By Stephanie Sical
“The Crown” is built to defy classification. However, the new season feels even fresher than the previous one due to the so-awaited appearance of Emma Corrin starring as Princess Diana and her marriage with Josh O’Connor starring as Prince Charles, one of the most disastrous royal marriages in history. Season four of “The Crown” was released on Nov. 15 on Netflix.
This season takes the popular series from the late 1970s up to 1990 and through political and personal turbulence for the royals as well.
Diana’s loneliness and struggles with bulimia, royal affairs, assassinations and a divided nation carry the series into modern times.
Creator Peter Morgan and his writers remain impressive in their ability to condense national events into dramatically compelling crises of the week and flesh out real life personages through just a few scenes.
This season of “The Crown,” even more so than the previous ones, is all about the repercussions of the repressive system that powers the royal family. Olivia Colman starring as Queen Elizabeth II, remains steadfast as the head of state and of the Windsor family, but also demonstrates that she’s learned very little when it comes to matters of the heart.
Toward the end of the 1970s, Prince Charles, heir to the British throne was in search of a wife. Lady Diana Spencer was just the young woman for the job, or so the royal family believed. Diana was thrust into the spotlight at just 19 years old, her incredibly complex entry into royal life plays out over the course of the season.
Emma Corrin has received good criticism for taking the huge challenge of impersonating such an icon loved and cherished by so many. The resemblance is astonishing and quite appealing to the eye. Her role in this season is not a condescending portrayal, and it doesn’t turn Diana into a victim or a perpetrator. She’s just a mess, and she has joined a mess of a family.
What makes this season riveting is the contrast between The Queen and Thatcher, the powerful women knowing exactly what they want from this world, and Lady Diana, the young girl struggling to fit in to the most famous family in the world, on to the other.
The money is still very much on the screen. The lavish costumes, the opulent sets, the exquisite cinematography, but what stands even further is the smashing performances by the main cast and supporting actors. like Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne and Princess Margaret, played by Helena Bonham Carter the Queen’s younger sister and only sibling.
This season of “The Crown” will see her as a lonely objector to Charles and Diana’s wedding. Now Olivia Colman remains pitch-perfect as The Queen who for the most part remains a distant, dignified character among all the tumult around her.
For four seasons now, Peter Morgan has written a remarkably addictive, stealthily silly royal soap opera. “The Crown” has successfully sold itself as one of Television’s most serious dramas.
The fourth season, in all its shameless glory, may be its most successful yet, even as it puts prestigious perception to bed. It has more popularity by the audience and it shows how eager fans are to see the Princess Diana storyline.