THE CROWN: Season 4 - Blu-ray (Sony/Left Bank Production, 2020) Sony Home Entertainment
I am rather impatient with the
interminable delays in Netflix’s wildly popular original series, The Crown (2016-present).
It took nearly a year between, to collect Series 1-2, and then, a
broadcast hiatus of nearly 2-years thereafter to retool the show with a
completely different cast beginning in Series 3 (when all producers
ought to have done is apply the appropriate ‘age’ makeup to the cast they
already had, each quite superb in their own unique ways in the roles they had
originated), the seismic shift presumably to ‘keep’ up with the natural rigors of
the inevitable passage of time. Alas, Olivia Colman’s frump-fest of a monarch,
to have inherited the role from Claire Foy, clipping her diction like an angry
chipmunk, and, in virtually every way, paled in her portrait to the cleverly nuanced,
yet imperial Foy. Matt Smith’s
philandering Philip – the randy Duke of Edenborough – morphed into actor,
Tobias Menzies, offering a more reserved, but salvageable perspective, while
the luminous Vanessa Kirby as Princess Margaret, was transformed, as if by
Cinderella’s vindictive step-mama, into a brittle, socially despondent and
occasionally irksome harpy, thanks to a meandering performance by Helena Bonham
Carter – a rather devastating blow. Season 3 also introduced us to the
insufferable sad-sack heir to the throne, Prince Charles (Josh O’Connor) and
stiff-britches Princess Anne (Erin Doherty) – the latter, offering sober
counsel and advice to her elder sibling. If Seasons 1 and 2 were concentrated
efforts to unearth the secret ‘history’ behind the royal family, Season 3
retreated into a sort of awkward and unprepossessing doldrum, serving up tepid
rumblings of a monarchy in very steep decline. Indeed, all was not well in the
house of Windsor. However, the real hindrance
to Season 3 remained a total lack of transitional continuity as the new
regime moved in, yet utterly incapable of ousting the one it was attempting to
replace from our collective memory.
So, Season 4 of The Crown
(2020, broadcast, though only just to arrive on home video at the cusp of
2022!) arguably, had nowhere to go but up. And – happily – this is the
trajectory its storytelling took. Let us be fair and honest when suggesting
there was too much ‘great’ material to work with here, Season 4 picking
up its narrative baton from 1979 to 1990 and charting the meteoric rise and
devastating popularity of Lady Diana Spencer, soon to be the Princess of Wales
(herein played with uncanny assimilation by the exquisite Emma Corrin who won
the Emmy for this performance). In the backdrop of this seemingly Teflon-coated
fairytale, too easily to unravel into a tragic hot mess of marital infidelities
on both sides, with Diana destructively medicating her unhappiness and
anxieties with bulimic outbursts, we also were given a subtle critique of the
Thatcher administration; the ‘iron lady’ – Maggie, experiencing as eerily, a
resurrection from actress, Gillian Anderson whose hauntingly on-point
performance is, perhaps, the most astute and intelligent of the many attempts
elsewhere to reveal precisely what made Thatcher tick. Season 4, alas, was not without its
misfires – the most egregious, the complete omission of the spectacle of Diana
and Charles’ iconic nuptials. We get all the prep leading up to the big event,
but then, only a brief glimmer of Corrin in a re-imagining of Diana’s iconic
wedding gown, glimpsed only from the back as she walks through the empty
corridors of Buckingham Palace on route to her ill-fated date with destiny.
Given the producers of The Crown had no compunction about showing the
pageantry of royal life elsewhere throughout the series, with cleverly applied
CGI to re-create crowd scenes to perfection, the decision here to merely skip
over the wedding and get on with showing the steadily advancing ugliness to
have dogged it, remains a perplexing creative decision.
So too, is the omission of any and
all references to U.S. President Ronald Reagan, who brokered one of the most resilient
Anglo-American alliances between these two nations, and also managed to host
several indelibly memorable galas for the royals in Washington – none of which
get coverage herein – a bit of a letdown. So, no Princess Diana dancing with
John Travolta, or Reagan’s quaint flubs – referring to her as Princess David,
or offering the Queen the opportunity to take her seat at table, only to be
politely informed by Her Royal Majesty he was standing on the train of her
dress, thereby making it quite impossible for her to sit down. No invite from
Reagan to Thatcher – the two heads of state garnering a mutual respect for one
another while on a casual riding tour of his beloved Rancho del Cielo, garnering
mega-watt attention in the press at the time. I mean, if The Crown, Season 2
could include a full episode devoted to the Kennedys, who barely made a ripple
into British politics, surely a full episode in Season 4 might have been
enlightening of the Reagans, who very much were ‘involved’ in friendships with Thatcher
and the Crown. Instead, Season 4 makes an unlikely, if rather
fascinating decision to commit a full episode to Michael Fagen (played with
astute clarity by Tom Brooke), the Clerkenwell, London-born painter/decorator
who, decimated by Thatcher’s cutbacks, rather infamously sought an audience
with the Queen by breaking into the private residence at Buckingham Palace –
not once, but twice, shimmying up a drainpipe to an unlocked window, pretty
much to have his way, casually perusing royal portraits, trying out the throne
for size, drinking a bottle of white wine, and finally, sitting at the foot of
the monarch’s bed for a heartfelt tete-a-tete about his abysmal lot in life.
We get far too much of the on-going
affair between Prince Charles and married ex-lover, Camilla Parker Bowles
(Emerald Fennell), the more lurid details left to providence, but a
nevertheless chronic illustration of Charles’ ever-lasting devotion to this
‘third wheel’ in his marriage, and, his increasingly callous decision to berate
and brutalize his new bride, simply because in content of character, grace and
deportment, she fails to resemble the woman with whom he is otherwise madly in
love. Season 4 of The Crown
goes to great pains to martyr Diana on the altar of true love but rather
casually dismisses the fact Diana harbored a solid friendship with the Duke of
Edenborough who, as the original outsider to this royal family, had implicit
empathy for the challenges Diana was facing from his more circumspect wife. Indeed,
the Queen refused Diana a mother’s warmth she so desperately craved. Given the
afflictions endured in endless derailments to her own happiness and search for
true love, Princess Margaret is absurdly cruel to Diana, even deriving a
willful pleasure as she watches the newest royal squirm, falter and ultimately,
fail to fit in. For historians/purists/loyalists to the real Crown, Season 4
will likely remain a bone of contention as the considerable artistic license
taken at telescoping the monarchy’s late 20th century evolution into
selectively chosen highlights, made even more concise by artificially overlapping
narrative timelines, otherwise to neatly fit into the broadcast format.
As example: Season 4 maintains
the continuity of the Queen’s Private Secretary as Sir Martin Charteris
(Charles Edwards) who only held the post until 1977 and, therefore, would not
have partaken in any of the events depicted herein. The ‘cute meet’ between
Charles and Diana – she, dressed in tights and draped in laurels as a water
sprite rehearsing for Shakespeare’s A Midsummer’s Night Dream, is a
complete fabrication, as are inferences Charles carried on with Camilla during
the early years of his marriage to the Princess. In fact, Charles did not
rekindle this affair until 1986, by which time he and Diana had become ‘socially’,
if not ‘technically’ estranged. The excitement surrounding Diana’s debut as a
royal while on an Australian tour with her husband is genuine, though not
Diana’s insistence the entire schedule be revamped to accommodate a lengthy
separation from the couple’s first-born, Prince William (Lucas Barber-Grant).
Lord Mountbatten (Charles Dance), to whom Charles was extremely close and
regarded as more of a father-figure than a beloved uncle, never wrote his
nephew a letter shortly before his untimely demise, while Diana’s grandmother,
Lady Fermoy, also, the Queen Mother's lady-in-waiting (Georgia Glen) never
acted as her advisor on social etiquette. Diana was already well-aware of royal
protocol before she even met Charles for the first time. And, while there is
evidence the Thatchers were not impressed by their summoning for a weekend’s
retreat at Balmoral Castle, the depiction of Margaret making several egregious
errors, to include being caught quite unaware of the proper clothing for a
drafty hunting expedition, simply did not happen. In one of Season 4’s
most startling episodes, Princess Margaret confronts the Queen Mother (Marion
Bailey) about her knowledge of the secret institutionalization of their
relatives, the invalided Bowes-Lyon sisters. But this actually never happened
as John Bowes-Lyon, having died 6 years prior to Edward VIII's abdication, played
no part in the royal cover-up. The sisters were, instead, placed in the care of
Royal Earlswood Hospital by their own mother, Fenella in 1941. The Queen Mother
was as blindsided about their existence until 1982 when she officially
acknowledged her nieces with a showing of presents at Christmas. Lastly, Father
Derek ‘Dazzle’ Jennings (Tom Burke), while a close personal friend of Princess
Margaret, as well as her ‘spiritual advisor’, had no involvement in unearthing
the truth about the Bowes/Lyons sisters, nor did he pressure Margaret to covert
to Catholicism, although he firmly believed she would do so one day.
The Crown:
Season 4 begins with ‘Gold Stick’ – the episode where Prince Charles
accidentally meets Lady Diana Spencer while picking up her elder sister, Sarah
(Isobel Edie) for a date. Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative Party wins the
election, making Maggie the first female Prime Minister. But from the outset,
the reception at Buckingham Palace is frosty at best, the Queen decidedly startled
by Thatcher’s contempt for their gender. In Iceland, a vacationing Charles receives
a stern phone call from Lord Mountbatten who chides him in his ongoing affair with
the married Camilla Parker-Bowles. Charles admonishes Mountbatten for
interfering in his love life, and further disappoints his beloved uncle by
outing his own shortcomings. Not long thereafter, Mountbatten and his family,
while vacationing at their home in Ireland, become the victims of a bombing by
the IRA. With every fiber in her being, Thatcher vows to the Queen to bring
about justice for their murders. Meanwhile, Charles receives a letter written
by Mountbatten on the day he died, pleading with him to seek his happiness with
a suitable wife. Ever mindful Mountbatten only had his best interests at heart,
Charles shifts his affections from Sarah to Diana.
In Episode 2 - The Balmoral
Test – a determined Thatcher embarks upon her campaign to slash
unnecessary spending, a move to garner opposition from various members in her
cabinet. Meanwhile, the Thatchers, Margaret and her husband, Denis (Stephen
Boxer) are begrudgingly invited by the Queen to spend a ‘hunting’ weekend at
Balmoral. On approval, Margaret and Denis are on their best behavior, although
in private she finds the Royals a rather uncouth bunch, and further, makes the
mistake of inappropriately dressing for the hunt. In the end, Margaret departs
ahead of schedule to attend to an emergency situation. It seems several
ministers are ganging up on her policies in her absence. Meanwhile, in another
part of the castle, Charles confides in Camilla his initial dates with Lady
Diana are promising. She encourages him
to pursue Diana who also arrives at Balmoral for the hunt. An inauspicious
first introduction to the royals, results in Princess Margaret publicly
pointing out Diana’s deficiencies in royal protocol. Modestly intimidated,
Diana redoubles her efforts to make a ‘good’ first impression. Philip is, indeed, quite taken with Diana and
illustrates his support to Charles. The family concurs. She is a one-in-a-million
golden opportunity for the heir apparent. Meanwhile, back in London, Thatcher
nips the treasonous slander from various ministers in the bud, unexpectedly
summoning each to her office and dismissing them outright.
In Episode 3 - Fairytale
– Charles pops the question and Diana accepts, causing a media frenzy. The
Queen has Diana taken from the flat she shares with 3 amiable girlfriends,
Virginia Pitman (Letty Thomas), Carolyn Pride (Allegra Marland) and Anne Bolton
(Flora Higgins) and sets her up in a suite of rooms inside Buckingham Palace.
Alas, Diana quickly finds the isolation crippling to her independent spirit. Worse,
having ‘won’ his bride, Charles now seems increasingly distant. In her spare
time (and, there is a lot of it), Diana roller skates through the various
chambers, and, is tutored by Lady Fermoy, and her ballet teacher, Wendy
Mitchell (Judith Paris), in poise and the expectations placed upon her as the ‘new’
soon-to-be royal of the house of Windsor. Charles is called abroad and Diana
shows the first signs of her bulimic disorder, worsened when she discovers her fiancé
has commissioned an expensive bracelet – not for her – but Camilla. Distressed,
Diana decides to cordially meet Camilla for lunch where she quickly discovers
how much more Charles’ mistress knows about him than she does. Indeed, upon his
return home, Charles’ first stop is to visit Camilla. Diana confronts him, but
he insists he did this to firmly break off their relationship for good. While
the rest of the family revels in the wedding plans, Margaret frankly advises the
royals that Charles loves another and thus predicts his marriage is doomed. In
reply, Philip counsels his son, suggesting Charles’ love for Diana will grow,
while the Queen more firmly instructs him to consider his duty over love. The
episode ends uneventfully with Diana, merely glimpsed from the back in her
wedding dress, slowly walking alone through the palace halls.
In ‘Favorites’ - Thatcher
suffers a rare tearful lapse during her audience with the Queen, confiding her
beloved son, Mark (Freddie Fox) has gone missing while competing in the
Paris–Dakar Rally. Later, the Queen is perplexed by Thatcher’s confidence that
Mark is her favorite child. Philip chides Elizabeth, suggesting they both have
their own favorites among their children, and further confessing his has always
felt closer to Princess Anne. Knowing nothing of her children’s personal
interests, the Queen asks Martin to provide her with a dossier on all of her
children’s likes and dislikes, and then, to arrange an individual audience
meant as a friendly chat. One by one,
the offspring appear, confiding their individual dissatisfactions with their
lives. Meanwhile, Argentina invades the Falkland Islands. On the home front, Thatcher
deploys troops to intercept the threat. Mercifully, Mark Thatcher is found
alive and well in Algeria. Meanwhile, Diana discovers she is pregnant with Prince
William even as her marriage is crumbling. Charles, rather than seeking solace
in the arms of his wife, turns once more to Camilla.
In ‘Fagan’ – the
nation’s staggering unemployment causes a disenfranchised decorator, Michael
Fagan, out of work and bitterly estranged from his wife and child, to explore
the various governmental agencies that are supposed to help him find himself. When
an MP sarcastically suggests he should take his grievances to the Crown, Fagan
takes the advice to heart, breaking into Buckingham Palace twice, and, on his
second visit, actually making it all the way into the Queen’s private bed
chamber. When she awakens, she finds
Fagan patiently waiting for his audience at the foot of her bed. With no
alternative, Elizabeth listens to Fagan who, despite his lack of education, is
quite articulate and calm as he explains how life for those unaccustomed to
privilege is rapidly spiraling out of control. The conversation concludes with
Fagan imploring the Queen to save Britain from Thatcher’s devastating policies.
Elizabeth is empathetic towards Fagan who is recaptured by her guard, taken
away and later, institutionalized. In her next audience with Thatcher, the
Queen makes an attempt to bring up some of Fagan’s points. Thatcher, alas, is
more distracted by her attendance in the Falklands’ victory parade.
In Terra Nullius, Australia’s
new Prime Minister, Republican Bob Hawke (Richard Roxburgh) plots against the
high cost of a planned royal visit by Charles and Diana, believing the public
will see it as a vacuous attempt to maintain the monarchy. Much to the Queen
and Charles’ disapproval, Diana insists on taking the infant, Prince William on
the journey. Charles and Diana separately lament to the Queen the troubles in
their marriage, to which she calls both of them out as two spoiled people who
had better set aside their petty squabbles and step up in their duties to the
Crown. Diana takes the advice to heart and redoubles her efforts in the
marriage. Charles – less so. However, while in the outback, Diana and Charles do
manage to rekindle a spark of romance. Charles is pleased by his wife’s candor,
but becomes unnecessarily jealous when the mob takes to Diana over him during their
various public appearances. At the
official reception, Hawke concedes to Charles, telling him Diana has saved the
monarchy in Australia. An angry Charles argues with Diana who, later,
self-medicates her despair by reactivating her eating disorder. Publicly, the
Australian tour is a triumph. But Diana is miserable and, upon returning home,
confides as much to the Queen who is cruelly unsympathetic. When Diana attempts
to hug her, the Queen walks out.
In The Hereditary Principle,
Prince Edward’s (Angus Imrie) coming of age greatly reduces Margaret’s public responsibilities.
At the same time, Margaret learns she has cancer and travels abroad to
recuperate after having part of her left lung removed. Under the counsel of her
therapist, Penelope Carter (Gemma Jones) Margaret learns her maternal first
cousins, Nerissa and Katherine Bowes-Lyon, long-thought to be deceased, are
actually alive and ensconced in a mental institution under assumed names to
keep their mental defectiveness a secret. An enraged Margaret confronts the
Queen Mother, who insists the family had no choice in the matter as it would have
called into question the purity of the royal bloodline. In ‘48:1’,
Thatcher and the Queen clash over Britain’s handling of apartheid in South
Africa. The Queen believes only sanctions against the current government \ will
bring the Commonwealth nations together, whereas Thatcher insists sanctions
will cripple Britain's trade and decimate South Africa's already anemic
economy. After a series of modifications, Thatcher agrees to impose pressure on
South Africa, while the Queen’s press secretary, Michael Shea lets it leak the
Queen is ‘dismayed’ with the prime minister's actions. Thatcher confronts the
Queen in a loaded exchange and the Queen, now viewed less favorably than the
PM, elects to throw Shea under the bus to save face.
In ‘Avalanche’,
during a gala at the Royal Opera House, Diana surprises Charles with an
impromptu performance to ‘Uptown Girl’ that brings down the house but
further wounds Charles as he perceives the moment, not as a gift to honor him,
but another of Diana’s brittle attempts to turn the spotlight on her. The
unhappy couple retreat to Switzerland for a respite. It turns out to be
anything but when an avalanche narrowly misses Charles, but kills his best friend,
Hugh Lindsay. Rumors Charles and Diana are both involved in extramarital
affairs reach the Crown, and Anne confides in the Queen, Charles has indeed
returned to Camilla while Diana is involved with several male suitors - her
latest, James Hewitt. Season 4 concludes with ‘War’ as Thatcher’s
leadership begins to crumble when Deputy Prime Minister Geoffrey Howe (Paul Jesson)
tenders his resignation in Parliament. Thatcher asks the Queen to dissolve
parliament, but she instead advises to do nothing. Forced to step down, Thatcher
is awarded the rarest of honors - the Order of Merit – a bitter epitaph to her
11-year run as Prime Minister. A jealous Charles underestimates Diana’s
capacity to bear the weight of a solo trip to New York. Nevertheless, she
dazzles the crowds, and Camilla, observing Diana’s rising popularity, tells
Charles she fears what will become of her if their affair is found out. As the royals
prepare for Christmas, the Queen berates Charles for ingratitude, abusing his
privilege for personal gratification. The Queen forbids him to even mention a
separation or divorce. Meanwhile, Philip gingerly counsels Diana to drown her sorrows
by concentrating on serving the Crown, and forewarns that, to entertain
otherwise, will be devastating.
I must admit, for all its
omissions, revisions and fabrications, I sincerely enjoyed Season 4 of The
Crown far more than I did Season 3. Claire Foy’s brief appearance as
the much younger Elizabeth, addressing Australia at the outset of Terra
Nullius is a heart-warming reminder of the first and foremost
incarnation of Queen Elizabeth in this series and also serves to bridge the
narrative chasm between that past and the present. Overall, performances in Season
4 are excellent. Even Olivia Colman appears more comfortable as the Queen. But
enough cannot be said of either Emma Corrin or Gillian Anderson. Season 4
belongs to their alter egos - two headstrong and towering figures from the
latter 20th century. And each actress embodies her role with a deft
and awe-inspiring clairvoyance, channeling the specters of the past in ways
never to transgress into mere pantomime or cheap imitation. It will be
interesting to see if the new actress assuming the role of Lady Diana in Season
5 will be able to sustain this benchmark of excellence. Wait and see, I
suppose. Series’ creator, Peter Morgan continues to be heavily involved in the
evolution of the show, writing virtually all of the episodes with assistance
from a small army of co-writers, researchers, consultants and historians. Cinematographers,
Adriano Goldman, Stuart Howell and Ben Wilson continue to augment The Crown
with a plushily padded visual aplomb. Season 4 is a visual feast for the
eyes, with Amy Roberts’ recreations of Lady Diana’s memorable wardrobe looking
every bit as splashy and smart as the fashion-forward originals. Ultimately, The
Crown is a collaborative effort dedicated to a small army of creative
personnel – names and faces never to be known beyond their brief title credits –
coming together to achieve memorable ‘must see’ television. Each episode,
though only an hour in length, plays with the visual panache of a full-blown
epic in the grand tradition of cinema story-telling. Yet, it is the intimacy
achieved beyond the spectacle that truly inspires us to keep coming back for
more.
The Crown:
Season 4, finally arrives on Blu-ray from Sony Home Entertainment. The results
are mostly excellent, but not perfect. Shot digitally, the chief shortcoming
here is black crush, evident in the main titles. Turning the contrast down,
marginally cures this, but then darkens much of the image beyond normal
recognition, losing fine details in the process. Colors are mostly rich and vibrant.
Flesh tones are impressive. Favored
colors, like greens, reds and browns, pop with admirable splendor. Contrast is
uniformly solid. We get a light smattering of grain. Overall, there is a
velvety sheen to these visuals, occasionally homogenized to the point of
appearing marginally – if very intermittently – soft. The 5.1 DTS audio
delivers a wallop. Dialogue is front sounding, and, in a couple of instances, more
strident than expected. But again, like the visuals, this is a competently
rendered sound mix, surely not to disappoint. What remains disappointing is the
overall lack of extras. We get snippets and sound bites from the actors in a
few junkets expressly designed to promote the series and the pending season.
But that’s about it. Bottom line: The Crown: Season 4 is a valiant
installment in the on-going Netflix series that has but two more seasons to go
before retiring. Given all the attention to detail lavished on each episode, I
just wish Netflix had commissioned a longer season here to cover what was one
of the most memorable decades in the history of live royal theater. There will
never be another Margaret Thatcher, nor a Princess Diana. While each is amply
afforded run-time here, much of their accomplishments and setbacks have been
truncated to commit to the ascribed hour-long run-time and Netflix efforts to
keep the franchise at a manageable 10 episodes per season. The Blu-ray from Sony is good, though not
great and that’s also a bit of a letdown for a series as widely watched and
embraced as this one. Judge and buy accordingly.
FILM RATING (out
of 5 – 5 being the best)
Overall – 4
VIDEO/AUDIO
3.5
EXTRAS
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