But Will There Be Corgis? Thread Where We Discuss Netflix's THE CROWN

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/feb/07/revealed-queen-lobbied-for-change-in-law-to-hide-her-private-wealth

The Queen successfully lobbied the government to change a draft law in order to conceal her “embarrassing” private wealth from the public, according to documents discovered by the Guardian.

A series of government memos reveal that Elizabeth Windsor’s private lawyer put pressure on ministers to alter proposed legislation to prevent her shareholdings from being disclosed to the public.

Following the Queen’s intervention, the government inserted a clause into the law granting itself the power to exempt companies used by “heads of state” from new transparency measures.

might be a bit embarrassing for everyone to see what massive wealth you can accumulate by doing fuck all and then being shameless enough to scrounge another £370 million off the state for a bespoke rewire on her yard.

I have seen one episode (#1) of THE CROWN. I think it could be a good concept, and maybe it's like Shakespeare in being about history via the monarchy? I don't doubt it's well made.

But as I just noted on another thread where Prince Philip was mentioned:

... I don't know much about Prince Philip but an odd thing is - many people who presumably don't usually find him hugely sympathetic or interesting seem to watch THE CROWN where he is a major dynamic protagonist?

I think THE CROWN might well be a good idea and well made (I have seen just one episode), but to me it's a bit of a stumbling block that I have spent most of my life thinking that most of the people in it (ie Royals) are not inherently very interesting, intelligent or insightful people, let alone the system they uphold.

... Is this like Shakespeare again, ie: you don't have to think that Richard II or Henry IV or V were genuinely interesting, you just appreciate the play as a play in itself?

it's just a bit of soap opera with a big budget, the people that actually like these Saxe-Coburg freaks were some of its biggest critics.

This latest season isn't that good. It is very hard for me not to see Jimmy McNulty gurning as Charles. He gurns away same as Anderson's Thatcher did.

And I think they are WAY too treading-on-eggshells in their treatment of all the scandal. Which has made for a really weirdly muted season.

I did wonder if one of the reasons I find it boring is because I've watched two other dramatizations of the same events in recent years, so it's just kind of dull? I like Elizabeth Debicki very much, usually, but I'm finding her a bit one-note in this.

lol that's not John Major and posh Dom West is such a dud Charles, especially after the last one nailed him so well. After hours of tedium it turns out the Mohamed Al-Fayed ep has been the only good one. Haven't watched any more.

Agree with these criticisms. McNulty doesn't look a thing like Charles for one; great actor but he makes Charles seem more likeable than he deserved at this point in his life. I am in love with Elizabeth Debicki but the mannerisms she apes (the tilted down head, eyes looking up) seems to affected and unnatural for her. They nailed the hair though.

I'm on episode 6, so far the best episode is the one that focuses almost exclusively on Mohammed al Fayed. I'd watch an entire season of him and Sydney restoring Villa Windsor, ala the Chateau.

Oh, Leslie Manville is great as Margaret though.

wtf was with the whole carriage riding with Natascha McElhone? I mean who would not enjoy that, but really, did that need to be a big part of the second episode?

I had no idea he even did that as a hobby. I think the idea was to insinuate he had some kind of weirdly-too-close companionship with that woman. I agree though, it didnt need that overlong "hey lets refurbish this old thing and ride it aroun the grounds" montage.

BTW whoever was playing Cherie Blair was SO spot on, thought it was actually her for 1.5 seconds.

I had no idea he even did that as a hobby. I think the idea was to insinuate he had some kind of weirdly-too-close companionship with that woman.

tbh, I was more interested in this kind of esoteria than in the big sweep of The Divorce, which has been very well covered elsewhere already. The one thing I did like about the Charles/Diana/Camilla stuff (which I didn't pay a huge amount of attention to at the time) was that the infamous tampon phonecall was picked up by an amateur radio operator, and wasn't the result of a phone tap or deliberate listening device.

i don't even understand how that was technically possible

Me neither, and maybe it's nonsense. When I googled it just now there's a lot of "believed to have been" and "allegedly", so maybe it's all crap, but that is the story everyone went with at the time.

You used to be able to scan and hear mobile calls in the pre-digital signal era which was around that time. you had to have the right gear. my brother had an emergency services scanner and one xmas mid 90s i do recall listening in on calls.

Got to agree, this series just seemed very weak and too happy to give excess time to stories covered better elsewhere.

It seemed remarkably keen to subvert the version of pretty much every character from that previously established too:

The Queen has become some sort of Victorian Values dinosaur, inflexible to change and utterly out of touch with reality
Charles is some Machiavellian genius playing 4d chess to make his future cushy
Diana is a vacuous Sloane interested only in clothes (ok this may well be accurate but they made her far more sympathetic before)
Ann has become a double agent
Andrew is an arse (see Diana comment)

Given this went up to 1997, amazed to see what a free ride al-Fayed got considering by then there had been Cash For Questions, the Johnathon Aitken/Saudi scandal and the ITV documentary about his sexual harassment of staff at Harrods. Will be interesting to see how they deal with his friendship with Michael Jackson, if they bother (although surely he'll appear given the scale of Dodi Death Conspiracy from him.

The final series is going to be bizarre. Presumably episode 1 is the death of Diana (given it's 6 weeks after the end of S5). Golden Jubilee will probably get an episode to itself. Margaret and the Queen Mother die only 7 or so weeks apart so maybe they squash them into one episode? Charles & Camilla's marriage as one? Diamond jubilee and the start of withdrawal from duties. Lockdown and death of Philip. Platty Joobs and her death.

That only leaves 3 episodes for other threads. India tour in 97 leading into Millennium might be a good idea for ep2, maybe with devolution in the middle (things pull apart then hope brings together). Dislike of Blair/NI peace accord could be a politics one.

Probably going to uh "touch on" the sweatless nonce too, surely?

Imelda Staunton's presence just completely changes the character of this for me. Can't shake the Umbrage image, which means that the monarchy is the Ministry of Magic, the palace is Hogwarts, Blair is Snape, etc. There is no way out from that mental spiral for me so I can't bear to watch.

Last season's casting was generally better, although I will admit I am looking forward to some prime Olivia Williams content - she is always a welcome presence on my glowing rectangles

Diamond jubilee and the start of withdrawal from duties. Lockdown and death of Philip. Platty Joobs and her death.

I'd be amazed if they go that far. If it was me I'd end it with her jumping out of a plane with James Bond.

I'd say you'd probably be right if the whole thing was mapped out in advance but to not include the final 10 years, and since the real world provided an actual conclusion to the series before filming started, it would seem far more sensible to end in 2022.

Morgan has said in the past he doesn't plan to tackle recent years, like the Harry/Meghan stuff, as the story isn't over. Don't know if the queen's death changes anything

Also thought this season was weaker, a lot of boring episodes, though there's been 1-2 episodes each season I haven't really liked. Liked Debicki's Diana though

spoilers* but GHOST DIANA klaxon!!!¡¡¡!!! 📣💥🔊

*(i haven't been watching recent seasons, i gleaned this from twitter)

It seems to have united the critics….

https://i.imgur.com/2GcweDg.jpg

To be fair, her nickname had an obvious homophone. That's some pretty heavy-handed foreshadowing; it bespeaks laziness in the writers' room.

It's pretty poor but not noticeably worse than any of the other series after the first two or three (gut says it's fine through to the 60s but takes a downturn pretty much as soon as the 70s hit).

Then again, it's still country miles better than the Spencer film, and Kristen Stewart got all kinds of awards nominations for that. That also featured royal ghosts lecturing people as a key plot point.

I've already said this, but the name "Fflyn" was new to me. I have been helpfully educated on the linguistic rationale (hat tip to James Redd) but I am still processing that info.

i hadn’t caught up on s5 & s6 until now

halfway thru s5
there is def something a bit boring about this season i agree

i think staunton is great as the Queen but i am struggling to get with McNulty as Charles, he’s not nearly pompous & insecure enough, too confident

debicki is good as diana but i ageee w comments upthread that its mostly mannerisms & a bit one-note

i really love lesley manville as margaret, and casting Timothy Dalton as Group Captain Wotsisface in s5e4 was such a lovely touch

Mohamed al-Fayed's episode was maybe the best episode of S5, which is kind of indicative of the existential crisis this show had in its last two seasons. the writers' choices of focus were probably for the better, because I'm not sure I enjoyed any episode focused on the Queen in S5 or S6

yeah agree i liked that one a lot
did the thing imo crown does best, weaving two time periods together

idk what it is about s5 but i’m honestly so bored by their dramatization of the diana of it all at this point
like she’d literally tell a teatowel how miserable she is and wants a divorce then next thing moping to her therapist like oh the queens dismissal was “so final”
like omg stfuuuuuup go wear a fucking bikini and be divorced PLEASE

If she hadnt died she'd have broken up with Dodi like a week later whats a bet.

By the time it got to the Wills and Harry stuff I completely lost interest.

lol yeah probably.

i just finished s5, so now i begin the long march thru s6

sidebar: queen now 100% reminding me pf my dear departed nan, who had almost the same hairdo, wore the same wool skirts & cardigans every day of her life, never saw her in a single pair of trousers

did the thing imo crown does best, weaving two time periods together

For me the other thing The Crown does best is telling me things about British history, and specifically the monarchy, that I didn't already know. The only episode in the last two seasons that did that was the one about Mohamed al-Fayed.

tired: queen as a child tricked* into a nazi salute
wired: queen as an old lady tricked into wearing nu-metal shorts

this gives me a handy bar for the remainder of this show to fall below, at last i can start watching s5 & then s6

*it's why she hates her uncle, bcz either it's a public shame (shows her as she isn't) or a public revelation (shows her as she actually is)**
**either way is an unwanted obstacle

yeah the second half of the final season was completely limp and pointless, but I think that may simply be because I remember all of it happening in real time

yeah i think thats true also

ok well into deathmarch to the end of s6

still such a boring slog
after everything they did w the first 4 seasons its like they were just, fuckit we’ve go nothing here’s diana staring up under her fringe for 20 hours

like no history detours really at all except the mohammed fayed ep in s5

the speculative fiction of dodi & diana’s final hours together was a bit much for me, i mean maybe that is what happened idk

i’m only on ep5 cannot even begin to imagine the depths of boredom yet to be excavated here weeeee zzzz

The William & Catherine and William & Harry stuff is yes, even more boring. The Princess Margaret episode was good though.

good to know thx

the speculative fiction of dodi & diana’s final hours together was a bit much for me, i mean maybe that is what happened idk

ya this was bad, also there's an entirely made up plotline about how Kate's mother basically engineered her daughter and William getting together from even before their time at St Andrews. i mean sure, this show is fictionalised, but that whole arc seemed unnecessarily mean-spirited

didn't even distract from how boring the whole season was, it was def a struggle to finish

yeah they really struggle to make the second half of S6 interesting. just little there work with, I suppose. I preferred the Diana episodes even if I knew a lot of the story

this back half feels so speculative as to beggar belief, like beyond fictionalizing and into “we have now decided to just invent new characters we are calling The Royals”

Charles going off into the scottish highlands to wail abt Dianas death seemed insanely fabulist, like ok what are we actually doing here

and ghost Dianas convo w the queen
lmao ok whut

wait this sounds good tho, all historical reconstruction should include ghosts, cf hamlet etc

to affirm my claim i found a fine portrait of the real actual historical hamlet aka "amblett"

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ad/Amblett_Hamlet.jpg/800px-Amblett_Hamlet.jpg

FWIW the ghosts didn't bother me nearly as much as the boring shit

true, the boring shit is definitely the worst aspect

fiiiiiinallly finished this trudge through the treacle of s6

high point: really liked the episode about Margaret, thought it showed their relationship as sisters quite nicely. i didn’t know she had burned her feet, v awful

i liked all the scenes btw William & the Queen, they have good chemistry in their scenes together

camilla puffing on a cig while tending to the tomato plants was v good

harry’s nazi uniform moment lol ugh

the rest of it was decidedly boring/mid and i am glad its over

should have stopped at s4 tbh

OH and the penitence prayer scene for Chuck & Camilla was pretty great imo