At first glance, The Crown would not appear to be a television series that would appeal to me. I'm not particularly interested in the history of English monarchy nor do I hold any special reverence for the system itself. I can get into historical dramas, but for the most part they are either too inaccurate to really get into or boring. My fears were largely confirmed while watching the first episode as it was slow, slightly boring, and not a lot happened that interested me.
Thankfully, I kept watching. It turns out the first episode was mostly just trying to get the expositional details out of the way - the marriage between Prince Philip and at the time Princess Elizabeth, the increasingly failing health of King George VI, and introducing all the major players. Not that it wasn't compelling in its own right, but it was a little too workmanlike. With the exception of Jared Harris, I didn't find a lot to love in that first episode.
But then again, there was Jared Harris. He is pretty incredible in the short amount of screen time that he gets, which is mostly confined to the first two episodes. In particular, there's a scene where he is singing with some carolers shortly after he found out that he had terminal cancer and it's just about the finest piece of acting possible. (Spoiler rules for a show like this are hard, but since this is a historical drama and it is clear from his first scene onward that he is going to die even if you don't know the history, this isn't much of a spoiler.)
As she has been restricted to only being in British television shows, this is my first exposure to Claire Foy, who plays Queen Elizabeth II. She has a difficult job. A necessary component of being queen - at least this series seems to argue - is to know when to be silent, be neutral, and not show any personality for the most part. This naturally blends into her interactions with other characters so it's up to the performer to reveal personality and depth without showing... personality and depth. Despite the difficulty, Foy manages the tricky balancing act where Queen Elizabeth II is understood, but still removed at a distance.
The reason I say the series seems to be arguing its necessary to not show much personality when being queen in public is because she is contrasted with Princess Margaret. As played by Vanessa Kirby, she seems more naturally charismatic, less reserved, and more of a willingness to pepper speeches with jokes - jokes that could and did offend a few people. She also has an illicit love affair with Peter Townsend that is scandalous to the crown. It shows how effective the series was able to put me on Elizabeth's side that I found myself rooting against the two of those crazy kids to get together. Part of that admittedly is me looking into it a little myself. Though not shown by the series, he was an equerry to the family from 1944 to 1952. Which means that he constantly was in close proximity to the family and probably got close to the family members themselves. He was 30 and she was 14 when they probably first met. (And actually, while he mostly ignored it in the series, she was shooting him glances when Elizabeth and Philip got married, when she was 17 and he was 33.)
A surprisingly less central role than I expected when I decided to watch the series was John Lithgow's performance as Winston Churchill. Churchill is a legendary figure. Lithgow is more than up to the task. He leans right on the edge of caricature at times, but that makes sense. Churchill was a bit of cartoon character in real life. The physical transformation alone in becoming Churchill is impressively done. Not just by the makeup team, but by Lithgow's physical movements as well, like how he is always hunched over.
Lastly, I would be remiss to not mention the sympathetic portrayal of Edward, formerly King Edward, by Alex Jennings. If you know the history, it's peculiar that he and his wife's Nazi sensibilities go unmentioned, however he's also brilliantly played and that whole Nazi thing is the type of thing that makes you lose sympathy. So it certainly makes sense. Here is a man that truly wanted and respects the crown and you wonder if maybe he doesn't regret his choice, even though his relationship with his wife appears loving.
If you're looking for a critique of how the crown operates, you won't get much of one here. The creator Peter Morgan and the writers clearly hold a reverence for it and that's probably for the best. A disdain for the system would never work because it would be less about the characters, and more about a critique for the system. If there's one criticism I have - and I don't know if this is true of real life - but it tends to remove the tough decisions of Elizabeth. Because she usually doesn't have much of one. The government tends to present the circumstances as so extreme that when she inevitably lets someone down, it's clear it's the government's fault more than her. They are too ambiguous with how much power she has. In one of the later episodes, something is presented as if it is her choice even though it's not clear that it actually is. It seems as if the ambiguity was purely for dramatic reasons basically.
The Crown jumps through time quickly throughout the series. Technically speaking, the series starts in 1947 and the first season ends sometime in 1955. Given that the queen is currently still alive, I'm sure there are still a multitude of stories to tell as well. The ones this season has chosen were excellent. One episode focuses on Churchill being forced to face the fact that he's old, the next focuses on the Great Smog of 1952. Despite each episode being an hour long, the series is episodic enough and different enough from episode to episode to hold your attention. If you're remotely interested in history, I would give my recommendation to The Crown.
Grade - A-
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