The Crown, Season 4: Politics, Lust, and Loathing
I’m one of those people.
I just binge-watched the fourth season of The Crown. And now I want to write something. Dirty Henry told me to write what I feel.
What do I feel? Guilty. Relieved. But also hungry for more.
It’s so damn good. The royals are all so ridiculous and self-absorbed and loathsome but oh so irresistible. All except the Queen. She is boring Boris.
In Season 4, we are introduced to Margaret (Thatcher) & Princess Di. England in the 80s. We re-visit the conflicts with the IRA, the Falkland Wars, apartheid in South Africa and the role of “the Commonwealth”, Thatcherism and Michael Fagan, who manages to break into Buckingham Palace (twice!) and give the Queen a lesson about economics, but above all, we re-live the “grotesque misalliance” of Charles and Diana. Who knows if and how badly the series was exaggerating their destructive relationship, but even if the reality was one tenth of the level of crazy of the show, the royals must’ve been kicking themselves for years that they didn’t just let Charles and Camilla marry in the first place. Really messed up on that one.
Beyond Charles and Diana — Gillian Anderson is so damn good! And so is Olivia Colman and Helena Bonham Carter — I think there is something about having a show focused on women in power that is part of the lustre. And the acting. And Diana’s dresses. The sensation that you are learning about history. But of course, above all, the never-ending juicy drama that infiltrates the Royal Family.
Do you think Harry and Meghan quit the family to make season 6 (or 7 - who knows when they’ll come in) just as interestingly scandalous as the previous seasons?