Diana-Divorce season of 'The Crown' is weakest yet: TV review

The fourth season of "The Crown", in 2020, finally seemed to solve the problem of how to represent Queen Elizabeth II: in opposition. Writer Peter Morgan is inexorably drawn to the sovereign and does his best with her when she comes into a one-on-one conflict. Previously, he portrayed Tony Blair pushing her for change in the movie “The Queen”; Blair is among the Prime Ministers whose relationship with Her Majesty turns into a prismatic portrayal in the play 'The Audience'. And on television, showing the Queen's 1980s clouded by her thwarted relationships with Princess Diana and Margaret Thatcher, Morgan finally found the story on her show.

It was a long road to get here, and it was not to last. Perhaps it's just a reaction to the genuinely impressive Thatcher and Diana-era work that makes the new fifth season of "The Crown" feel like the show's weakest outing yet: a show generally scattered and unfocused is less disciplined than ever. The fact that the divorce between Prince Charles (Dominic West) and Princess Diana (Elizabeth Debicki) is so obviously the most interesting point for contemporary audiences has forced the series to slow its pace and linger. ("The Crown" faces the same problem as the Queen; Diana, with her voracious eyes and need to be cherished, consumes all the oxygen.) But even after being given the gift of a momentous scandal with two people Extremely charismatic and imperfect participants like grain to grind, "The Crown" finds that it has nothing to say.

Debicki is very strong in a role that would challenge any performer; Emma Corrin has absorbed all the marital abuse that made Diana feel wronged, while Debicki has to deal with the aftermath. (West is just plain misinterpreted, a sad descent from the formidable Josh O'Connor.) And Imelda Staunton replaces Claire Foy and Olivia Colman as the third queen, and it's safe to say she's achieved a convincing likeness (which doesn't That's no small feat, as the iteration of Elizabeth she plays is the one viewers will be most familiar with). But the character she plays is not a character at all; a life devoted to duty and country has, by its nature, smoothed out conflict. Staunton's best moments come when the Queen vents her frustration in an imperious manner learned over time; it's a reminder that living near a royal figure isn't easy. But more often than not, Staunton and the character she plays back off.

Which is nothing new in itself! Morgan has skirted the unknown of Elizabeth with agility before, but the fact of Diana's estrangement from the Windsor family as we enter the 1990s, as well as the ascendancy of John Major (Jonny Lee Miller) presents new new puzzles. How can he dramatize the Windsor family dispute when it is, for the most part, going through intermediaries? The answer seems, in large part, to task both Staunton and Debicki with taking meaningful looks at middle distances. (As to whether the show represents the real people it represents: It's too respectful, constantly siding with no one by showing that everyone involved is fundamentally good. At one point given, Prince Charles, the closest thing to an anti-hero the show has, dances to rap music with the young people of color his charity supports, as on-screen text tells us how many people he helped.) And the domestic politics story all season goes to a leader best remembered as the drama-free buffer between the Thatcher and Blair eras means what has always been a vein rich for Morgan's writing, the relationship between head of state and head of government fades from mind as it unfolds.

We feel Morgan's slow realization that expands Charles-Diana's story to a larger part of the series run means that nothing outside of this timeline can enter the story, and its seizure of what else can be included. Before the banter between Diana and Dodi Fayed (Khalid Abdalla), we get an excavation of an episode of the rise of the Al-Fayed family in the UK, which at least comes as a shock to the show; later there is an episode examining the queen's concern for the remains of the downed Romanov family. There are generous readings of what these two episodes represent for “The Crown” – respectively, a social-realistic loo…