A dive into history with “The Crown”, the Netflix TV series that cannot be missed

During the Covid emergency we are living a period of time that will be written in history books, but there are people, such as Queen Elizabeth, who have witnessed epochal changes and historical moments. The TV series The Crown available on Netflix, faces all this kind of changes, not only from an historical point of view, but also from a personal one, about relationships, with hard choices placed on all fronts. A TV series not to be missed, whose narration may well continue till nowadays. Waiting for the fourth season which will be broadcasted in December, here’s the review of the first three seasons:

The review:

Production: USA – Great Britain

Release: on Netflix

TV series created by: Peter Morgan (since 2016)

Number of seasons: 3

Cast of the third season: Olivia Colma, Tobias Menzies, Helena Bonham Carter, Ben Daniels

Who knew that reality could overcome fantasy? If we can talk about fantasy, with The Crown, The Netflix original TV series which tells the life of Elizabeth II, Queen of England since she was 25, in 1952, and now still firmly on the throne. In the last few months, she was also forced to face the departure from the Royal Family of her nephew Henry and of his wife Meghan. It seems one of the episodes of the third season, but it is the reality and those who have already seen the TV series, that can imagine the conferences, the summons, the Queen’s tics, her apparently cold reactions. Hence, those who have “known” the Queen and the British Court though the TV series, are surely living even these days of pandemics with an extra imagination boost. (hereafter the trailer of the first season)

And this is the huge result of such an ambitious TV project, that it was also bold enough, to change the entire cast of the third season, despite the success of the first two seasons. This is because the strength of a TV series like The Crown lies not only in its actors – although they all belong to an international level – but also in the narrative power of the historical material at disposal, matched with a masterful mise en scène, which combines perfectly family drama and 70 years of History (with a capital H). The producer Peter Morgan, who was already the screenwriter of the movie The Queen, which brought Hellen Mirren to win the Oscar nomination for Best Actress. A tough writer, who makes the historic research, combined with feelings, his best weapon: indeed, all three seasons tell events which really happened, without getting to realise and to produce a documentary. The personal matters, from the coronation to the wedding, from the education of her children to her relationship with her sister Margaret, from the passion with her husband to the wish to escape, are perfectly linked to the “world affairs”: the relationships with the British Prime Ministers (included the one with the very complex personality of Churchill), the economic crisis, the international crisis and much more. (hereafter the trailer of the fourth season, coming out in December)

While the first two seasons, with a very talented Claire Foy as protagonist, have a more classic narration, in which a lot of the private life of the queen is narrated with a structure which is defined “horizontal” (that is with a dominant plot which goes through all the episodes), the third season revolutionises everything. Starting from the cast that, for age reasons, is replaced because the protagonists get old: the queen is interpreted by Olivia Colman (Oscar winner in 2019 for the movie “The Favourite”), and with her all the rest of the performers. But the revolution is also at narrative level: the episodes, maintaining the same protagonists, are as little self-conclusive movies (so with a narrative structure defined more “vertical”), which narrate well-defined historical moments, not interlacing with each other in the plot. As the masterful episode of the documentary about the royal family, wanted by Prince Philip to move the image of the Queen (only her?) closer to the eyes of the subjects, through that new technological mean that is the television. The result will be disastrous, with a Queen forced to suffer, to support the whims of her husband, but always very solid in maintaining her identity and decision-making autonomy for more important questions, such as the destiny of the country. From it emerges a complicated family, sometimes disconnected from reality for what concerns sentiments, but firmly aware of its role towards the Kingdom.

 

What unites the three seasons is certainly the irony. In addition to the drama of a woman who did not even want to become queen and who finds herself forced to feel responsible for her role, there is also the relationship with prince Philip, so emerges the love, the patience and also the senses of guilt because she often moved him to the background. But from Elizabeth II emerges a solid woman, able to maintain the ranks of a family, of a nation, even in front of painful separations, such as Brexit or the moving away of her grandson Henry. In any case, she is still the Queen, and to her, only to her, refers the population. In the TV series, but also in the real life. The Crown is a series not to be missed, to know better that royal world, between absurdities and complications.

 

Translated by Sara Francesca and Micol Viviani

Reviewed by Prof. Robert Clarke