The first four episodes dropped yesterday. The final six will drop on December 14th.
1997 to 2005. Death of Diana, Margaret and the Queen Mum, wedding of Prince Edward, Tony Blair, early relationship of William and Kate and the wedding of Charles and Camilla.
Initial reviews aren’t good.
I hope they cover the Queen’s life coaching. I do miss her filthy laugh.
I just finished the four released episodes. I thought it was pretty good, at least as good as the last season. I agree that scenes with “ghost Diana” are cringy.
Can’t watch it any more. Dexter as JFK just killed it for me.
The episodes were OK but this is probably the weakest stretch of the show ever. The only episode that was at the level of the earlier seasons was the “two photographers” one. The last episode covered the same territory as the Queen (written by Morgan) and the latter was so much better, just sharper and funnier, while the Crown episode was rather dreary and the ghost scenes were a terrible idea.
I didn’t enjoy The Diana Show.
I’m currently watching the third episode. It’s not as bad as I thought it would be but that doesn’t mean it’s great. The show was at its best when showing the more forgotten parts of the queen’s life. It steadily has gotten worse as it got closer to present day. The Diana storyline interested the me the least and of course that’s all there is. I know my wife wanted to watch until the end so here we are.
It certainly doesn’t help my interest that later seasons have lots of people alive to say “That incident flat-out did not happen that way; they’re just making shit up”.
Some of the best earlier episodes clearly didn’t happen. The fog episode with Churchill’s assistant dying didn’t happen. The fog did but it didn’t almost break the government. The assistant was fictional. Princess Alice was real and had an extraordinary life but there was no reporter that snuck into the palace and no article published. Kind of like the Scottish photographer in the recent episode.
Despite the weird ghost choice Elizabeth Debicki did a good job as Diana. Peter Morgan seemed to not know what to do with her. From scene to scene she flopped from being a victim to being the cause of all her problems. I’m slightly surprised how sympathetic they made Dodi. They did manage to wrap up Diana’s life fictionally. She realized the error of her ways and was coming home. She broke it off with Dodi. She wisely told him what to do with his life. Everything was going to be perfect. And then…
The ring and the broken off phone call helps explain Fayed’s later craziness but off course it’s made up. There is lots that no one could possibly know that was in these episodes.
It’s strange to see how they portray Charles compared to the previous incarnation. Season 3-4 Charles was a dumb dofuss. Current Charles has his issues but is shown as a thoughtful intellectual and is mostly sympathetic.
With the size of the Diana story in the real world I suppose it was inevitable but they made the queen a background character. She has become even more of a humorless sourpuss than before. Whenever I hear anecdotes about people meeting the queen they always mention her sharp but extremely dry sense of humor. The show has never captured that and the current incarnation is worse. The first couple of episodes with Olivia tried show her humor a little bit then fell back on showing her as a boring housewife in a big house.
Yes, one of the things I do like about these episodes is that Debicki really looks, sounds and acts like Diana. Contrast that with Dominic West, who neither looks nor sounds anything like Charles.
It occurs to me that The Crown missed a great opportunity to portray Diana’s death from the Spencer family’s perspective. That would’ve been interesting!
Charles Spenser would have no problem telling everyone in the press that the show was full of shit. The Royals pretend the show doesn’t exist.
They probably shouldn’t have had their PR people make so many comments on it over the years then.
Have they made direct statements about the show or have they given responses to questions that arose because of the show? There is a difference. As far as I’ve seen the official word is the Royals haven’t watched. I doubt Lord Spencer would feel the need to be coy and would blast any falsehoods directly to the public.
Turns out royals have made a lot more direct comments on the show than I thought.
A few years ago, Harry said in an interview that he watched it. I assume he was still a royal back then if he’s not now.
Anne admitted in a documentary about herself that she found the show “quite interesting.”
Anne’s daughter and son in law have talked about the show on his podcast. Andrew’s daughter Eugenie admitted watching the show, too.
For his part, Spencer has addressed the show directly on ITV, complaining that it needs a this-is-a-fictional-retelling type disclaimer.
Maybe the response that made the biggest news was the UK culture secretary telling The Mail on Sunday that Netflix should include a disclaimer stating the show is fictional. I know that’s the government making a statement and not the Crown itself, but I find it hard to believe that the government did so unprompted by the Crown or without their input.
The queen’s communications secretary made a direct statement to The Guardian that the Crown wasn’t involved in the production of the show nor did they endorse it.
And all of that is not including the “a senior royal source” or “a close friend of Charles” type stories about the show that are almost assuredly planted by royal PR or communications people.
Just watched the first 2. I’m. trying to not think too terribly negatively about each and every royal - well, exceptions for the 2 boys, and the queen’s and Charles’ sisters. But at best, they are presented as entirely unexceptional people placed in a horribly unnatural environment. So even with the most charitable view I can have of them, it sure makes the monarchy seem awfully anachronistic. They are basically a huge soap opera.
Is anyone aware of sites where the show’s creators discuss what they intended the show to convey? Is it supposed to be a hack job? A love poem? Accurate? Revisionist? Are there heroes and villians?
I can’t help but think of the show as three different shows. The feel and focus on the characters changed completely with each cast change.
Good observation. I really liked the 1st 2 shows. Think it was a combination of the casting and that the subject matter was more foreign to me.
I fear Imelda Staunton suffers in my mind for having been so wonderfully nasty as Umbrage in the Potter film.
Boy, those last 2 were sure a downer! Wonder where they will go from there?
The Queen’s mother and sister die.