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Cast: Imelda Staunton, Ed McVey, Jonathan Pryce, Lesley Manville, Dominic West, Meg Bellamy and others
Creator: Peter Morgan
Director: Alex Gabassi, Christian Schwochow
Streaming On: Netflix
Language: English (with subtitles)
Runtime: Four episodes, around 50 minutes each
The Crown Season 6 (Part 2) Review: What’s It About:
We’re a dying breed; when the dialogue appears in one of the episodes, it feels almost ironic that this show, which once had been one of the most glorious visions a story could have, seems like dying a slow death – death, as slow as 24 frames per second. The Crown has a glorious past. A show based on the royal monarchs of England, this web series was something the world saw with glittering eyes. A captivating storyline, spot-on casting, and brilliant sets and costumes made this royal retelling a must-watch.
However, after 5 successful seasons, it presented a rather meek ending to a majestic show that deserved the grandiose as magnificent as its predecessors. But the show rather chose to keep haunting the ghosts of the past for the final cut. While the first four episodes of the last season presented Princess Diana‘s short-lived life as a royal wife loyal to her family, her ghostly presence was heart-shattering and shallow.
The second part of the last season, which presents the final six episodes of this majestic tale, feeds on the ghosts of Queen Elizabeth’s thoughts and opinions about herself. While she struggles with the age-old thought process of What if I had done this, the story slips away farther and further from interests and excitement.
The Crown Season 6 (Part 2) Review: Script Analysis:
Peter Morgan’s drama starts with an episode called Willsmania – dedicated to Prince William and his mourning and grief of his mother’s loss while an entire nation is hysterical seeing the royal prince – a perfect reflection of his mother. The drama in the previous episode surrounding Princess Diana was hyped and turned into a daily soap that feeds on gossip, more drama, and more gossip that there was no returning back for this series.
As the last episode ended on Princess Diana’s death, the hype graph came to a saturation point. Dragging the story back to the original woman of the show – Queen Elizabeth, was a task that seemed impossible and it served the same. Peter Morgan and his team literally dragged an uninterested audience back to the story of Queen Elizabeth, but in this lost battle of Diana vs the Queen, the audience did not want to go back anymore. They wanted to move further until the unthinkable happened.
Peter Morgan and his team present the new generation of Windsors as the most un-royal, uninteresting, and, sorry to say, undeserving bunch! The grandeur of the show suddenly shatters like a glass ceiling with reflections of a royal family in those broken pieces.
The Crown Season 6 (Part 2) Review: Star Performance:
While the shoddy beginning of the new episodes leaves viewers yawning and feeling cheated, the real drama comes in with Princess Margaret, played perfectly by Lesley Manville. As she stands on the horizon of life, still refusing to kill her spirit, she powerfully builds the narrative and brings in the emotion. You feel the pain when Queen Elizabeth stands behind her mother and tells her not to leave her at this point alone. You feel the numbness when Margaret tells Elizabeth, “All Those Closest To You Are Leaving You One By One.” The scare is real, and so is the pain. However, as the episode ends, the show goes back to the usual weird path on which it started with the first episode.
Another hope is evoked with the re-arrival of Tony Blair, played by Bertie Carvel. As the Queen seems to be ready for transparency and confrontations, nothing substantial happens. Ed McVey, playing Prince William, will definitely be the breakthrough star of this season.
The Crown Season 6 (Part 2) Review: Direction & Music:
Peter Morgan definitely loses the grip for the finale, which should have been grand and should have justified the brilliant narrative built throughout the five seasons. As the web series enters into a rom-com set up in college with Prince William meeting Kate, played by Meg Bellamy, the music could have been the only savior for this disastrous take-off. However, nothing helps.
Peter Morgan seems thoroughly confused between his protagonists – Queen Elizabeth and Prince Williams and justifies none of them!
The Crown Season 6 (Part 2) Review: What Works:
The final batch of episodes for the final season tried to work but failed miserably. A lot of parts could have worked brilliantly, pulling up a decent finale if not touching the grandeur of the previous seasons. Be it Prince William as the new general royal, Princess Margaret passing away, or the final monologues at the climax.
The only thing that works in a few scenes is the men and their side of the emotional display. Be it Prince Philip trying to ponder his parenting skills and his failed effort as a father or Prince Charles trying way too hard not to follow what his father did.
The Crown Season 6 (Part 2) Review: What Doesn’t Works:
The obsession with oneself is what makes the ending a rather strenuous one. Elizabeth reassuring herself, talking to herself and telling her own self that she is the born Queen. She has been an undisputed monarch, and only she can rule this throne with such finesse. However, this gutsy end could have been the saving grace for The Crown, but it gets bitten by disastrous dialogues and way too much preachy sub-setting.
The Crown Season 6 (Part 2) Review: Last Words:
It was heartbreaking to watch a web series dying a slow death. And it took us to all the What Ifs along with the final episode. What if Peter Morgan did not get carried away on Princess Diana’s part? What if he could have researched better? What if we presented the new-age royals as wonderfully as the old generation? What if he could live up to the hype he tried generating with Princess Diana? What if he had not have fed on the ghosts of the past lurking around every now and then? What if he would not have got scattered and confused over so many narrative arcs that he couldn’t justify any one of them? What if he just would have pledged not to screw this one after getting it right every single time earlier! We guess that will be a list of What Ifs longer than Queen Elizabeth’s but surely a better one!
Oh man, what a disappointing end to a majestic show. We are sorry, My Queen, we couldn’t send your right!
Only One Star. For Leslie Manville for holding a dilapidated fort so strongly!
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