The Crown season 5 review: Netflix’s once-regal show loses all objectivity in worst season ever

The Crown has always been an episodic series, but I don’t remember it ever being this disjointed. Watching the season in one stretch often feels like you’re juggling between three different shows at the same time — one in which Elizabeth continues to serve her life sentence in the ‘system’, the other in which Diana and Charles’ relationship comes undone (again), and a third in which an enterprising Egyptian man begins his epic climb up the social ladder (which mostly happens off screen).

Of course, all three storylines intersect regularly across the season, but the show prefers to dedicate individual episodes to certain characters, as opposed to distracting the audience (but mostly itself) by interweaving different narratives. This used to happen before as well; everyone from Princess Margaret to a younger Diana and Charles have all been given moments to shine in earlier seasons. But this time, even though the narrative tributaries continue to branch out in their own directions, they never arrive at a confluence.

And unfortunately, the only time it ever feels like all the different storylines are forming a cohesive whole, it’s done for a rather off-putting purpose. You see, in its fifth season, The Crown appears to have shed all pretense of portraying the royals with any sort of objectivity. Instead, there are several scenes that feel like they’ve been written by series creator Peter Morgan in his personal basement shrine to the Queen, while lying prostrate before her portrait.

In addition to forgiving her personal flaws by repeatedly blaming ‘the system’ for them, the show also goes to great lengths to paint Charles, of all people, in a positive light. By taking this line, The Crown seems to be suggesting that anybody who pushes back against the ways of the royal family is, in fact, a ‘traitor’ to the realm. No prizes for guessing who their most famous adversary was in the 90s.

While the show essentially whitewashes Charles by allowing him to make speeches about his philanthropic efforts — usually while some sweeping orchestral music plays in the background — Diana is dutifully sidelined. Just one episode is dedicated to her love story with Dr Hasnat Khan, a plot thread that the show doesn’t even have the decency to resolve on screen. Instead, it further burdens Diana by telling her to explain how things ended in an off-hand remark. Later, her literal moment in the spotlight — the famed BBC interview — is presented in such an anticlimactic manner that you begin to feel like Morgan is deliberately sabotaging the whole thing.

Even the recent show Pam & Tommy had the intelligence to understand that the same scandalous gossip could impact the man and the woman in a relationship differently. While Charles comes out largely unscathed from the ‘tampongate’ scandal, the effects of media scrutiny consumed not just Diana, but likely had a ripple effect that her own children can feel to this day. The Crown either doesn’t seem to have realised this, or worse, it simply isn’t interested. Why would it, when it would rather exploit her instead. At least Andrew Dominic’s Blonde had empathy for (its fictionalised) Marilyn Monroe. The Crown throws its version of Diana under the bus.

Something has shifted in the last year or so. Morgan’s scripts were always rather reverential of the royals, but he also made it a point to highlight their privilege, and their lack of self-awareness. The Crown was never satirical, but at least it made a conscious effort to jerk its head at the absurdity of it all, as if to ask, “Can you believe these people?” The show was on our side, looking in. It walked hand-in-hand with us through history, gossiping along the way. Diana’s introduction in season four offered the show plenty of opportunity to present an outsider’s perspective of this insular world. But in season five, Morgan appears to have considered his options, and decided that he’s now an insider as well. And to protect his position, he must protect the realm.

This change in perspective is the show’s fatal flaw. Which is a pity, because Elizabeth Debicki, as Diana, is clearly doing the best that she can with the loose sheets of paper pretending to be scripts that she has been handed. Staunton is a non-presence, though, but that mostly because the Queen herself is a passive participant this season and not because of any fault of the actor’s. And despite having some of the best scenes this season, Dominic West is never able to fully disappear into Charles. The less said about Jonathan Pryce and Lesley Manville’s underutilisation, on the other hand, the better. The show hardly leaves you with any choice in the matter, really. Even if you wanted to highlight their work, you can’t, because they have nothing to do.

How strange for The Crown to have chosen this moment in not only its own history, but also of the world, to deliver its worst season. As many including myself had  predicted back when the show began in 2016, the Queen actually ended up dying during its run. Now would’ve been a great time to grapple with her complicated legacy, or at least, to compel the audience to subconsciously make their peace with it. Instead, we get two Queen-centric episodes filled with tired metaphors, rehashed themes, and an aimlessness that almost feels like a shrug, a resignation to one’s fate. In that way, season five is a lot like the Queen herself.

The Crown Season 5
Creator – Peter Morgan
Cast – Imelda Staunton, Dominic West, Elizabeth Debicki, Jonathan Pryce, Lesley Manville
Rating – 2/5