Queen Victoria Syndrome

Prince Charles (Dominic West) was made 10 times more attractive (physically and otherwise) than in real life, without any resemblance and needlessly romanticized. Diana was made 10 times less attractive than she used to be, downright a caricature of a vacuous anorexic (Elizabeth Debicki). That was downright offensive to viewers. Quite a letdown after the great portrayal of Charles and Diana from the previous season. Enough to ruin my experience completely and drop the episode before it ended. It looks like the creators have tried hard to curry favor with the Palace. John Mayor (Jonny Lee Miller) and Princess Margret (Lesley Manville) were good. Camilla, just like in the previous season when she was prettier than Diana (really?) was ridiculously embellished compared to the real character (Olivia Williams.) Imelda Staunton likable as Queen Elizabeth II but Jonathan Pryce terrible as Prince Philip. Overall, after all this wait, a great disappointment.

I have a major issue with the casting. Each actor who portrays one of the major characters interprets them in a different way. There is a considerable amount of inconsistency. Claire Foy plays the Queen as a vulnerable woman, Coleman plays her as the b*tch from hell and Staunton is just bland. Pryce's very sympathetic version of Prince Philip is a total break from previous portrayals. The same goes for West's Charles. We see consistency in the portayals of Margaret and DIana. The story moves away from showing a chnaging Britain but focuses sopa style on the drama. It is still enjoyable but cannot maintain the standards of previous seasons.

I won't get into casting. I also found some of the choices weak, especially Charles. This episode gets into the fragile decline of the relationship between Diana and Charles. If tension were a torpedo, that boat would be at the bottom of the sea. We see Charles openly complaining about his lot. His intractability in scheduling the events of the vacation are really sad. He lives in the past and that's all he wants to see, with virtually no give. Just a couple of compromises would have gained him so much favor, especially between him and his children, but he is incapable of putting away his petulant self. Diana is fragile and self centered in her own way. A rather mundane opening foray.

... she really overdoes the 'head down, eyes up' look. Her voice is really good, though, as Diana. Also, Dominic West, while a lovely actor, is not a good Charles because he is not petulant enough; he actually has a very genuine smile, while we rarely see that from Chuck. :-) Chuck - oh sorry, King Chuck - is always self-pitying and probably only smiles at Camilla as far as we have ever seen; it's mostly self-pity and resentment that we see from him, hence my call of 'petulant'. I don't know why my review requires so many more words, but I'll fill it up with this so I can post it for your enjoyment.

New Diana is too tall, too thin and looking under her eyes way too much all of which portraits Diana as some sickly odd charicature. Diana was not pathetic she was fragile but strong at the same time. When actors portray an existing or historical person it needs to come off more naturally than what we're seeing, it is really difficult to watch, overdone and wrong. Ana De Armas had the same issue portraing Marilyn and it just makes bad acting. The real person may have had certain behavioral quirks and manners but it is not all they ever were. You need to breath life to them not just mimic. In most recent portraials of actual people, Colin Firth did it best I've ever seen as Michael Peterson from HBOs The Staircase series. The voice and the manners were brilliantly similar and came off naturally eventhough he was performing a much less known character to begin with.