As I was wrapping up the series I realized Her Majesty has
TOTES watched all ten hours of this show. How could she not?? It’s based on her
actual life and the closed-door side
of it we never get to see. Ne’er revealing or hypothesizing too much, the show
reveals just the right amount of privacy, opulence, and drama. Buckingham
Palace owns the last semblance of class, surely green lighting every move the
show makes. The Palace takes these things seriously, I’m positive. One of the
first things you notice in the show is the immaculate opening sequence. As the
Hans Zimmer score builds, we see close ups of gold being forged and formed into
some sort of royal artifact. The shots are so close, never zooming out and
showing us a bigger picture of what has been built. The Crown follows this
format – giving insider looks into the intimate lives of the Royals, never
quite zooming out far enough to get the bigger picture – the picture we
probably already know. Or the picture we can at least Google.
The Crown season one has spanned from flashbacks of the
1930’s to its present 1955. It begins on Elizabeth’s 1947 wedding day to
Phillip and shows their marriage, her father’s death, and the subsequent
beginning of her reign. The show follows her first few years as a clueless
Queen, not quite knowing what she doesn’t know as she balances politics with
parliament and simultaneous family decisions. Claire Foy is excellent at
refraining from personality. I mean, I thought the queen was dull, but damn.
This just certifies it. There are actual conversations on the show about how
personality-less Elizabeth is. Her sister Margaret tends to outshine her,
proving herself troublesome. Their accents are pure comedy in their poshy
superior tone and inflects. I am told this is really how they talked. Which
kind of makes me sick. The one comment my husband kept making as he overheard
the show was how absurd their accents are. I mean, uhbsaid theee ahhksents ahh.
It’s distractingly over the top. Elizabeth was written in the most inoffensive
way possible. It’s almost frustrating. You want her to be bad, and she won’t
be. You want her to be so so good, and she isn’t. If you looked up the Webstehh
Dictionahhehh definition of boring-and-middle-of-the-ground-neutral, you’d see
Claire Foy’s expressionless Queen Elizabeth face, garbed out in excess of
brocade and white fur, with a crown so icy you’d get chills.
The show keeps the plots just-so enticing, insidious but
never quite reaching scandal. The story is refrained. Just when you are
expecting a drippingly dramatic scene, it takes the quintessential British turn
– restraint and the shoving away of feelings. I feel this is a result of the
actual tone the monarchy always takes. (Nothing to see here! Move along, move
along.) The air of drama is carried by Hollywood-worthy big-budget visual
grandeur and sophistication. Moments and shots reflect the seriousness of the
crown in overly cinematic moves. There are shots that gave me goose bumps in
their impressive display of imagery in a way that demands one’s emotion. The
director brings the drama in this show, not the writer. There’s a slo-mo scene
with pretty confetti falling from the sky, Her Majesty politely waving from a
car to a roaring loving crowd, the music building, the tension peaking, and I’m
like, ok, the shoe’s gotta drop. WHAT’S GONNA HAPPEN???? Is she gonna get
rushed?? Is Phillip going to demand a divorce?? …..You know what happened? She ends
up getting a shot injected in her face from a spasmed over-stressed smile
muscle. HAHAHAHA #RoyaltyProbs amirite??? See what I’m saying, here? A standout
moment is when her grandmother approaches the Elizabeth-in-mourning from The
King’s passing for the first time since inheriting the crown, and her own
grandmother curtsies to her, cementing the importance of her new role. One of
my favorite moments of the show. Emotion is built from the crew, not
necessarily the cast or writers.
Allegedly this is supposedly Netflix’s most expensive TV
show to date. And I believe it. I actually think they could have filmed in Buckingham,
that’s how luxurious the show looks. Sweeping hallways as wide as a townhouse, classic
gilded artwork from floor to ceiling. Personally I hate the fifties, and this
show makes it look so glamorous. With their clunky phones hosting forbidden
phone calls, cigarettes casually smoked in down-laden beds, silken bespoke
Diorish silhouettes, and hair and makeup with the precision of…well….royalty,
honestly, the era is inviting and drool-worthy. And makes me yearn for the
return of proper evening gloves. (de la Renta, Carolina, I SEE YOU.)
Matt Smith shines as Prince Phillip, his character offering
most of the personality, mischievousness, and cheeky side to the seriousness of
the throne. He does so well since he has a fun character to play. Same as John
Lithgow, who plays a wonderful Winston Churchill. While the character is over
the top, Lithgow embodies him so well it’s astounding. One problem I’ve found
is the debate to sit through the show or Google what happened. A funny problem
to have – wondering if you want the show to cinematically reveal their interpretation
of history to you or to spoil it and ask your mom if Princess Margaret really
was carrying-on with the married staff member– GASP! Unclutch those pearls, dahhhhling.
It’s not quite a spoiler.
The Crown is a Netflix original. Grab a cuppa and sit frew
it, dehh. It’s well wuhff it.
