Season 5 of The Crown has faced a lot of criticism for being too soft on the Royals. Many were expecting, or hoping, for Charles to get a villain edit as the show geared up to cover the early 90s… but instead, fans were met with a rather subdued version of Charles’ infidelity and its effect on Diana. However, while the characters may get our sympathy, the Monarchy itself doesn’t. This season is the most explicit and damning in how it shows these people manipulated and abused by a brutal, draconian system. The Crown invites us to blame the system in order to sympathize with the rich elites caught in its crossfire… and it asks the question: do we need a monarchy at all if it does more harm than good, even for those who are meant to benefit most from it?

Transcript

INTRO

The Crown’s fifth season is all about the duality between institutions, and the people within them.

This season has faced a lot of criticism for being too soft on the Royals. Many were expecting, or hoping, for Charles to get a villain edit as the show geared up to cover the early 90s, the height of the royal divorce that shocked the world…but instead, fans were met with a rather subdued version of Charles’ infidelity and its effect on Diana.

Diana: “Why did you marry me?” Charles: “‘Cause I had no choice.”- The Crown, 5x04

Similarly, Camilla doesn’t get painted as a calculating homewrecker, but also someone we should sympathize with. And it’s uncomfortable for people to see Prince Andrew getting the same kind of treatment given all the revelations about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein over the past few years.

However, while the characters may get our sympathy, the Monarchy itself doesn’t. This season is the most explicit and damning in how it shows these people manipulated and abused by a brutal, draconian system. Having watched these characters grow up, it’s startling how damaged, petulant and traumatized they all now are, as a direct consequence of having had to tow the party line for so long

Here’s our take on how The Crown invites us to blame the system in order to sympathize with the rich elites caught in its crossfire…and how it brings forth the question: do we need a Monarchy at all if it does more harm than good, even for those who are meant to benefit most from it?

CHAPTER ONE: WHEN IS A FAMILY NOT A FAMILY?

There is a repeated refrain in this season of The Crown. That the Royal Family isn’t a family at all, but a system.

Prince Philip: “You’re long past the point of thinking of us as a family, that’s a mistake people make in the beginning.”- The Crown 5x02

So rather than seeing this season as documenting a familial crisis, it’s better to see it as a system that’s beginning to fracture and decline before our eyes.

This begins from the first moments of the series, when the Royal Yacht Britannia shows signs of breaking down. More than just a luxury cruise liner, the ship is introduced to us as a home, and more importantly, one of the Queen’s favorite homes. It has this opulent yet cozy facade — the soft furnishings, the newspaper deliveries — but when Philip goes down into the bowels of the ship to inspect it, we see it for what it really is: a creaking old piece of machinery that is way past its best, and probably needs to be either fixed, or scrapped. This metaphor provides a throughline for the entire first episode – and then the season – as the Queen scrambles to keep her own obsolescence at bay by keeping the palace afloat. She even pressures the Prime Minister to approve government funds to fix up the old ship, despite the fact that the country is in a recession – the first of many glimpses at the Royal Family’s value of appearances and prestige over people.

Throughout the season, we see this familial facade undercut, and the machinery of royalty become more visible. When we see Diana and Charles on what is intended as a family holiday in the opening episode – complete with a kiss blown from Camilla – Diana’s desire to do ordinary things with the kids, like shopping and swimming in the ocean, immediately marks her out as different and troublesome. Eventually, the hollow shell of this supposed “second honeymoon” crumbles away when royal matters become more important.

When William is sent off to Eton, he is effectively abandoned by his family, chastised by his Father when signing the admissions form and reminded of his future as the heir to the throne — that responsibility and role becomes more important than him being a child. We see a similar pattern of abandonment in the brutal episode where the show explores the fate of The Romanovs. One family betrayed by another when they were in their hour of need, left to meet their death and have their history literally erased. And The Crown makes it easy for its viewers to draw parallels to the real life system it portrays – as the continued use of the word “system” echoes Meghan Markle’s use of “the firm.”

But by pulling the lens out and focusing on these macro contexts, and how they impact those within them, it almost defangs the show and excuses its most blameworthy players’ behaviors. There aren’t as many obvious villains or antagonists – which may explain why it’s been called more bland or boring in comparison to other seasons. Instead the system is the villain and everyone is its victim in their own way.

CHAPTER TWO: CHARLES AND DIANA — ARE THEY BOTH VICTIMS?

This season was billed as the Charles and Diana season. “A house divided” was the promotional tagline, with all the focus on the disintegration of their relationship. We knew we’d get the revenge dress, the affair, and the Martin Bashir interview. We’re at the point where what’s being dramatized is catching up to footage we’re already very familiar with meaning we might already have an expectation of what a certain scene may look like, which might not be how the show interprets it.

But instead of a clearcut villain-victim brawl that many were hoping for, we got a very nuanced portrayal of their relationship, proposing that both Diana and Charles are victims. In the fictionalized dinner that they have on the eve of their divorce, rather than it being an all-guns blazing, Marriage Story-esque fight, it’s played as a more gentle two-hander. For Diana, there’s a heartbreaking acceptance that she always knew she’d be playing second fiddle And for Charles, there is a level of contrition that we’ve rarely seen from him, either in the show or in public life. He recognizes the hurt Diana has gone through, and how — for a moment, at least — their relationship was a good one, and they were in love. It’s almost as if, despite seeing Charles now as an older, more mature man, he is transformed back into the more anxious Josh O’Connor portrayal – caught between wanting to assert his independence and wanting to do right by the system he’s been born into.

And the way Charles’ relationship with Camilla is framed this season absolves his character even more. Rather than it being portrayed as a seedy affair, it’s a love story. There’s a deliberate parallel drawn between their relationship and the one between Princess Margaret and Peter Townsend. We flashback to how much potential their love story had, how that spark lasted their whole lives, and what a waste it seems that they were never allowed to marry. Similarly, we see Princess Anne begin a relationship with a man lower in stature than her, the exact kind of relationship that Charles wasn’t allowed to have. So there’s a deep unfairness to the fact that Charles is being kept away from the relationship that would make him happy, for seemingly no reason other than to uphold an archaic notion of what monarchy is supposed to be.

Queen Elizabeth: “While it is expected for the monarch to be married and produce an heir, being happily married is a preference rather than a requirement.”- 5x04

Camilla herself is also much more than “the other woman” trope that many viewers expected her to be. Instead, she’s humanized and there’s a sort of pity evoked for her. The press and the public are brutal to her – to the point where she can’t leave her home. Instead of “the other woman” she’s just another woman who’s a victim of the cruelty that this royal system can often make its subjects vulnerable to.

It’s clear that Diana is being put through the wringer in this season – she’s been ostracized by the only family she really has and is suffering from a deep and overwhelming loneliness brought on by the divorce.

But as much as the royal system is at fault, the show puts even more responsibility on the press…the phone hacking that heightens her sense of anxiety and paranoia…the manipulative tactics and lies that Martin Bashir undertakes to get his interview and further his career, which intensify those feelings.

In this shifting of focus and trying to restore balance, does some crucial element of the story get lost?

CHAPTER THREE: WHO GETS OFF EASY?

The public reaction to this season of The Crown has been more than a little mixed. Critics claim that that Diana is “thrown under the bus,” or that the show “did her dirty.” The show does somewhat imply that Diana should have known what she got herself into.

The Crown S5E2 41:10: Prince Philip “You remain loyal to your husband and loyal to this family in public.” Princess Diana: “You mean silent.” Prince Phillip “Yes, don’t rock the boat.”- The Crown, 5x02

And in focusing on these institutional factors, the agency of those within them gets somewhat diminished.

The show’s writer, Peter Morgan, has an innate sense of sympathy for the characters he’s portraying, which sometimes leads to letting people off the hook. Consider Conservative Prime Minister John Major – who’s depicted as being placed between a rock and a hard place given that his premiership is distracted by him having to get involved in mediating the divorce between Charles and Diana. As a leader he is seen as calm, diplomatic – and conservatism as an ethos is seen as similarly sensible. Contrast that to the almost buffoonish way Tony Blair is portrayed when he comes to power.

Given what the UK has been through in the past few years — the financial meltdown caused by Brexit, the poorly handled Covid crisis, and three Prime Ministers in the past year — Morgan’s character seems to be the show’s way of idealizing a version of conservatism that doesn’t reflect reality. We learn little about what John Major was actually like as a leader, or what he presided over, just that he was in some way unlucky, or a victim of circumstance.

And while Charles is given some sympathy for the marriage he felt forced into – the show goes even further when it shows Charles as a leader. He’s portrayed as this great reformer, someone who’s in step with the mood of the country. When he’s occasionally pompous or cruel, it’s shown as a consequence of his upbringing. As Rohan Nahar writes, “While the show essentially whitewashes Charles by allowing him to make speeches about his philanthropic efforts — usually while some sweeping orchestral music plays in the background — Diana is dutifully sidelined.” There’s an inherent selfishness to Charles in real life – his affair, the cold relationship he seems to have with his kids – yet this feels glossed over in the show.

Ultimately, Charles’ want for reform and evolution isn’t so much about the monarchy surviving, but about it surviving long enough so that he gets to be King. His behavior is scheming, even machiavellian. But because the show effectively agrees with him – and shows him as a modern solution to the problem of an archaic monarchy – it’s not critiqued with as much scrutiny as perhaps it should be.

OUTRO

Watching a show about the Monarchy in a past state of transition while the current Monarchy is in a state of transition is a strange experience. For one thing, Charles’ protestations in the show that the Queen should step aside to allow him to rule come just a year after the public were clamoring for him to do the same thing – to allow William to take the throne upon the Queen’s death.

But perhaps it’s because we’re having these conversations that people were having thirty years ago all over again that makes the focus of the series so cutting. We’re asked to see the Monarchy as this huge, decaying ship that may look beautiful, but is no longer seaworthy. The fact that so much of what happens in the series feels strikingly relevant to what’s still happening suggests that, for all that talk of evolution and reform, not all that much has really changed.

Prince Charles “If we continue to hold onto these Victorian notions of how the monarchy should look, then the world will move on.”- The Crown, 5x10