Season five of ‘The Crown’ comes to Netflix
New episodes reveal monarchy of the 1990s
COLIN MULLANEY / COPY EDITOR / THE USD VISTA
Two months after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, season five of “The Crown” came to Netflix on Nov. 9. The long-awaited season arrived two years after season four and continues the show’s chronological march into the Queen’s senior years.
Set in the 1990s, season five covers some of the most dramatic and scandalous times of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, including but not limited to: a massive fire at Windsor Castle, the dissolution of Princess Anne and Prince Andrew’s respective marriages, “Tampongate” and the notorious “War of the Waleses” — the highly publicized divorce between now King Charles III and the late Princess Diana.
USD senior Bri Graney studied in the U.K. and saw the most recent season being filmed in London.
“I studied abroad in Oxford last semester. I started watching ‘The Crown’ after visiting London, and I saw them filming season five,” Graney said. “I finished all of [the previous seasons] in about two weeks. I’ve only seen a few episodes of season five, but it’s really good so far.”
Actress Imelda Staunton — perhaps best known for her role as Dolores Umbridge in the Harry Potter series — plays a convincing Queen Elizabeth, in her overall appearance, mannerisms and tone of voice. Graney was impressed.
“I recognized her [as Umbridge], but I was never super into Harry Potter, so it was pretty unnoticeable,” Graney said.
Staunton arguably bears more likeness to the actual Queen Elizabeth than her predecessor Olivia Colman.
However, it will be difficult for Staunton to outdo both Colman or young Elizabeth actress, Claire Foy, who each won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for their portrayals.
Although she likes the latest season, Graney is nostalgic about the earliest episodes.
“I haven’t watched too much of season five, but the first Elizabeth [Claire Foy] was definitely my favorite,” Graney said.
Fans of Foy may be excited to see her revive the past role of young Elizabeth for season five’s opening scene. Via flashback, Queen Elizabeth launches the Royal Yacht Britannia, and throughout season five the yacht serves as a metaphor for the state of the monarchy and the monarch herself. As the yacht ages and declines, the Queen must fight to maintain her authority and influence in a world increasingly disenchanted with the crown and its heavy economic burden.
Aside from Staunton as Queen Elizabeth, some of the most impressive performances come from the supporting cast members, including Jonny Lee Miller as Prime Minister John Major, Jude Akuwudike as Sydney the valet, Salim Daw as Mohamed Al-Fayed and Prasanna Puwanarajah as the BBC reporter Martin Bashir.
Princess Diana, played by Elizabeth Debicki, is portrayed in a nuanced light, in a remarkable feat of both acting and screenwriting.
Despite Diana’s popularity and glowing public image in the 1990s, “The Crown” tells another story of Diana, as both a victim and her own perpetrator rolled into one. Season five does not exonerate Diana nor pull back any punches, simply because of the tragic nature of her fast-approaching death.
Instead, she is shown to be fickle and vain, overbearing and over-reliant on her son William for emotional support, naïve and easily tricked by the press, disagreeable and impulsive.
At the same time, season five’s portrayal is also sympathetic to Diana. She’s shown as someone with few friends, isolated and discarded by her husband and is easily exploited by BBC reporter Martin Bashir. In an attempt to bolster his own career, Bashir convinces a vulnerable and paranoid Diana with lies to conduct an exclusive BBC interview, behind the backs of the Royal Family and the Queen.
Martin Bashir’s manipulation of Diana exemplifies another prominent theme of season five, which is the intrusiveness of the media and its outsized role in shaping the narrative about the British monarchy.
Between invasions of privacy, television specials about the monarchy’s continued relevance and strategic interviews with Royal Family members, the media serves as a club to bash the monarchy, particularly as Charles and Diana vie for public sympathy.
If anything, however, season five is the most sympathetic toward the now late Queen Elizabeth II, who navigated extreme pressure during this time, both within her family and among the British public. Perhaps mindful of her recent passing, season five takes deliberate measures to humanize the grandmotherly figure, as she struggles to operate her new television set, has tea and jokes around with her grandson William, struggles with jealousy in her marriage to Prince Philip, or sheds a tear before her poignant “annus horribilis” speech. Queen Elizabeth II used this phrase, meaning “horrible year” in Latin, to describe 1992, where many negative events befell the monarchy in a very short span.
Although the show’s fifth season does not encompass the aftermath of the Charles-Diana divorce, nor Diana’s untimely death, it lays the groundwork and foundation by introducing Diana’s next love interest, Dodi Fayed. In overt allusion to the coming accident, every time Diana is shown getting into a car this season, the media is seen swarming her, trying to get a better picture.
In one scene — which Graney saw filming in London — Diana’s car brakes fail as she is chased by paparazzi, causing her to narrowly avoid swerving into oncoming traffic: a not-so-subtle nod to the Paris car chase that results in her death in 1997, which will undoubtedly be depicted in season six.