AIBU To Be Disappointed With The Crown (Season 5)

[TheShellBeach]

I've enjoyed all the episodes of The Crown so far and was really looking forward to the start of Season 5.
We started watching it last night and we were terribly disappointed.
Imelda Staunton is wonderful as the Queen but she seems to have a very small role in the proceedings so far.
AIBU to wish they'd left it at the end of Season 4? Or is there a reason why Season 5 is just a bit "meh"?

I take it back…. I’ve just watched episode 5 and I’m hooked again. Love Margaret. The whole Peter Townsend thing is so sad really. What a waste of everyone’s lives. I wonder how his second wife felt knowing he was always in love with Margaret.

Timothy Dalton was so good as Townsend. Mind you, his Wikipedia entry quotes someone suggesting that in real life, at that time, he looked at Mark Phillips and Armstrong--Jones and felt he'd had a lucky escape.

I’ve watched lots of it for the first time this week. Enjoyed the earlier series and the history surrounding it.
cannot get on board with the later ones. I think the PP who says living through it makes it harder to watch. There’s a few things I’ve spotted and gone “that didn’t happen” and I can’t get my head round Ann.
Skipped through to series 5 just now as my free Netflix ends tomorrow.

Goodness - just looked it up and Elizabeth Debicki is 6”3! Diana was 5”10.

Usually I like Gillian Anderson but she was mental as Thatcher. Made her all anxious and unsure of herself & much more odd mannerisms than actual Thatcher. Actual Thatcher made me very angry at the time, but GA didn’t convey the arrogance with which Thatcher ruled.

That’s interesting. I wonder what version is true, maybe he just said that to avoid further hurt. Who knows.

So much could have been orevented if they actually could marry who they wanted at the time.
Margaret Peter and Charles Camilla....

I'm upto episode 7 and really can't be bothered to finish. It starts with William going to Eton and I really don't care. Might come back to it and some later date.

I watched most of episodes 1-6 on 1.25 speed because its so dull. I think its because I remember it all happening so its not new to me? The best episode was the al fayed one, I didn't know his story. Also, I'm a bit of a republican so not entirely sure why I'm still watching. At least in the 1st two seasons I had gorgeous clothes to look at 🤷‍♀️

So true.

She towers over Dominic West. It really distracts me!

It needs a 'health warning'. It's a work of fiction, and I'm alarmed that so many people treat it as a factual documentary and judge the various people accordingly.

The writer and director have arrogantly dismissed these criticisms by saying that 'of course everyone knows it's fictional'. But even among my friends, who are pretty streetwise, this just isn't the case!!! Few people read serious history books/articles but lots more watch film and TV, and that's what has the power to influence them.

Yes, I get that, if you know the real events then watching The Crown is harmless - but if you don't, and you believe unquestioningly what you are seeing, it's a horrible piece of propaganda. If the RF weren't the RF, the writers and director couldn't get away with this - they'd be sued out of existence.

It's like that film Enigma which would have us believe that the Americans cracked the Nazi Enigma codes. It's not true (it was done at Bletchley Park by British code-breakers) but it's in a blockbuster film, so guess which version will be believed by most people???

Amazed at the naivity with which people swallow it all.

You don't mean Enigma, that was set at Bletchley Park and gave a broadly accurate impression though it underplayed the contribution of Polish intelligence. You mean U-571 in which Matthew McConaughy and Jon Bon Jovi carry out an entirely fictional US assault on a Nazi submarine.

The actress playing Diana is awful, it's like some over acted caricature

Imelda Staunton would have been better cast as the Queen Mother, she is just not right to manage playing the Queen. The Queen Mother seemed more like someone you could bump in to in Sainsbury's or at a WI meeting.

its like sometimes they try so hard with the well known mannerisms that the acting comes second.

Totally this!

My memory may be completely mistaken, but I always thought Diana was a massive monarchist.

I agree, I find the actress‘s extreme thinness distracting - Diana was not painfully thin at that time of her life. She is very irritating and her storyline is tedious, but I suspect I’d have found the real Diana irritating and tedious.
I love Anne, Philip and Margaret though. Thought the episode with Townsend was very good, as was the Mohammed Fayed episode.

Margaret could have married Townsend but recently revealed letters show that her feelings had cooled and she chose not to. I don't think there was ever any real question of Camilla and Charles marrying back in the 1970s. Not because they weren't 'allowed' but because Camilla was madly in love with Andrew Parker Bowles, and Charles had a string of other girlfriends.

The whole 'thwarted love' angle makes for great drama, but the reality is more prosaic.

Binged the whole thing and I'm so disappointed! Think they may have peaked with s4. They really did Diana dirty in s5 - she's portrayed as this self absorbed, vacuous, vindictive, hysterical over sharer blabbing on to everyone and anyone about Charles. It's a complete U-turn from s4 which was much more sympathetic to Di/anti-Charles. Agree the actress playing her has completely overdone the doe eyed thing. Emma Corrin was much better/seemed more like a real person.

The script is terrible! There was so many points I laughed out loud because of how silly some of the lines were. And all the chat about the ageing yacht - yes, we get the comparison to the monarchy/Queen but we don't need several episodes banging on about it. And the finale was a complete snooze fest.

Aw man

@Remainiac 🙂

Such a shame it's gone so far downhill 😕

Standout performances over the 5 seasons for me are Claire Foy's as HM and Josh O'Connor as Charles.

Yes completely agree! But also really liked Victoria Kirby as young Margaret, and the actress who played Anne in 3 & 4.

Vanessa not Victoria!

@Areyouactuallyserious

Yes they were good too

I agree with the pp who said the actress playing Anne would have been a good Margret. I'm sure her hair is the wrong colour for A; bit too dark. I always picture Ann as a sort of dusty blonde ... ?

And the Queen Mother - i mean i keep wondering who she's meant to be! QM was short and dumpy and smiley. Round faced, and very recognisable. Here's a pic of HM, QM, and PM in 1980.
iconicimages.net/photo/np-ry011-british-royal-family/

I'm just finished ep.7 and am baffled there is still no Sarah F. She and Diana were photographed together constantly in the 80s. Sarah got the blame for leading Diana into a lot of 'horseplay' iirc. I think their's was an odd relationship with a weird power dynamic - Diana blowing hot and cold. It would have made an interesting story line. Less of watching the constant naval gazing from Diana.