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icepixieI'm a season into The Crown and am enjoying it a lot. However, I have a bone to pick. Namely, that Philip Is A Sexist Dick is not compelling drama. It is especially irksome when the much more compelling conflict of Establishment Monarchy vs. My Family Got Couped Out of Our Throne and I Want to Not Be Hanged in a Another Revolution, So Let's Modernize This Institution exists. The hint of that conflict in the coronation episode? Awesome! More, please! Wait, no...back to Whiny Sexist Dick. Okay.
By the end of the season it did get somewhat more nuanced, at least. I'm not unsympathetic to Philip getting bored because he doesn't really have a defined job like Elizabeth does, and it's more interesting than "My kids should have my last name because I'm a man!" and "I shouldn't have to kneel to the queen because I'm a man (whereas if the situation were reversed I would totally expect her to kneel to me)!" Yeah, yeah, historically accurate. Telling an interesting story trumps historical accuracy, IMO. Or make him a sexist asshole, but don't make plots pivot around it.
It would help if Matt Smith had any expressions beyond sneering from under his eyebrows. That is getting reeeeally old.
But by and large, that's the only thing I dislike about it. I wouldn't mind seeing the ratio of political to Windsor family drama shift more to the political--though, yes, technically Elizabeth can't actually do anything--but it's not bad the way it is. It's fun seeing Elizabeth come into her power but still think of herself as a regular, albeit upper class, person, like the scene where she asks the butler(?) if she can borrow the crown to practice with and he asks who she'd be borrowing it from. My favorite episode was "Scientia Potentia Est," since she was a girl after my own heart who recognized her lack of education, got pissed off about it, and got herself a tutor! I hope he sticks around. He was fun.
By the end of the season it did get somewhat more nuanced, at least. I'm not unsympathetic to Philip getting bored because he doesn't really have a defined job like Elizabeth does, and it's more interesting than "My kids should have my last name because I'm a man!" and "I shouldn't have to kneel to the queen because I'm a man (whereas if the situation were reversed I would totally expect her to kneel to me)!" Yeah, yeah, historically accurate. Telling an interesting story trumps historical accuracy, IMO. Or make him a sexist asshole, but don't make plots pivot around it.
It would help if Matt Smith had any expressions beyond sneering from under his eyebrows. That is getting reeeeally old.
But by and large, that's the only thing I dislike about it. I wouldn't mind seeing the ratio of political to Windsor family drama shift more to the political--though, yes, technically Elizabeth can't actually do anything--but it's not bad the way it is. It's fun seeing Elizabeth come into her power but still think of herself as a regular, albeit upper class, person, like the scene where she asks the butler(?) if she can borrow the crown to practice with and he asks who she'd be borrowing it from. My favorite episode was "Scientia Potentia Est," since she was a girl after my own heart who recognized her lack of education, got pissed off about it, and got herself a tutor! I hope he sticks around. He was fun.
no subject
Date: 2018-09-01 01:53 pm (UTC)For better or worse, Morgan is fixated on the romantic travails of the royal family: Edward's affair with Wallis Simpson and Princess Margaret's affair with Peter Townsend both get a lot of screen time. A focus on the Queen's marital woes is thematically consistent, at least. And all of these romantic dilemmas derive much of their impetus from the monarchy itself, "The Crown."
I'm arguing in Morgan's favor because I think he made the right choices dramatically to appeal to a broad, international audience. I missed out on the historical nuance of "Establishment Monarchy vs. My Family Got Couped Out of Our Throne and I Want to Not Be Hanged in a Another Revolution, So Let's Modernize This Institution," probably because I know almost nothing about European history, and even less about European monarchies.
Normally I pass over historical dramas but I found "The Crown" to be utterly captivating.
no subject
Date: 2018-09-06 02:46 am (UTC)It's mostly a.) Venetia Scott's existence and her death, and Churchill's reaction to it, and b.) the idea he suggested holding Elizabeth's coronation so far out because he wanted to stay in power rather than because it's a massive event that takes more than five months to plan. (George IV just got slotted into Edward VIII's planned coronation.) To be honest, I haven't read much about Churchill either, and even less about his second time around in Parliament, which gets glossed over.
I missed out on the historical nuance of "Establishment Monarchy vs. My Family Got Couped Out of Our Throne and I Want to Not Be Hanged in a Another Revolution, So Let's Modernize This Institution," probably because I know almost nothing about European history, and even less about European monarchies.
That one's in the episode--Philip says he was shipped out of Greece in an orange crate during a revolution, and they're courting revolution here if they don't modernize the coronation/monarchy. I was sad they didn't follow up on that after dangling it so tantalizingly. (Although, hopefully without spoiling anything, I was happy to see Philip's past acknowledged more in season two.)