Season 6 of The Crown is all about goodbyes. After the hit series staggered after four strong seasons, with the ghostly apparition of Lady Di as its low point, series writer and creator Peter Morgan managed to save it at the last minute.
Herien WensinkDecember 15, 2023, 7:35 PM
What will be the legacy of The Crown (2016-2023)? How will this ambitious and controversial TV drama go down in series history? It all started so well, remember? With that cheerfully feathery Prince Philip, and the young, fresh Claire Foy, who was uncertain and unprepared to carry the weight of the entire Commonwealth. Wars, crises, a long parade of prime ministers, and always that powerful, coercive institution – ‘the Crown’ – that demanded ever greater personal sacrifices.
Looking back, those first parts were an unparalleled delight, with the great actors, thorough historical research, an insane production budget and dazzling visual spectacle. Plus an (at the time) intelligent plot, in which the personal troubles of Queen Elizabeth II and the rest of the British royal family ingeniously coincided with the highs and lows of recent world history. The central theme is the symbolic importance of ‘the Crown’, which nullifies all personal desires, ambitions and emotions of the members of the royal family.
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Herien Wensink is art chief at de Volkskrant and theater critic. She writes about theatre, film, series and pop culture in a broader sense.
Amid the outrageous costuming and frills, creator Peter Morgan always kept a clear line in mind: here we saw a woman who has erased herself for seven decades in the interest of her position. Once a woman of flesh and blood, with ambitions and desires, who gradually faded to the size of a postage stamp; no longer a person, but a logo.
This resulted in a believable struggle in the first few seasons, culminating in Olivia Colman’s tragic interpretation of her turn as queen. Her Elizabeth no longer struggled with the straitjacket of the royal family, she had bitterly accepted it.
Withdrawn behind palace walls
But from the fourth season onwards, things started to veer dangerously – the better Elizabeth became at reining in her personality, the weaker the series’ tension became. In addition, Morgan allowed the family to withdraw further and further behind high palace walls, self-righteous and aggrieved, as a result of which the beautiful contrast with the turbulent outside world disappeared from view. The more recent the events that were freely distorted here into fiction, the louder the accusation of falsification of history.
Morgan also made an error of judgment by spreading Princess Diana’s thin, not very interesting storyline over a season and a half. Due to the emphasis on the royal divorce, The Crown was definitively reduced to a richly decorated palace soap in season 5.
The first part of the final season, which has been available on Netflix since November, looked worrying. Morgan continued to run circles around Lady Di (an insufferably pouting Elizabeth Debicki), creating a questionable storyline around Mohamed and Dodi Al-Fayed. Not to mention Diana’s apparition.
Would the series ever overcome these shocking script weaknesses? The answer, also to my relief, is: yes. For the most part. After the sad start, The Crown picks up quite a bit in the finale of season 6.
The second part of the final season of The Crown
It won’t be as good as the first seasons. This is partly because Morgan still uses that one, simple premise – the great personal sacrifices that ‘the Crown’ demands from the royal family. This starting point no longer provides many new insights.
Imelda Staunton can finally shine
In season 6 we see a lot of repetition: the pressure on the heir to the throne, the frustration of the number two, the wealth, the fame, the plague of the paparazzi. Kate Middleton’s mother ungratefully succeeds Mohamed Al-Fayed as a profiteer who wants her child to marry high. In addition, the clumsy university romance of William and Kate fails to become compelling – although the serial Kate (Meg Bellamy) is considerably more interesting than the real one (something that unfortunately does not apply to the lethargic William interpreter Ed McVey). The very nice actor Luther Ford is not allowed to play much more than a caricature of the rebellious Prince Harry.
But this is the season of Imelda Staunton, who can now finally shine in the twilight of her Elizabeth, which she does by turns dryly funny and deeply moving. Season 6 is all about goodbyes – we lose Diana, Princess Margaret and the ‘Queen-Mum’ in succession; and Staunton is convincingly weighed down by grief. The transience inevitably makes Elizabeth think about her own farewell. In a bizarre, tragicomic scene, she is forced to go through the protocol for her own funeral.
What remains are the majestic images of parades, squares and palaces, of royal activity and grandeur. Plus the often breathtaking performances of a host of top British actors. The Crown has single-handedly created a completely new generation of world stars, which after season 6 also includes Viola Prettejohn and Beau Gadsdon as stunningly well-cast teenage versions of Elizabeth and Princess Margaret. The dynamic between the two sisters – always an important central axis – provides a soul-stirring highlight in episode 8, Ritz.
Ridiculous, outdated, but indispensable
Episode 6, Ruritania, is also touching, which examines how the British royal family can be retrenched and modernized. Does the Queen really need ten heralds and an inherited falconer? And what to do with the royal astronomer, or the monarch’s flute player? Here Morgan sharply finds the beauty of traditions and rituals. These may seem ridiculous and outdated, but we cannot – and do not want to – completely do without them. At the same time, the viewer knows of course that the end is inevitably approaching for the royal family in this form.
In the monumental final image we see Staunton disappear as a puny little figure against the backdrop of a huge cathedral. With the death of Elizabeth II in 2022 fresh in our minds, this is an extra poignant and meaningful scene. Queen Elizabeth was, after all, only a temporary embodiment of that strange, powerful, immovable institution. But as the longest-reigning monarch, she was a legendary one. You don’t have to be a royalist to see the beauty and drama of that. Ultimately, that remains the strength of The Crown.
THE CROWN, SEASON 6, Part 2
★★★★☆
Drama
From Peter Morgan.
Met Imelda Staunton, Jonathan Pryce, Dominic West e.a.
6 episodes of approximately 50 minutes.
Available on Netflix
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2023-12-15 18:35:22
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