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In 2015, Netflix arrived in Australia, pioneering a seismic shift that would irrevocably alter the TV landscape. A year later, The Crown premiered, unfurling like a shining emblem of the new age. With its lavish budget, epic scale and addictive, behind-the-scenes account of the lives of Britain’s royal family, the drama series seemed to symbolise the promise of this exciting new era of entertainment.
A cleverly crafted combination of historical events and more intimate encounters imagined by series creator and writer Peter Morgan, The Crown for five seasons has been persuasive in its impression of authenticity. It also managed to offer fresh insights about one of the most extensively scrutinised families on the planet.
Khalid Abdalla as Dodi Fayed and Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana in the new season of The Crown.Credit: Daniel Escale/Netflix
It humanised the privileged Windsors as many of their problems mirrored those that might be experienced by families anywhere. While blithely inhabiting the opulent milieu into which they were born, a world of palaces and servants, these people are seen struggling with recognisable pressures: resentful siblings, restive offspring, difficult workplace demands.
There’s a frustrated son eager for responsibility and keen to initiate change. A wife in long-time marriage worried that she and her husband are growing apart. A young woman who marries the man of her dreams only to discover that her life isn’t what she’d hoped. All of it is situated inside a venerated institution that faces calls to adapt.
Yet over seven years, a lot has changed, and not simply because there’s now another head wearing the crown in the real world.
Just as Netflix looks a very different beast, less dazzling and often disappointing, so does its showpiece production. Four episodes into the sixth and final season – with the concluding batch due on December 14 – it’s fallen sadly short on some of the qualities that distinguished the drama.
Noticeably lacking are the thoughtfulness, subtlety and emotional nuance of previous seasons. What once was potently implied, suggested with a look or a carefully composed image, is now baldly stated. And rather than offering fresh perspectives, the new season feels as if it’s going over well-worn ground with its narrow focus on Princess Diana (Elizabeth Debicki) and Dodi Fayed (Khalid Abdalla).
Peter Morgan celebrates winning the Emmy award for outstanding writing for a drama series for The Crown.Credit: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images
Astonishingly, Morgan has written every episode – at this stage a staggering 54 hours of television. So maybe he just ran out of puff given the monumental undertaking. Maybe the story of Diana Spencer, that grim fairy tale of a wide-eyed young woman marrying her prince and its tragic ending, was simply too compelling, or it was too soon for him to gain a productive distance. Whatever the reasons, the tale of the doomed princess has dominated and diminished the season so far. Morgan’s gift had been to place a viewer in the box seat, to allow us to believe that we were being granted access to tightly guarded private spaces as well as provided with backstage passes to major events. The insights were always a product of his research and speculation, and they were credible.
But the new season provokes only scepticism: “Did that really happen?” Diana’s sons, William (Rufus Kampa) and Harry (Fflyn Edwards), explicitly asking their mother – on what we know will be their final phone call – if she intends to marry Dodi, after making a snide crack about his shoes. Dodi proposing marriage on what we know will be their last night before the fatal car crash, having been relentlessly harassed by his father to put a ring on it. Diana’s empathetic rejection of the proposal, also on that night, while urging him to stand up for himself. It’s as though Morgan was trying to impose a dramatist’s neat closure on events. Then there’s the dreadful miscalculation of Diana’s ghost literally haunting her grief-stricken ex-husband, Charles (Dominic West), and former mother-in-law, the Queen (Imelda Staunton). Yuk.
Meanwhile, thoughts and feelings are clumsily hammered home rather than evocatively suggested, like Charles unnecessarily declaring “I let her down in life, but I will not let her down in death”.
The new season has also reduced Dodi’s father, Mohamed Al-Fayed (Salim Daw), to something of a cartoon villain. One of the series’ strengths has been the complexity afforded to a range of characters, even those whose public personae might have been less than flattering. Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, and Princess Anne, for example, have been portrayed in their brusqueness but also their strength, loyalty and astute awareness of the responsibilities built into their roles.
But Mohamed Al-Fayed has been reduced to a caricature, a man relentlessly ambitious, cunning and cruelly manipulative who would do anything to be accepted into the royals’ inner circle. He’s even depicted as the architect of the accident that killed Dodi and Diana by insisting that they make the ultimately fatal detour to Paris.
Despite its weaknesses, one quality of The Crown that has held firm is the casting. The producers made the bold decision to change the actors every two seasons, with new ensembles that better reflected the passage of time. It’s a move that might’ve been disastrous if not for the quality of their choices and the pitch-perfect performances guided by a range of directors. Elizabeth moving from a luminous Claire Foy as a young wife, mother and monarch to Olivia Colman in middle age, and finally Staunton, all of them excellent as they portray a stoic, dutiful, disciplined woman devoted to dogs and horses.
Three queens: Imelda Staunton, Olivia Colman and Claire Foy from The Crown.Credit: Netflix
Equally impressive has been the trio of actors playing her husband (Matt Smith, Tobias Menzies, Jonathan Pryce), while the Annes (Erin Doherty, Claudia Harrison) and Margarets (Vanessa Kirby, Helena Bonham Carter, Lesley Manville) have also been terrific. West has been convincing as the conflicted heir, with Emma Corrin and Debicki both captivating in the difficult role of Diana. Over the substantial amount of screen time, there hasn’t been a false note in the cast, which is quite an achievement.
It’s just a shame that what we’ve seen so far of the final season has stumbled in other significant areas.
The Crown’s final episodes drop on December 14.
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