Starring: Olivia Colman, Tobias Menzies, Gillian Anderson, Josh O'Connor, Emma Corrin, Emerald Fennell, Charles Dance, Helena Bonham Carter
The Queen Elizabeth II reign reaches the turbulent 1980's in the fourth, and so far best, season of Netflix's The Crown. Two women challenge the queen's patience, authority, and the belief that the monarch is the most powerful woman in the UK: Margaret Thatcher (Anderson) and Princess Diana (Corrin). Thatcher was the first female prime minister, while Princess Diana won the hearts of the world with her beauty and youthful exuberance. Princess Diana's popularity came with a heavy price in the form of a loveless marriage with the envious Prince Charles (O'Connor), who can't win the hearts and minds of the public as long as Princess Diana is in the picture. Charles is still in love with Camilla (Fennell), and the marriage to Diana was arranged as a way to try to stop Charles from pining after Camilla. It didn't work.
It is brutal what happens to the innocent Diana, who only wanted to live her fairy tale as a young woman in love with the Prince of Wales. But, it was not to be. Camilla is always lurking just outside the marriage, and Charles becomes more resentful of Diana's popularity with each public appearance and tour. The bulimic Diana can barely cope with the pressure from the royal family to endure the pain and not divorce Charles. What happens to her is cruel and tragic. Her innocence is shattered, and the rest belongs to history.
Margaret Thatcher is more experienced and stronger to deal with the pressures of her job. She stays the course despite Britain plunging further into unemployment and financial hardship, and the brief war over the Falkland Islands near Argentina boosts national morale at least temporarily. Because Thatcher is as stubborn and strong-willed as Elizabeth, the two butt heads often, but gain a grudging respect for each other as both endured and prospered in a male-dominated British culture.
With very few missteps, The Crown's fourth season is the most gut-wrenching. Diana is seen as a tragic figure, but Charles' own cruelty is based in his own misery. He is not a villain, but he's surely not a hero either. No one really is a villain per se, but this does not stop the royal family from acting coldly and calculatingly to ensure their best interests. History, of course, plays itself out, and The Crown sweeps through the 80's decade with things looking plenty different at the end of the decade than the beginning. Colman has settled into the role quite nicely as the experienced queen, and Anderson and Corrin are wonderful. Corrin is so Diana-like we do a double take to make sure we aren't watching documentary footage. The Crown maintains its superior writing, performances, and production with its most illuminating and emotional season to date.
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