Misadventure

A war waged by England, France and Israel against Egypt in 1956. The roots of the Suez crisis began to emerge after the signing of the evacuation agreement in 1954 . Nasser's relations with Western countries first appeared in good shape with the approval of the World Bank, with the support of the United States and Britain, to grant Egypt a loan to finance the dam project, which Nasser aspired to achieve an agricultural and industrial boom in the country. During that period, the border skirmishes continued intermittently between the Arab states and Israel since the 1948 war. Nasser openly declared his hostility to Israel, which encouraged the latter to move to strengthen its military arsenal by concluding an arms deal with France. Nasser decided to ask for arms from the United States and Britain, His request, he went to the Soviet Union request and agreed. Britain and the United States decided to punish Nasser for that step by setting up the "Umega Secret Campaign" imed at distorting its image in front of the world, imposing sanctions on Egypt with a ban on military aid, and curtailing the financing of the dam, whose funding was later canceled. Abdel Nasser saw the nationalization of the Suez Canal as his only opportunity to obtain the necessary funding for the construction of the High Dam. On 26 July 1956, he announced the decision to nationalize the Suez Canal Company. With the success of Egypt in managing the channel in contrast to what was planned and promoted by the countries of the West, coupled with the failure of diplomatic pressure on Egypt France had set up a plan to use military force against Egypt in agreement with Britain and Israel, called the Sievers Protocol, hoping to achieve their interests from that blow. At the British level, the aim was to get rid of Nasser, who threatened British influence with the evacuation and his alliance with the Soviets and nationalization of the Canal. To avenge Abdel Nasser, who supported the revolution of Algeria and the nations of the channel which was under French administration, while Israel found its chance to destroy the Egyptian forces in Sinai, which was a clear threat to them On October 29, 1956, Israeli forces landed deep into the Sinai and headed to the canal to convince the world that the Suez Canal was threatened. On October 30, Britain and France issued a warning calling for a cessation of hostilities between the two sides and demanding that Egypt and Israel withdraw 10 km from the Suez Canal and accept occupation Egypt and France, in order to protect the channel navigation, otherwise their forces intervened to do so by force, Egypt announced its refusal to occupy the Canal territory. On the following day, on October 31, the two countries attacked Egypt and began their air raids on Cairo and the Canal and Alexandria areas. Due to the dispersion of the Egyptian forces between the Sinai front and the Canal Front, Nasser issued orders to withdraw the Egyptian forces from Sinai to the west of the canal. The Anglo-French invasion of Egypt began from Port Said, which was hit by aircraft and naval forces in preparation for parachuting.

While a bit slow at times, this sets the foundation for Season 2. We have two major plot elements here. The first is the boredom and disdain of Phillip and his indiscretions leading to stress on the marriage. Elizabeth talks about the things that happen to him as being forced by the Crown. That is, once she became Queen, she has actually lost power in her personal life. Elizabeth makes a discovery that devastates her. Meanwhile, Phillip is off on a long junket. The second element involves the Suez Canal blockaded by Nasser of Egypt, putting a stranglehold on the oil supplies of the Mideast. This forces England to entertain the possibility of a military intervention. Anthony Eden is Prime Minister and has no real solutions because the United Nations will not enter into things and this leaves them at the Mercy of the Arab world. Of course, the British Empire as they knew it was beginning to implode. I was in elementary school when Elizabeth was crowned and when the Suez Canal crisis led the news every night.

In the first episode of The Crown season 2, Elizabeth has two major problems to contend with; her husband Phillip, and the Suez Canal crisis. More specifically, she has to deal with Phillip's possible adultery and her Prime Minister's response to the Suez Canal crisis. This dual plot not only makes for an exciting way to open the season, but also highlights Elizabeth's growth as a character. By throwing her into hot water straight away, the show demonstrates how much she has changed since the start of the first season.

I personally found Margaret to be pretty irritating throughout the first season, largely due to the fact that she served mainly as a foil for Elizabeth, with little logic or consideration for the consequences of her actions. And though it's probably a little early to judge given that she only has one scene in this episode, I think I'm going to enjoy her a lot more this season. The new Margaret is bitter, sarcastic, and full of quips. I probably still won't sympathize with her, but at least she will be fun to watch.

On the whole, this is an elegant way to open the second season of The Crown. It balances the various stories very well, setting up a number of threads for the season to follow and ultimately tying them all back to Elizabeth.

Great introduction to a new season, it explores and shows details of the crisis with Egypt.

Much of 'The Crown's' Season 1 was excellent. Although "Gelignite" and "Gloriana" disappointed somewhat for similar reasons to each other (though they were still not bad at all, far from it), "Smoke and Mirrors", "Scientia Potentia Est" and "Assasins" in particular were exceptional. So expectations for Season 2 of one of the year's gems when 'The Crown' first began were very high. Expectations that on the most part were lived up to and the best episodes being up to the same level as the best of the first season.

While not one of the best episodes of Season 2 or 'The Crown' at its very best, "Misadventure" still manages to be a great start for the second season, with plenty of what makes 'The Crown' so good as a series more than evident. It deals with two major subplots and, while one is to me more interesting than the other, they both are very well written and intriguing, handled well structurally for an episode that could easily have been disjointed and show a lot of character growth for Elizabeth.

Occasionally, the pace is a little on the too deliberate side, especially in the Phillip subplot. Otherwise, "Misadventure" is an absolute winner.

Visually, "Misadventure" as ever for 'The Crown' couldn't be any more classy and sumptuous. The photography and production and costume design are evocative and a sight to behold. The music for me wasn't too intrusive or low-key and was beautiful scoring on its own. The main theme is not easy to forget.

Can't say anything bad about the writing either, which is intelligent and intrigues. The subtle but also tight tension of the dialogue in the Suez crisis subplot stands out and the Phillip subplot's writing avoids being soapy. The story on the most part is incredibly compelling, the better of the two subplot is the one detailing the Suez crisis. Tighter paced and had more tension and intrigue. But both are handled beautifully on the whole and tie very well together, there is never too much of a disconnect from each other.

All the characters are written with no problem, Elizabeth is written with a lot of nuanced complexity. Margaret's screen time is brief but she was a lot more bearable than she was in Season 1, not near as much of a sense that the series going too far on making her unlikeable. The acting is superb all round, particularly the subtly powerful turn of Claire Foy.

Summing up, great beginning to Season 2. 9/10