Staunton as Queen Elizabeth II in her later years.Photo:Keith Bernstein/Netflix
Keith Bernstein/Netflix
The Crown, a show known for dramatizing the private history of the Windsors with politely inventive panache, veered off course into magical realism when the first four episodes of the final season began streaming last month.
In the fourth hour, Princess Diana (Elizabeth Debicki), lately dead in Paris, returned inspectral formto share some hard-earned home truths with both Charles (Dominic West) and Queen Elizabeth herself (Imelda Staunton).
Now, Netflix has begun streaming the six remaining episodes, bringing the series to a close withCharles’s marriage to Camilla in 2005. Not too surprisingly, the show devotes a fair amount of time to PrincesWilliamandHarry(Ed McVeyand Luther Ford), both of whom are on the verge of adulthood andalready growing sick of each other.
The older royals, meanwhile, are on the verge of joining Princess Diana — and if she was allowed to play fast and loose with eternity, why can’t they?
Hello, young lovers! Meg Bellamy as Kate and Ed McVey as William.Justin Downing/Netflix
Justin Downing/Netflix
Princess Margaret(Lesley Manville) makes a dream-like cameo moments after her 2002 death, in which she chats with her younger selves. The episode detailing her physical decline and last days is wrenching, and so is Manville’s performance.
Foy, Colman and Staunton formed a tremendous acting triumvirate, andto see them united herestirs up both admiration and nostalgia. It’s also important to remember that of the three, Foy probably gave the most impressive performance as a young Elizabeth yielding to the duties and burdens of the throne. And it’s moving to reflect, again, on the staunch, serene and at times, humdrum majesty of the real Elizabeth.The Crownis a magnificent tribute to her.
Dominic West as Charles and Olivia Williams as Camilla.Justin Downing
Justin Downing
The young Windsors, as portrayed here, pretty much conform to what we already know from endless media coverage. Although, Luther Ford’s Harry watches the family goings-on with an unnervingly penetrating stare that doesn’t seem right.
William, on the other hand, often has the soulful look of someone about to play a depressing solo on the acoustic guitar.Kate Middleton(Meg Bellamy), gradually establishing herself as William’s one true love, is insipidly pretty, and not nearly as interesting a character as her mother,Carole(Eve Best), a cheerfully determined social striver set on marrying into the royal family. She could be spun off into her own series, a kind ofDance Momswith a priceless tiara and a throne as the prizes.
IfThe Crownhints, ever so very lightly, that William may be the only Windsor with the same sensible rigor as Granny, it also remains ever so slightly ambivalent about the ultimate destiny of the British monarchy in modern times. American viewers will probably think nothing of Charles digging into a bowl of muesli and fruit, telling a skeptical William, “It’sdelicious,“but in the context ofThe Crown, this doesn’t seem like a vote of confidence.
If Elizabeth was, in some ways, the most ordinary of the Windsors, happiest when thinking about horses, she was also the most extraordinary.The Crown’sfinale cleverly — and perhaps, rightly — suggests she full well knew it.
In the last minutes, Elizabeth delivers a charming and funny speech at Charles’s wedding but withholds giving him the one present he truly craves: an announcement that she’ll retire.
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All six seasons ofThe Crownare streaming now on Netflix.
source: people.com
