The queen and 'The Crown': Clever and emotional
Historical drama doesn’t get more clever or well-executed than in The Crown, which is now streaming its second season on Netflix. The series starring Claire Foy as Queen Elizabeth, created and largely written by Peter Morgan, takes another 10 episodes to chronicle a big batch of history, this time commencing during the 1950s. Come for the costumes and the behind-the-throne gossip; stay for the fine performances and the history lessons.
Early on, it may look as though The Crown might mire itself in sudsy soap opera, with many minutes spent on how unhappy the queen’s husband, Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, has become. Matt Smith plays a Philip chafing at his largely decorative role in the royal family, and he rebels by going off on long trips where he carouses with women in the company of his male buddies. Fear not, however: Morgan knows how to write this stuff in such a way that turns marital strife into something more rich and emotional. The result is a complex portrait of a long-term marriage.
The new season addresses real-world events beyond Buckingham Palace. There are plots about the Suez Canal crisis and interactions with America via President John. F. Kennedy. He is played by Michael C. Hall, although his scenes are stolen by Jodi Balfour as a Jackie Kennedy, who is both timorous and steel-spined. Unlike the first season of The Crown, the new one doesn’t stay fixed on the queen. There are entire episodes in which she barely makes an appearance, but you won’t be disappointed. A standout is the fourth episode, titled “Beryl,” which focuses largely on the queen’s sister, Princes Margaret, played with theatrical flair by Vanessa Kirby. She falls for the man who will be Lord Snowden, but here, played by Matthew Goode from Downton Abbey, he’s a rascally photographer whose wild artistic life gives all of the queen’s protective advisers — so meticulous about guarding the royal image — ulcers.
We get a more fully rounded picture of the queen herself as well, and I’m not just talking about the numerous, catty references to her having “thick ankles.” (This, alas, is a grave weakness of The Crown: No CGI has been applied to Claire Foy’s shapely ankles to thicken them.) We see a queen who is more outdoorsy and horsey, one who is openly jealous of Jackie Kennedy’s glamour and, in general, a queen who is finding her way through a new era: “the age of deference is over,” as one character remarks. The whole enterprise moves along with a briskness that matches the queen’s no-nonsense manner. Foy is wonderfully good. This second season will be succeeded by a third in which the queen will be portrayed at an older age by Olivia Colman, so relish Foy in the role now, as you binge.
The Crown is streaming now on Netflix.
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