RIP The Crown: You began as the best show on Netflix and you ended as the worst

Thank god the messy season six is the last – we’re finally free

4 months ago

Do you remember where you were when you first started watching The Crown? I do. I was in my third and final uni house, and it was filthy. We didn’t live filthy, but the landlords didn’t care about making sure our living conditions were nice. I often wonder if anyone’s still allowed to actually live in it. I watched The Crown season one in my bed. I’m anti-royals, but pro The Crown. I loved the salacious feel to it – and loved the instantly acclaimed and awarded performances from Claire Foy and Matt Smith as Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip respectively. For the next four seasons, The Crown in my opinion went from strength to strength. By the time it hit series four, I thought it was one of the most god tier shows I’d ever watched. Cut to 2023, and season six had just ended – concluding The Crown forever. Much like public opinion of the monarchy, the show has soured and ended with an unbelievable dip in quality. So where did it all go wrong? RIP The Crown, indeed.

Before I dive right into the slander, I’d like to take a moment to talk about the peak of The Crown – the outstanding season four. Season four saw the end of the middle era of The Crown. It’s a great and juicy time to be watching the show. Gillian Anderson is onboard as Margaret Thatcher and she is utterly brilliant. Emma Corrin and Josh O’Connor are exceptional as Diana and Charles, two of the finest acting talent of their age group with delicious chemistry who play every second of it note perfect. Erin Doherty is my favourite Anne and Helena Bonham Carter is here giving it the bigguns as Margaret. Olivia Colman is in her element for this season too, even if she doesn’t hit the heights she did with Aberfan the season previously.

Via Netflix

I mention all this because it’s important to note how hyped I was for the season five era. It was a full new cast, with Imelda Staunton as the Queen, Johnathan Pryce as Philip, Lesley Manville as Margaret and Dominic West and Elizabeth Debicki as Charles and Diana. It’s, obviously, a very hyped and much portrayed era of the Royals. A lot of the response to season five was mixed, but I still enjoyed a lot. I was ready to see how The Crown would bow out its sixth and final season in style.

The end result? Horribly. And for the most part, it’s not the cast’s fault at all. Especially not Elizabeth Debicki’s – who I literally love in everything and who honestly is amazing as Diana. She was born to do it – Emma Corrin is fortunate she just had a better season because I think Debicki is just as good. Lesley Manville – also great. Dominic West and Jonathan Pryce phone it in a bit, if I’m honest. Ed McVey and Luther Ford as Prince William and Prince Harry are, in a word, shocking. It must be said.

But them aside, the issue with how The Crown has concluded its final season is a fundamental issue with this show just going utterly naff. It feels NAFF. What once felt like opulent, occasion television that everyone was talking about feels like little more than a soap. The Diana batch of episodes that make up the first half of season four are more dull than they have any business being, and when they’re tense they’re better. Then all the good work is undone by “Diana’s ghost” – a very controversial choice to have post-death Diana pop up on Charles’ private jet for a chat and then also the Queen later on. Whilst I don’t think these visions the characters have should be controversial, I do think they’re corny beyond belief. You feel like you’re watching Corrie.

Via Netflix

Things go from bad to badder by the time the show becomes for its final arc a sort of Saltburn-lite experience, where we spend far too much time around William and Harry – and meet Kate Middleton and her Lady Macbethian mum Carole who is pulling all the strings to get them studying together. The St Andrews uni scenes are beyond tiresome. Particularly draining is a fictional posh girlfriend of William who kicks off because he chats to Kate. You feel like you’re watching E4.

So how did we get to this – the RIP message of goodbye to The Crown being one of relief and not sorrow? A few factors, I fear. Firstly, I think there’s a lot of Royal fatigue. When The Crown was in its prime, nothing was really happening. Over the last three years a LOT has happened – with deaths, coronations, scandals. But mostly I think the issue is how the show is ending on a time too recent to history that no one is arsed about reliving. Watching Peter Morgan and co desperately try and make us feel that anything Prince William and Kate Middleton ever did was anything other than a slog is laughable.

RIP The Crown – you started with an opulent display of power and you’ve ended with a meek abdication. I’m overjoyed to see the back of this once outstanding feat of streaming telly.

Say RIP to The Crown season six – available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news, drops, quizzes and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook.