Queen Victoria Syndrome

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.

Elizabeth Debicki is far too tall for the part of Diana . They should have cheated the camera angles or made the other actors wear lifts. Princess Diana was tall for a female of her era at 5'10", but Elizabeth Debicki is 6'3". That completely changes the dynamic with all the other actors. The scenes with the tiny Imelda Staunton as the Queen (barely 5' tall) are laughable. Also the Royals would never have permitted a marriage with a woman who was 5" taller than Prince Charles. In real life Diana wore flat shoes and Charles often stood on a step for photos so as not to emphasise that she was the same height as him. It is a shame because apart from that she is doing a great job in the part and is very believable. I'm sorry but I find her extreme height in this performance very distracting.

A strong beginning to the show's third and final era. This season premiere introduces us to a whole new cast for the show, and the switch in actors is pulled off extremely well. It's always going to be slightly jarring to have a completely different person playing any of these parts, but the show has already prepared us for these drastic changes. On top of that, the performances are very strong across the board. Elizabeth Debicki is very good as Diana, and does a strong job with the portrayal. Imelda Staunton could not be better in the leading role, and does a truly great job of making the part her own while feeling like the same person as both Claire Foy and Olivia Coleman's portrayals. A very strong beginning, and I look forward to the rest of the season.

Jonathan Price is an excellent actor, and I've enjoyed his work in so many productions. Nonetheless, casting him as Prince Phillip doesn't work. Pryce as a person has far too much empathy in his bearing, too little "pomp". Tobias Menzies, although not the right age for this season, brought the Duke's royal arrogance and aloof carelessness perfectly to the character. Pryce just cannot void himself of his warm humanity sufficiently for the part. Also difficult is the casting of Dominic West as Prince Charles. West oozes a masculine strength and independence completely foreign to the winging, acquiescent Prince. The petulant boy who agrees to marry one woman, because his mother tells him to, while selfishly carrying on with his lover, could never be found in the abundantly self-assured personality of West.

Having now seen creator Peter Morgan's intentions for the beginning of the 5th series of this critically acclaimed show, it pains me to say this but I honestly don't see why "The Crown" rushed through the 1980s (arguably one of the most interesting decades in recent British & royal history) & skipped over so many iconic events it should've featured in S4, leaving that nation defining decade frustratingly underdeveloped... With hindsight, I'd argue that the previous season should've covered a span of 5 / 6 years & then this follow-up would've likely been beneficial, had it instead fleshed out Margaret Thatcher's later tenure & told the story of our cultural, political & societal evolution in far greater detail.

I say this because I'm seriously confounded how the writers & producers opted to omit all of that interesting inspiration (from historical fact) in order to prioritise speedily leaping to this section of the late monarch's era... When it does very little to justify why this warranted the rush, since it's off to such a tediously slow start here. Hardly seems comparably engaging & therefore, to me, feels sadly disappointing.

Moreover, I've reservations as to the quality of the re-casting; from his introduction, Dominic West oddly doesn't seem to be able to decide whether he wants to try doing the recognisable Prince Charles voice or not (flitting in & out of it between scenes) & Jonathan Pryce isn't even bothering to attempt Prince Philip either.

Of course, the cinematography's gorgeous & production values are mightily impressive (at times, resembling a Bond flick, aesthetically) but it doesn't have the same focus that the earlier seasons did & that abundance of style seems to compensate for a noticeable dip in substance. Whether this is because the crew has lost its lead director (Benjamin Caron) who previously steered the production through its prior years or the magic simply can't retain itself forever, it admittedly felt almost as if S1 (an an example) succeeded by holding its attention to a small ensemble of iconic characters. Thus, as the family grows, each member's pulling at the other's story & competing for screen time, increasingly spreading it all a bit thin with each & every installment.