserable cunt

Pretty much sums up the fucking monarchy.

Banal

Old

Miserable

Cunts

[mchookem 16336]

worst.phonesex.ever.

 

[Mac8111 2107]

The casting for Princes Charles was laughable. Is he a producer on the show or something ?


So was the Duke saying he was banging the younger gal or was he saying they had an emotional relationship?

[Mac8111 2107]

And I finally realized last night that the actress that played Camilla was the one from Sixth Sense.

[Nole-4-Life 804]

I'm enjoying it, especially the historical stuff I never knew, like the Romanov thing.

Also in a prior season, the town that was buried in an avalanche.

I think it's a great show.

I also think the girl playing Diana is perfect. The way she tilts her head forward and sorta looks upward at you it just like the real deal did it.

[mchookem 16336]

agree about Diana...i looked up the Bashir interview afterwards and she nailed the mannerisms, head tilts, inflection, etc. bet she garners an Emmy of this cast. 

and agree about the historical stuff...bt the Romanov storyline and 'All Quiet...' i've gone down quite the WWI rabbit trail recently. fascinating. 

i actually like Staunton and Pryce. Claire Foy and Smith were def favs...but Staunton physically embodies more what i imagine the queen was actually like in these later decades. she does a great deal of emoting with her eyes and mouth, which i imagine is fairly accurate given how emotionally repressed they all are. Pryce is really good at being haughty...actually all the Philips have done a good job making him seem 'the haughtiest' lol.

but i really dislike West as Charles, for all the reasons mentioned. they really seem to be hammering the irony that i guess 25-30 years ago everybody loved him way more and wanted her to step down?? lol my how things changed.

i also really dislike Manville as Margaret, not sure exactly why. i mean she may be more true to life, but she didn't come across nearly as messily elegant and emotionally dramatic enough compared to HBC and Kirby.

and just a random judgement... when she was unloading on Elizabeth about Anne being allowed to do what she couldn't with regard to being with who she loved...i just thought well... honestly that's on you, bc Anne basically told her mom 'i'm doing this, deal with it' and that was that...i always felt Margaret could have done the same.

of course...literally everything i know about the royal family came from The Crown and The Queen, so i'm sure @Bama Chickcan explain why my perception is wrong 😁😉

 

[Nole-4-Life 804]

11 minutes ago, mchookem said:

agree about Diana...i looked up the Bashir interview afterwards and she nailed the mannerisms, head tilts, inflection, etc. bet she garners an Emmy of this cast. 

and agree about the historical stuff...bt the Romanov storyline and 'All Quiet...' i've gone down quite the WWI rabbit trail recently. fascinating. 

i actually like Staunton and Pryce. Claire Foy and Smith were def favs...but Staunton physically embodies more what i imagine the queen was actually like in these later decades. she does a great deal of emoting with her eyes and mouth, which i imagine is fairly accurate given how emotionally repressed they all are. Pryce is really good at being haughty...actually all the Philips have done a good job making him seem 'the haughtiest' lol.

but i really dislike West as Charles, for all the reasons mentioned. they really seem to be hammering the irony that i guess 25-30 years ago everybody loved him way more and wanted her to step down?? lol my how things changed.

i also really dislike Manville as Margaret, not sure exactly why. i mean she may be more true to life, but she didn't come across nearly as messily elegant and emotionally dramatic enough compared to HBC and Kirby.

and just a random judgement... when she was unloading on Elizabeth about Anne being allowed to do what she couldn't with regard to being with who she loved...i just thought well... honestly that's on you, bc Anne basically told her mom 'i'm doing this, deal with it' and that was that...i always felt Margaret could have done the same.

of course...literally everything i know about the royal family came from The Crown and The Queen, so i'm sure @Bama Chickcan explain why my perception is wrong 😁😉

 

I don't really think he's that bad. It's just that I can't look at him without seeing McNulty.

[956 Worldwide 34715]

Yeah, Dominic West is a handsome, charismatic dude who played one of TV’s great wise asses and (successful) skirt chasers. That does not translate into a perpetually sorry for himself sad-sack who can’t even talk dirty. 
 

The series is doing a great job at reminding me (I was in high school when Diana died) why I had such little patience for the royal family at the time. It’s dreary and sad to watch a string of marriages fall apart in what is really the most ordinary way. Each one is its own small tragedy that the world treated as news. 

[Nole-4-Life 804]

14 hours ago, 956 Worldwide said:

Yeah, Dominic West is a handsome, charismatic dude who played one of TV’s great wise asses and (successful) skirt chasers. That does not translate into a perpetually sorry for himself sad-sack who can’t even talk dirty. 
 

The series is doing a great job at reminding me (I was in high school when Diana died) why I had such little patience for the royal family at the time. It’s dreary and sad to watch a string of marriages fall apart in what is really the most ordinary way. Each one is its own small tragedy that the world treated as news. 

Oh yeah...that phonesex was pretty lame. You want to be a fucking Tampax???

[66BUFF 2564]

On 11/21/2022 at 3:40 PM, 956 Worldwide said:

Yeah, Dominic West is a handsome, charismatic dude who played one of TV’s great wise asses and (successful) skirt chasers. That does not translate into a perpetually sorry for himself sad-sack who can’t even talk dirty. 
 

The series is doing a great job at reminding me (I was in high school when Diana died) why I had such little patience for the royal family at the time. It’s dreary and sad to watch a string of marriages fall apart in what is really the most ordinary way. Each one is its own small tragedy that the world treated as news. 

[RomaVicta 29908]

On 11/21/2022 at 3:15 PM, mchookem said:

i actually like Staunton and Pryce. Claire Foy and Smith were def favs...but Staunton physically embodies more what i imagine the queen was actually like in these later decades. she does a great deal of emoting with her eyes and mouth,

Respectfully disagree about Staunton. I thought she looked befuddled in every scene and totally lacking in any complexity. The physical embodiment is there, but I never felt the character of the queen. The script wasn't helping her. Judi Dench could have breathed a little life into a flaty written role.

You're dead right about Pryce. What a pleasure it's been to watch him over the years starting back with Brazil. His changes of expression on hearing news during this series is a study in communicating with neither words nor sweeping gesture. 

The series is good enough. The Romanov episode was very good. I enjoyed Elementary's Johnny Lee Miller as Prime Minister Stockman. His sober gaze and judgment anchors the show very well.

I had some vague recognition about the actress playing Camilla. Had to look it up. Rushmore's Olivia Williams.

 

[LonghornSean 3998]

Enjoyed it but I would say my least favorite season for sure.

Debicki as Diana is pretty perfect.

I like Pryce but the other two Philip portrayals were much stronger and given better material to work with.

I’ve said it before, but will be interesting to see how Diana’s death is portrayed given The Queen movie already exists.

[sidis 9828]

echo the sentiments here.  i have watched every season enthusiastically and have enjoyed them all...but this one was so flat and generally uninteresting.  it's no accident that the russian diplomacy episode is everyone's favorite as it is the one that was most like the other seasons...and had some legit substance to it not just from a history standpoint, but also from the intra-monarchy character development and interactions. 

i know the tensions between charles and elizabeth over the role of monarchy and timing were a huge part of 90's-00's but jesus christ, it's wholly uninteresting from a show perspective.  i suspect this will be viewed almost universally as the least enjoyable season.

[wild_turkey 3159]

Agree with most others that this was my least favorite season. Not terrible, just not great. I liked the historical tie-ins of the early seasons, and now that is fading away and being replaced by tabloid marital disputes. Perhaps that mirrors real life, and perhaps that symbolizes the status of the Royal Family in the modern world.

Most of my knowledge of the RF comes from The Crown and from googling shit after watching these episodes, so I could be completely misguided in my thinking, but my criticisms of season 5 are this:

1. It seems they softened Charles up, starting with the casting of Dominic West, as if to portray him as a man who screwed up a little bit but is mostly misunderstood and overall still a decent guy and worthy of our respect.

2. It seems they similarly downplayed Diana’s strong points - her glamour, social charms, and humanitarian work. She’s portrayed as a combination of depressed, awkward, confused, vindictive, and reclusive. Is that accurate?

3. Queen Elizabeth is basically a grandma who sits on her couch and struggles with the TV, or worries about her yacht, but does very little of importance.

Regarding the first 2 points, I wonder if the RF has finally influenced the production of this show to make Charles appear less vile than he actually is.

And finally, I thought for sure this would end with Diana’s death or at least let the final scene be her getting into the car. Seems better to end a season with that tragedy than to start a new season with it.

[DDD Dad 14339]

On 11/21/2022 at 12:30 PM, Mac8111 said:

And I finally realized last night that the actress that played Camilla was the one from Sixth Sense.

[statsman 5471]

My favorite parts- the early season episode when PM Eden is trying to deal with the Suez Crisis while the queen is trying to get him to prioritize Margaret’s boyfriend as the biggest problem, and this season, when PM Major is struggling with a national recession and the Queen is dressing him down for not appreciating her enough to fix up the yacht. 
 
It occurred to me- the UK monarchy makes a lot more sense when you realize they’re basically hillbillies- slightly (but not too much) inbred, poorly educated (and the ones with some education think they’re smarter than they are), jacked up teeth, the religious ones being less harmful than the ones left to their own sense of morality, and absolutely no idea how to be creative or productive. Really, the similarities between Elizabeth and Jed, between the queen mother and Granny, between Margaret and Ellie Mae,…it’s not a clean match but I think Phillip is a better Jethro than Charles. And all those PMs are Miss Hathaways. 

Edited January 26, 2023 by statsman

[LonghornSean 3998]

Season 6 part one (4 episodes) out November 16.

Part two (6 eps) out December 14

 

Can't wait. I've been rewatching from season 1. Such a good show. One thing I miss from the early seasons, Tommy Lascelles. Dude was cold as ice. Love the way the actor portrays him.

[Js1 85346]

Season 6 reviews are uh....

[Macklemore 2872]

6 hours ago, Js1 said:

Season 6 reviews are uh....

Episode 1 was fine IMO. Just starting the 2nd one. I wonder if they are going to touch on the possible conspiracy behind Diana’s death. The Crown is the only remaining series that has kept us as subscribers. The quality of shows and movies has gone down the toilet. Even the latest Fincher movie was a major disappointment. 

Edited November 17, 2023 by Macklemore

[Js1 85346]

Oh I was fine with the first 2. I’m not mentally ready for the last 2, waiting for the weekend 

[Gladeite 375]

Wife and I watched the first 1/2 of Season 6 last night.    We thought it was good.  Actors play their parts really well.  Now have to wait till December to finish.

[Js1 85346]

I do think they really captured Charles as an insecure, pathetic mommy’s boy in episode 1. Happy 75th birthday, Chuck

[4th&Five 41556]

i think it's less interesting because we all remember the subject matter. the acting was good though.

[Pokoloco 1281]

The acting is great and it's well shot.  

[Macklemore 2872]

I think the way they showed Dodi being under the thumb of his pushy father and him being kind of awkward and not picking up on her signals that he is moving way too fast was well done. I think the way things played out in episode 3 was very believable. I don’t think that relationship would have survived after that weekend if they had lived.

[Js1 85346]

Okay 3 and 4 were incredible 

[HouTex 1867]

I liked the first half of Season 6.  I’ve watched The Queen with Helen Mirren several times and The Crown down plays, or doesn’t really address, Tony Blair’s role in convincing QE to make her tardy statement.  The actress playing Diana did a fabulous job. 

[McCroskey 1504]

Okay 3 and 4 were incredible 

Yes!

[LonghornSean 3998]

Thought these four eps were excellent. Debicki’s performance carries a lot of the weight. She’s phenomenal.

The stress of the non-stop paparazzi harassment was pretty effective I thought.

I know there’s plenty of fictionalization throughout this show, but Dodi’s faked call to his father and the proposal to Diana left me wondering how much of that is pure speculation for melodramatic purposes (a lot I assume). Also the scenes with the projection (or “ghost”) of Diana and Dodi were a bit jarring at first, but I didn’t mind it in the end.

I am also a bit skeptical of what they can do in the final six episodes to reach the same level of drama as this portion of the season.

Love this show and sad that there are only a few episodes left.

[Js1 85346]

Episode 8 was a real rough watch. 

[mchookem 16336]

catching up now, we wanted to wait until all the eps were available before starting the season. 

agree with above, the Diana saga and conclusion was tremendously well-done. i am not a royal-phile (or whatever you call it) in the slightest and her death barely registered with me at the time, but the show got me choked up about it. 

i'll say the recasting of the princes despite no break in the timeline was totally jarring, especially Harry! he was still supposed to be 12 and he suddenly looked 18...weird choice, but maybe that was related to the strikes or something? *shrug*

anyways... we're up to ep7, three to go... i'm assuming we'll get some 9/11* drama, and then didn't she lose her mother and sister at nearly the same time shortly after in 2002? that's got to be impactful.

it's amusing how they are portraying Charles as such a forward thinker, open to change and encouraging modernity...and now the Brits all think he's too old and wish it was William. 

 

*i chuckled when Blair responded to W's election with something like 'well i'll be the elder experienced one now and be able to steer him'...yeah, how'd that work out Tony? lol