The Crown (2016-): Season 4

Title: The Crown

Year: 2020

Genre:  Drama | History |

Season: 1| 2 | 3| 4 | 5 | 6 |

Runtime: 58 min/Episode

Creator: Peter Morgan

Starring: Olivia Colman, Tobias Menzies, Helena Bonham Carter

8,7/10

The fourth season covers the time period between 1977 and 1990, is set during Margaret Thatcher’s premiership, and introduces Lady Diana Spencer and Prince William.

THE LINEAR DRAMA CONTINUES

FOR THE FAMILY WITH TRAGEDIES

The drama continues. In this season we get to know Diana and Margaret Thatcher. Thatcher is gone before the season is over and Diana Spencer will stick to the family until the next season. The problem with making a series of this calibre mainstream is getting an actor that better than the main ensemble such as Colman and Menzies, they instead become a distraction.

Even if this season is far better structured than the third one, it remains tedious at some points. While it is still going mainstream, I keep getting annoyed on how the writing of the series progress. The main reason for the season was to watch Gillian Anderson and Emma Corrin in their respective roles. And the Royal Family peculiarly was always depending after their initiate need. It’s also straight forward writing that tries to give these supporting characters more depth but, in the end, these supporting roles were instead provided by the royal cast.

Margaret Thatcher was a fresh breath to the inbreeding royal cast. As they’re outcasts both, Thatcher and Diana break the traditions that Buckingham Palace had fed the Royal Family. With her conservative politics, Anderson is a force of nature in her performance. She’s far more interesting to follow than any of the royal members at the point due to her swift language and ideas.  Interesting, we get an episode Fagan, where we follow an ordinary unemployed man seeking help but doesn’t. Therefore he speaks to the Queen for help. It helps the audience to put everything in a broader perspective, the initiate results of Thatcher’s drastic actions.

At the same time, we get Emma Corrin as Diana. She is decent in the role but it’s easy to get annoyed with her performance.  She does a little too much for the role and doesn’t bring nuance to the role. An amateur and juvenile actress who just plays herself to some extent, who just looking for trouble. There are some scenes that Josh O’Conner has with Emma, that were interestingly written from a marriage perspective. He constantly doesn’t want to be with her, and she wants to save the marriage. Problem with this plotline is that both Diana and Charles will have a different dynamic once we’re getting into the next series. Besides that, we’ll have a different ensemble, their relationship will be completely different so investing times to their relationship is not worth it in the end.

Olivia Colman and Tobias Menzies together with Helena Bonham Carter don’t shine that much in this season. Both Thatcher and Spencer take up all the space even if there is a smaller episode for them to grow. They’re becoming supporting roles compared to Margaret Thatcher’s initiative during the season. And that is the problem with having too many famous people in one show. This season is not that impressive.