The Crown season 5 review: Queen’s death brings timeliness, but not relevancy

It is the beginning of the new season. CrownThe Royal Yacht Britannia’s Prince Philip (Jonathan Pryce), sits next to Queen Elizabeth II (Imelda Staunton) at a table on the Royal Yacht Britannia. They lament the ship’s declining state and cost of repairs. “It shouldn’t come as a surprise she’s falling apart. She’s a creature of another age. […] In many ways she’s obsolete.” The double meaning of his words isn’t hard to understand: Like the Britannia, the queen is “a creature of another age,” as is monarchy, and the prime of her rule has since passed. It is the penultimate season CrownParallelism is used heavily to examine the power struggle within the royal family between the old and new guards during the 1990s. This period was one of turmoil, change and grievance for the institution. With the queen’s death in September — after production on this season had been completed — the patterns the show explores are more salient than ever as real-life transitions of power mirror those in the series.

But as with the Britannia and the queen’s reign before the turn of the century, Crown It is no longer what it was. It’s a lot more difficult to understand metaphors, it is sometimes disjointed and there are many creative options that blur the lines between enticing and ethical. CrownWhile it still provides moments of incredibleness, it is nearing its end and some of that shine has faded as it advances towards the present.

Season 5 of the series will pick up in 1991. The winds are blowing already when they return. The core characters have been aged up and recast for a second and final time: Most notably, Staunton takes over for Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth; Elizabeth Debicki steps in for Emma Corrin as Princess Diana; and Dominic West takes on the role of Prince Charles following Josh O’Connor. The royal family has been in crisis for years. This season centers on the series of scandals leading up to Diana and Charles’ divorce and the growing tension between the older and younger members of the monarchy about how to effectively rule.

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So, in episode one, Elizabeth is shown as the Britannia. The Britannia’s appearance is a comparison to Elizabeth. And, of course, Elizabeth is again mentioned repeatedly with less sophistication each passing. The image of the vessel, which was launched in the 1950s, is juxtaposed sharply with the Alexander Yacht, a newer ship that Diana and Charles sailed around Italy during their “second honeymoon.” During a tense conversation with Prime Minister John Major (Jonny Lee Miller) about whether the government or the royal family should pay for expensive repairs to the ship (during a global recession, no less), Elizabeth refers to the Britannia as a “floating, seagoing expression of me.” Later in the series, Philip calls the boat a “symbolic representation” of the queen. Charles is the future and Elizabeth the past, just like the Alexander. The show over and again tries to highlight (and sometimes underline) this connection.

And it doesn’t stop there: In a later scene, Prince William (Senan West, Dominic West’s son) encourages the queen to replace her outdated, malfunctioning TV. She responds, “It does seem to have had better days. […] Even the televisions are metaphors in this place.” Crown appears allergic to subtlety this season — having multiple characters identify the symbolism in the show is a classic case of “telling” rather than “showing.” The queen is old-fashioned just like her stuff, and Charles is shiny and new, just like his stuff. We get it. This comparison doesn’t only fail because it’s heavy handed. Unlike the TV, Elizabeth won’t be swapped out for a newer model for many years, so the metaphor feels false and forced, muddling the very thing it’s supposed to narrativize.

The air of melancholy that surrounds the queen during this season as she contemplates the twilight of her reign and says goodbye to the Britannia also doesn’t quite land — and not just because it’s difficult to feel sympathetic for a literal queen who loses her luxury yacht. The audience has the benefit of knowing how Charles’ ascension to the throne shakes out: Elizabeth will go on to rule for three more decades. This scene feels like an abrupt farewell. The somber and nostalgic tone seems misplaced.

It is possible to argue that the coincidences in this season’s parallels are more fascinating. When Diana does an explosive and controversial tell-all interview with Martin Bashir, Charles says, “It hasn’t been on my watch that […] a program on national televIsion’s made such a mockery of us.” The irony is that there is a program on an international streaming platform making a mockery of the royal family right now on King Charles’ watch: Crown.

Image courtesy of Netflix

Photo by Keith Bernstein/Netflix

This season, the show sometimes stumbles upon patterns between the past and present via timing and chance that complicate the binary narrative the showrunners are trying to sell us — that Elizabeth and Charles are opposites. The fictionalized world of CrownCharles is for innovation and progress, while the queen symbolizes the old worldview, politics and duty. Unintentional parallels such as these show that history can repeat itself even in a changing royal family. Monarchy, if Elizabeth is the Britannia or Charles the Alexander is the poisonous sea on which they sail. No matter who is the monarch, progress can be limited by the existence of the system. This is the season of CrownIt seems that the cart is always ahead of the horse with its insistence on portraying the queen and Charles as both relics and reformers.

This season provides plenty to think about in terms of the limits of change at an institution that wants to stay the same. However, the show is plagued with a heavy-handedness beyond Queen Elizabeth’s metaphors. Some scenes can be deemed too media-driven or trite. Prince Charles is shown having secret conversations with Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, and then Major about his plans to become king. Blair and Major have both denied that these conversations ever took place. CrownIt is dramatization. However, it must still be truthful.

Crown’s showrunners also chose to re-create the infamous “Tampongate” conversation between Charles and Camilla (Olivia Williams). CrownThey are shown as sympathetically by the show, which acknowledges their consent to be harmed. The show, however, commits the exact same offense by rewriting the conversation word-for-word.

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Season of Crown, the showrunners also make strong, controversial choices when it comes to foreshadowing Diana’s death. Multiple times the princess is seen entering her vehicle while paparazzi photograph her in front of it. Sometimes she speeding away from photographers and sometimes running a red light once people see her driving in her car. At one point, her brakes give out, and she expresses worry that someone tampered with them — a fear the real Diana actually voiced in 1995. While these scenes contribute to the drama, the way they’re included also seems to be in poor taste. The season teases her death as if it’s the show’s grand finale in the same way the ringleader of a circus might save the best act for last.

Despite the season’s shortcomings, there are also many bright spots. The costuming is as accurate and impressive as ever — Diana’s “revenge dress” moment is a standout. Staunton and Debicki fully inhabit their roles as Elizabeth and Diana, with the latter mastering the princess’ piercing gaze and hushed voice. Crown also gives Princess Margaret (Lesley Manville) and her former fiancé Peter Townsend (Timothy Dalton) the closure they deserve in scenes that are genuinely touching and heartbreaking.

However, Season 5 was mixed. Season 5 is mixed. Crown inches closer toward Diana’s death and its conclusion, the allure of a period piece about the royals has begun to fade. Bumping up against the present day, the show is no longer a distant — if imperfect — fairy tale. The showrunners attempt to separate past and present with broad, literary metaphors. Our knowledge is more complex and messy than we realize. Crown, like the monarchy it portrays, can’t seem to keep up. We can see how 2022 ends and the cycle continues.