Among the original series Netflix, The Crown is certainly one of the most popular products, both for the undoubted quality of its episodes, and for the historical events it tells, revolving around the life of one of the most famous figures in the world: the Queen Elizabeth II. Primarily written by Peter Morgan, The Crown has won numerous awards, including three Golden Globe and eight awards Emmy.
Last season we saw the new cast in action, adapted to the age reached by the protagonists of the events: Olivia Colman is a masterful Queen Elizabeth II, Helena Bonham-Carter the troubled Princess Margaret, Tobias Menzies Prince Philip, Josh o'connor Prince Charles. We find them all in Season XNUMX, with two highly anticipated additions: Emma Corrin, in the role of Lady Diana, Gillian Anderson, interpreter of Margaret Thatcher.
The plot of the fourth season of The Crown
The time span told in the fourth season covers the decade of the 80s, the Thatcher era of Great Britain; the ten episodes in fact narrate the events starting from the beginning of the first term of Margaret Thatcher (May 1979), first female British Prime Minister, until her resignation in November 1990. It is certainly a decade full of historical events, seen as usual through the filter of the Royal Family and from the perspective of the Queen. Nonetheless, we are talking about a period that also saw the rise of another famous female figure: Lady Diana. A season, therefore, which carries on two main storylines in parallel and tells a period now very close to our days.
"How many times can this family repeat the same mistake?"
The storyline that many have been waiting for since the beginning of the series is that relating to life of Lady Diana. Paradoxically, perhaps one of the best known events regarding the Royal Family, on which there was probably not much to add given the media hype aroused at the time and the various films and documentaries released on the subject. Despite the difficulty of the enterprise, however, the series still managed to also tell this story in a different and non-trivial way, exploring the point of view and perspective of both Carlo, with whom we had somehow empathized already in previous seasons, and Diana, little more than a teenager when she joined the Royal Family. Josh o'connor e Emma Corrin they are very good at rendering the incommunicability between the two, the pressures for a marriage celebrated exclusively in the name of duty and image and which, of course, could not have had a different outcome than what it actually had. Quite explicit images of the eating disorder that afflicted the princess are also staged, a punch in the stomach that makes the discomfort of loneliness even more. But the relationship between Carlo and Diana is not the only one within the family to be so troubled: around them other small dramas are articulated, such as Margaret's loneliness after the separation from her husband Antony, the crisis in Anna's marriage, the discovery of the existence of two family members hidden due to their disabilities and the question marks that the Queen herself asks about her work as a mother. The whole family continues to live their duties intolerably as Royals, in conflict with the aspirations and feelings of each one: as Filippo says to Diana, he and all the members of the family are outsiders and extremely alone. Everyone except her, the Queen, the essence of their duty.
"It doesn't seem wise to make enemies on the left, right and center" "Not if you're comfortable with having enemies"
Another main storyline this season is his career as Prime Minister of Margaret Thatcher and his relationship with the Queen. So we see on stage the portrait of an era that saw two great women hold the highest offices in the United Kingdom. Gillian Anderson is magnificent in representing the Iron Lady in a version that expresses the strength and ethics of work, but also humanity; in the original language there is also the ability to reproduce the typical way of speaking of Thatcher. Against the backdrop of Britain in crisis due to unemployment, the conflict with the IRA, the success in the war for the Falkland Islands, apartheid in South Africa, we see from episode to episode the evolution of the relationship between the Queen and the Prime Minister. A relationship that is certainly not idyllic, which almost undermines the irreproachable neutrality of the Sovereign regarding the work of the Government, but which reaches its epilogue by reaching mutual respect between the parties.
Ultimately, this fourth season of The Crown does not disappoint expectations, continuing in the narration of a story that is ever closer to the present day and keeping the quality from episode to episode high.
