The Crown Review: Long Live the Queen (Season 2 Episodes 6 – 10)
Cheerio! Let’s soldier on through The Crown Season 2 Episodes 6 – 10, in which men continue to be the actual worst and Elizabeth handles her Queenly business with aplomb.
Confession time: not being familiar with the historical period The Crown Season 2 focuses on, I made a decision not to read up on it so that I can review the show as a piece of fiction and not a historical documentary. However, due to my frustration with parts of The Crown Season 2 Episodes 1 – 5, I may have cheated – just a little.
And I am mad.
Surface level googling reveals the country, the Monarchy, and Queen Elizabeth II were dealing with major political and cultural shifts through the 1950s and early 60s. Plus, there were many other important national and global events she was involved in during the early years of her reign, including a very important post-Suez Canal Crisis visit to the United States.
Sounds like this is great fodder for a TV drama! Unfortunately, The Crown Season 2 believes one of the most interesting things happening during these years is Philip behaving like a manchild. I mean, I’m just so glad that on a show about the longest reigning female monarch in British history, viewers can enjoy multiple episodes focusing on her husband.
This includes The Crown Season 2 Episode 9, “Paterfamilias,” which delves into Philip’s difficult childhood presumably to make him seem more sympathetic. Phillip is at times petulant, mean-spirited, disrespectful, and unfaithful to Elizabeth. But, as we learn in this episode, his Nazi sister died tragically in a plane crash, so he gets a pass, right?
It gets worse.
The relationships between Elizabeth, her grandmother, her mother, and her sister are integral pieces to The Crown Season 1, but there is very little of the Queen Mother in The Crown Season 2. And, although there are a few good scenes between Elizabeth and her sister, the bulk of Margaret’s screen time is spent with her love interest, Anthony Armstrong-Jones – who may actually be more terrible than Philip.
The Crown Season 2 Episode 7, “Matrimonium,” focuses on Margaret’s wedding to Tony. It is wonderful to see the show explore the complicated relationship between Margaret and Elizabeth, as the Queen struggles with whether or not to tell her sister what she knows about Tony’s past. Claire Foy is brilliant here, allowing Elizabeth’s inner dilemma to play itself out simply through minute changes in her facial expressions.
Alas, the show quickly moves on to focus on Tony who cheats on Margaret with multiple people, treats her poorly, and is an all-around awful person. But The Crown Season 2 wants viewers to know this is most likely because his mother didn’t love him enough. Argh.
In the midst of all this focus on the men, there is The Crown Season 2 Episode 8, “Dear Mrs. Kennedy,” which is set around the meeting and relationship between two of the most iconic women of the 20th century: Queen Elizabeth II and Jacqueline Kennedy. Going to be great, right?
Nope.
We see Elizabeth feeling inadequate when comparing herself to the glamorous Jacqueline Kennedy and the First Lady bad-mouthing the Queen at a private dinner. While there is some historical truth to Jacqueline Kennedy being critical of the Queen, the show makes a choice to initially frame these two women almost as rivals. It is beyond disappointing.
The saving grace for The Crown Season 2 is Elizabeth’s journey to becoming a more confident and self-assured monarch. When she is not caught up dealing with her selfish husband, Elizabeth gets some very nice Queenly moments in the last half of the season.
My favorite scene in The Crown Season 2 comes in Episode 6, “Vergangenheit.” Elizabeth coldly laying an epic smackdown on her manipulative uncle, the Duke of Windsor, is a well-deserved comeuppance for his character and a well-earned demonstration of how much Elizabeth now embodies the authority of her position as Queen. Great performances from both Claire Foy and Alex Jennings.
While much of The Crown Season 2 Episode 8, “Dear Mrs. Kennedy,” is a total miss for me, Elizabeth using her own special brand of Queenly diplomacy to resolve an issue with Ghana is a big highlight. Her dance with President Nkrumah is made even better by the hurrumphing among her surprised staff and government officials back in London.
It is a shame The Crown Season 2 spends so much time on the terrible choices and behavior of its male characters, at the expense of following Elizabeth’s growth in her role as Queen. If nothing else, this feels like a good example of why we need more women writing for and creating content about women.
What did you think of this episode of The Crown? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!
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The Crown Season 2 is now streaming on Netflix.
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Jennifer Ann
Jennifer works in public history and digital marketing. She has a borderline academic interest in how historical time periods and events are presented in popular culture. When she is not over-analyzing story arcs and character growth in her favorite shows, she enjoys lazy weekends avoiding housework and spoiling her dogs.