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"?

its absurd to do an entire series on gtr his period of time and fergie is mentioned in one 5min conversation!

I am wondering if I imagined it now but I’m sure there was a brief shot of the back of SF in the last season of the crown towards the end and yet not a single bit of her in this seasons so weird!

I think Imelda Staunton comes the closest to how I remember the Queen, and I'm only old enough to have seen her from the 1980s onwards. Stature, body type, profile, mannerisms spot on. Olivia Coleman closest in terms of facial features. Lesley Manville is fantastic in everything. Probably more glamorous than I remember Margaret being at this time but very good indeed.

What I remember from the 1990s is the press constantly hounding the Royals, loads of negative press and people thinking they were all a bit ridiculous really and this all comes across well so far.

I'm glad there is not too much on Fergie - so far it's much more behind the scenes - if they just repeated what we heard in the press at the time that would not make for an interesting drama for me as we already know all that in the public demain.

Does anyone think Diana is acted as a bit of a 'bimbo' for want of a better word? I think it's a bit excruciating.

I totally agree re. Anne's hair, the Queen Mum and Fergie - the whole series could have done with some more jolly japes and a sense of how the Diana-Sarah F. friendship played out. I'm so bored of the Diana parts, she has no charisma

I’ve watched the whole thing now and I’ve got to say I was bored to tears. Have the writers changed? Aside from the Fayed and the Margaret one, the rest were a muddle with too much yacht talk, not enough external political issues, and the miscasting was always distracting. Josh O’Connor was so good - it’s a shame they couldn’t have found someone as watchable and as good at capturing Charles.

But Diana WAS tall, she was 5ft 10 in bare feet and started wearing heels when she split with Charles. I agree the Queen Mother casting was terrible. She was shorter, more squat and not remotely skinny or tall. The scenes with Margaret and Peter Townsend were lovely. Lesley Manville is much more like Margaret than Helen Bonham Carter, although Vanessa thingy who played her in S 1 &2 was amazing.

It baffles me why Fergie doesn't appear even once or have a single line of dialogue. Her split with Andrew was a massive deal at the time, but they just look at the papers and have a conversation about it.

Very disappointing. Too much Mohammed Al Fayad not enough Princess Diana & her lovely surgeon for me!

In the nicest possible way, Diana was the reverse of intellectually gifted, and doesn’t appear to have had much common sense, either — long after she ceased to have the excuse of youth, she was naive, credulous, and prey to quackery. I haven’t seen Elizabeth Debicki’s portrayal yet, but it surely isn’t much of a stretch to think she’s playing someone not terribly bright?

I will not be watching. How unfair it is to make up dialogue and events that are untrue,, about people that are still very much alive!
My American friends were very surprised when I pointed out all the falsehoods in the previous seasons, as it is presented as historical.

But what’s the ethical difference between watching previous seasons, as you seem to have done, and this one? The queen, after all, was alive and well until very recently, and fictionalised versions of many other still living people appeared in previous seasons.

I agree Imelda has given the Queen some of her personality back. It was almost like Olivia was afraid to play her at all. Very cold and bland.

I think Elizabeth has got Diana's mannerisms down well and I find her just as frustrating in the crown as I did in real life.

I don't know who Dominic West is playing, but it ain't Charles.

Johnathan Pryce is playing Phillip like someone's doddery kind old grandad (which I'm sure is true to a degree) but the Duke was not known for his softness.

Helena looks nothing like Margaret! Comparison photo

I watched the whole lot over two afternoons. It was OK for me. Dominic West is too broad and handsome tbh. Elizabeth Debecki looks like Diana but I agree is too thin for this decade. The Queen mum is nothing like her. Really bad casting. My family worked for the RF and I have met a few members. Personally I do not find it disrespectful.
We have a very active royal family that is famous worldwide. People are curious. The people that called for it to be pulled have short memories. My recollection of the time was of privileged adults acting badly.
Enjoy it for what it is. Better than an American bang bang movie!

It is so clunky.
Blindingly obvious comparisons between various events made every episode.
I thought the same re: change in writers.
It was outstanding at the beginning. The actors playing Charles, Anne and Diana in the last series were brilliant. The acting generally feels pretty wooden but they seem to have poor material to work from in the first place.

Yes, very clunky script. The expository dialogue is so contrived, especially as we are now in a period which is very familiar to many viewers. The casting is mostly quite poor and overall I just have the impression that everyone involved is just dialling it in. I think 'The Crown' is now a show whose time has passed.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought this, I am truly disappointed with the decline in quality. The previous seasons had me mesmerised, and believing if only for a moment that the characters were in fact the real deal, whereas this season very much feels like actors trying to portray the people they are playing, if that makes sense. Such a shame as I was really looking forward to Imelda Staunton's take on the Queen, but I feel it an unfair comparison if there has been a change in writers.

Can't believe they cast DW! Trying to flatter the king I guess 🤷🏻‍♀️

In the end I found DW so irritating I’d probably prefer real Charles

I've enjoyed all of it so far. Was shocked at the amount of violence down regarding the Russian royal family being killed.

I agreed that actress playing Diana is hugely talented.

Best bit is the actress who plays Camilla in The Windsors playing the head lady in waiting. Brilliant! Made me laugh

I agree in the earlier seasons "that the characters were in fact the real deal, whereas this season very much feels like actors trying to portray the people they are playing". I wonder how much this has to do with the fact that most of us don't remember the queen and the others in the 1940s and 1950s, whereas many people under the age of 45 or so will remember the events of the 5th series quite well. So it's easier to see Claire Foy as the queen than it is to see Olivia Colman or Imelda Staunton.

That said, I definitely agree that most roles have been poorly cast. As I said above, it seems to me that everyone involved is kind of 'over it'. Same could be said for the audiences. Yes, it's getting good viewing figures, but it's not the prestige entertainment it was 5 years ago.

I’ve just started episode 1 and have turned it off to finish another time.

all the thinly veiled comparisons to the Queen and a boat ‘past her prime and too expensive’ - lazy.

Diana sulking over her beautiful holiday to amazing sites on a extravagant boat just make her look like a spoilt cow. Especially when her friend’s child is battling cancer. The bit where she asks to go shopping and the guests look around awkwardly - FFS REALLY. Not like she asked for a gangbang.

As for protecting the Queen from reading a sensationalised headline 1 the woman had the hide of a rhino as if she’d give a fuck

Who wrote this utter shite?!

Also Diana thanking Harry for ‘sticking up for her’ - she’s not a battered wife in a council house, he sat on a yacht and said he’d like to go shopping.

There are many accounts of Diana being a less than excellent Mum - having breakdowns whilst William slid notes under the door asking if she’s ok etc and using her kids as weapons against Charles, such as allowing William to take the blame for the harassing phone calls to Camilla. That part in episode 1 just makes her look awful - was it supposed to?!

I don’t think she was a terrible mother at all in real life. She showed more love and compassion to her children than anyone else in the royal family did.

I think we forget how young and unprepared she was to be put in such a high pressured situation with the eyes of the world watching her. How many of us could have coped with that?

I pitied her then and I pity her now. Dreadful situation for a young woman to be thrown into.