A Royal Ride

When I got the new TV last year, that’s the only time I decided to get a Netflix subscription. For the longest time, I was okay just having the regular cable channels such as HBO, FOX and Crime Investigation Network to get me through. Besides, I don’t watch any shows on the local channels except when it’s the local news. 

While everyone else is raving at many Netflix series before, I’m practically clueless I might as well be living under a rock. Even after getting the subscription, I was not one to jump on the bandwagon by bingeing on the shows everyone is talking about. Generally, I have little patience when it comes to watching any TV series as I’m more of a movie fan. I enjoyed Netflix not so much for the series but for rewatching my favorite television sitcoms like Friends and Seinfeld.

In the very few times I did watch the more-talked-about Netflix series, I particularly enjoyed some of it such as Cobra Kai, Squid Game (which was so popular last year) and Stranger Things.  

Right now, it’s The Crown that got me hooked.

To those who knew me well enough, I once-upon-a-time liked anything British (not so much anymore). But I must admit that I know very little about the British monarchy. 

I was never fascinated with the Royals; I grew up reading about them through the National Enquirer and other gossip tabloids sent by relatives from the States inside balikbayan boxes. Often, I only read about their salacious scandals but not of their very colorful history that dates back to Queen Victoria herself.

I took interest only after the death of Queen Elizabeth II last September. I started watching The Crown and then The Royal House of Windsor, which was also on Netflix until it was removed last month. From there I learned about the rich history of the Windsors including some of the more interesting characters like King George V, King George VI, Prince Philip, Princess Margaret, Louis Mountbatten and perhaps the most fascinating of all the Royal family for me at least—Edward VIII (later on known as the Duke of Windsor). 

I find The Crown riveting. Once I started watching the first few episodes, I couldn’t stop. I get excited when I learn new things. And while some of the scenes might be fiction and many were calling it out for some inaccuracies, it didn’t really matter because it was the writer’s creative license that made it brilliant. I was drawn more to it after every episode and it’s  kinda fun to have Wikipedia on standby if I wanted to know more. The production is stunning and the actors and actresses playing the characters did an excellent job. 

Claire Foy playing as the young Queen Elizabeth gave the character depth and complexity. It doesn’t hurt that she’s gorgeous and easy on the eye. I also love that she had such chemistry with Matt Smith, the actor who played the young Prince Philip.

I also didn’t mind much when Olivia Colman stepped in as the middle-aged Queen for the third season. She conveyed the monarch just as how I envisioned her: Regal. Guarded. The episode about the Aberfan disaster where she acted almost stoic and closed-off made me see her as a cold, unsympathetic Queen, but then again one can argue that Brits are known for their emotional reticence as well. Olivia almost showed no emotion the entire time, even when holding her own in her tension-filled scenes with Gillian Anderson as Margaret Thatcher.

***

Season 5 started last November 9 and even if most reviews shortly after its premiere were not very kind, it isn’t as bad. 

The season shows an era of the monarchy in years when I was old enough to remember. 

This season also saw the start of the “issue” that is Princess Diana. The `90s wasn’t a good decade for the monarchy, with 1992 being what Queen Elizabeth II herself described as ‘Annus Horribilis’. This season features the decommissioning of Royal Yacht Britannia, the Camillagate, the controversial Bashir interview, the Windsor Castle fire among many others. An entire episode was also given to introduce Mohamed Al-Fayed and there were a lot of things apart from him being Dodi Al-Fayed’s father which I’ve learned only after watching it.  

I  admit there were moments when the mood is bleak, but I can’t say that there aren’t any scenes that got me invested. For one, the reunion of former lovers Princess Margaret (Lesley Manville) and Peter Townsend (Timothy Dalton) is too painful to watch. After all, it’s no secret that Peter was the love of Margaret’s life. It ultimately led to Margaret confronting the Queen for intervening on their marriage forty years earlier and Manville killed it.

But the highlight of the penultimate season for me is the episode when Princess Diana paid the Queen (now in her sixties and played by Imelda Staunton) a visit to let her know of the Bashir interview. The delivery of the lines was so powerful it almost knock the air off my chest. I am no monarchist, but for a moment I was rooting for the Queen. Loyally. Emphatically. To the hilt.

I’m glad I found that scene on YouTube to share here:

Season 5 ended hinting the beginning of Princess Diana’s affair with an already engaged Dodi: The invitation to St. Tropez. Now, I have read about this very trip in the American tabloids before so I know where this is heading.

And since I know how all this will end eventually, I realize that I’m more drawn to the post-war era of the Queen. I prefer the earlier seasons of The Crown when it’s focused on the young monarch in a period of transition.

The scandals (thanks to Charles, Diana and Camilla) may be appealing to the younger audiences, but I like The Crown showing us the finer years rather than its collapse. Like, I may know who Winston Churchill was, but I never knew him the way he was portrayed in this series. Accurate depiction or not, it’s rather fascinating.

Which is why I’d find myself rewatching the earlier seasons after finishing the 5th.