The Crown - what the ...

[El Unicornio, mang]

What season can I start with this? I really don't give a shit about them and almost resent being told how hard it has been taking on their roles and their sacrifices. But this series looks batshit entertaining with Scully channeling Faye Brown and Diana rollerskating around to 80s pop.

Is the previous one similar? I have an urge to watch the Aberfan one except that upsets me so much that I would rather watch a documentary about it rather than some privileged indifference.

You won't have any trouble keeping up if you start at a random place, although I'd say go from season 1. Although the Queen is portrayed as more relateable/likeable/emotional, and it's generally more glamorous with exotic locations and such, which may or may not be your cup of tea. Season 3 is more dour, although Bonham-Carter livens it up (in season 4 she's kind of portrayed as a spent, worthless shell of a woman). Season 4 is actually pretty grim too though, a lot of shots of Diana hunched over a toilet bowl or just generally being angry and miserable, and the background of Thatcher's crumbling Britain, the odd flashes of 80s colour and glamour are only fleeting.

[Jittlebags]

Looking forward for the bit where Prince Andrew chucks his muck over an underage girl's superstructure.

[Voltan (Man of Steel)]

Haven't watched any of this but I'd be interested to see how much time they spent on It's A Royal Knockout. I'd be disappointed* if they devoted anything less than a couple of episodes to it.

*indifferent

[kalowski]

Her inside the doors has just been watching another episode. This involved the worst double for New York City I'd seen for a while. Tiny streets and a mix of Victorian and Edwardian buildings. Made sense when she told me it was filmed in Manchester.
Scorsese levels of accuracy this is not...

[El Unicornio, mang]

Mate we know it's you that's watching them, not your "missus" and you're loving every minute.

UK dressed up to look like the US never looks right. It's like the uncanny valley thing with faces, little subtle things like the width of sidewalks or the height of windows, or specific trees give it away.

[Average Comedy Enjoyer]

The Crine returns with what the critics aren't brave enough to describe as a Car Crash.

This series the writers are playing:

Dodge the libel - the camera ominously pans down to TWO EMPTY GLASSES on the bar where Di's driver has been, and he looks SOMEWHAT RELAXED prior to the fateful journey

We can't rewrite the truth -  when asked if Diana would like to stay at the Ritz or go to Dodi's apartment she picks the latter because "all my stuff is there". Nobody knew her motivations IRL but she has to get in that car so "all my stuff is there" is the best they can do.

Closed doors = open season - any time a character closes a door, hangs up a phone or leaves a room with any credible witnesses they suddenly start spouting metaphor laden purple prose, because now they're off the record, the writers have completely free reign

[curiousoranges]

Apparently

Spoiler alert

the crash

[close]

happens halfway through this final season, but Diana appears as a talking ghost for the remaining episodes.

[Average Comedy Enjoyer]

Yes, that's not the only ghost either! I'm just disappointed they chickened out of having Alex Guinness and Yoda over either shoulder.

[studpuppet]

Apparently

Spoiler alert

the crash

[close]

happens halfway through this final season

FINAL??! Does that mean we don't get the season where they all watch themselves on The Crown and Her Maj carks it?

[jobotic]

And in the same season, the Queen pays millions of pounds of stolen taxpayers money to get her child-rapist son off the hook.

[Average Comedy Enjoyer]

Luckily Julie Walters does an ambiguous self-reflective face that allows the audience to chose whether she is pro or anti-nonce

[jamiefairlie]

Luckily Julie Walters does an ambiguous self-reflective face that allows the audience to chose whether she is pro or anti-nonce

Definitely pro, look how she stood by Wood through her antics.

[lauraxsynthesis]

The trick with The Crown is not to expect Quality Drama. It's a soap opera with high production values. Even without ghosts I find it entertaining. Also, every series has an ep on an unexpected topic like apartheid or Charles' time in Wales.

[Schnapple]

It's definitely gotten worse since the first few seasons, one and two in particular. This was back when Netflix was actively trying to compete with HBO and AMC though, not just produce 'gourmet cheeseburgers', of which The Crown is now undoubtedly the cheesiest.

I'm a fan of Peter Morgan as a dramatist and bought his pitch that portraying this rotten bunch of cunts is really just an ideal way to broadly explore the country's recent history. And they really were portrayed as cunts in the S3-4 Colman/Bonham-Carter stretch, yet the closer the show gets to the present day and especially Diana's death, it feels harder to buy any of the dialogue or to summon much of a shit at all. 

[lauraxsynthesis]

Some mad shit is going to happen this series.

"The final season of The Crown contains a dream sequence wherein the late Queen Elizabeth II attends the coronation of King Tony Blair featuring a childrens choir cover of Things Can Only Get Better by D:Ream."

Has to be seen to be believed.

Enjoying Carvel's grumpy face. And Pryce's Phillip looking furious.

https://x.com/women4wes/status/1735424667106586625?s=46&t=jrp191Bmzx6HIxZPa0LSig

[El Unicornio, mang]

The last season of this was a bit of a return to form. Great job getting an actress who looked exactly like a teenage Claire Foy for a slightly weird scene where young Liz sneaks out of the Palace on VE night and gets coaxed into a jazz club, playing what sounded like music from a mid 2000s episode of Later with Jools Holland, by an African American soldier and apparently "gets off with a bloke" before heading back in the wee small hours.

Prince Charles breakdancing with a bunch of urban youths followed by the Romanov massacre was maybe the strangest part of the whole series.