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Occasionally it is necessary toconvene a conversationbetween Vulture writers to discuss an important and timely issue in culture.
Note: This conversation discusses the entirety of season five and includes minor spoilers.
How much does ones temperament define ones destiny?
How has celebrity changed our perception of leadership in the last several decades?
Is tweedactuallya timeless classic?
And yet … maybe it is?
(Judi Dench, why did you feel a need to weigh in?)
And its always that way for the individual character arcs in this show.
We see Philip experiencing a traumatic boarding-school experience, and we understand how badly hes been damaged.
We see Elizabeth struggling to feel any kind of freedom in her own life.
And then the same thing happens again for the new generations.
Miserable to one another, incapable of empathy or the barest glint of humanity to their loved ones.
How can this show possibly be arguing in favor of these peoples behavior?
JM:Everything that happens with Charles in season five and yet does not happen with Diana!
We have to know what Charles thinks about her, what Elizabeth feels, even Margarets opinion.
There is so much about Charless reaction to her that she feels secondary.
Hes a natural villain of the story because he really seems like an ass!
He finds the remoteness of their stature from the public more compelling.
Hes more for icons than iconoclasts.
(I guess it will also be recreated inThe Crownseason six.
But what did we expect?
KV:I love a melancholy yacht scene!
I get the appeal, I do!
Shes stubbornly incurious to the point of near emptiness.
Instead, theres a kind of wistful sweetness to it.
Sure, she doesnt know what DNA is.
But is that what England needed from her?
It needed the person she became: a living link to the past.
More often than not, I fall for it!
It made me wonder whether my entire opinion ofThe Crownwould be different if it was stripped of extra-episodic context.
No ending explanatory cards, no defensive posturing in the press, no ridiculous assertions that it is afictionalizeddepiction.
Maybe without all that I could accept it as pleasantly ambiguous?
JM:The shows a victim of its success in that way.
Its popular, expensive, a crown jewel in a Netflix catalog that is increasingly full of rhinestones.
Heavy-handed is the head writer who producesThe Crown.
In conclusion, congrats to former PM John Major, who got the hero edit this season.
KV:Truly an unexpected source of wisdom and measured calm!
Theres just always going to be a temptation for devils advocacy.
So many consultants, so many deep dives, so much attention to accuracy and detail.
SurelyThe Crownis landing on its primary conclusions as a result of extensive, painstaking consideration rather than just contrariness?
JM:Plus, well get to see Peter Morgan work through all his feelings about Tony Blair!
