Greetings, reader!
Today's list is semi-relevant for two reasons: not all that much time has passed from the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, and even less time has gone by from the topical release of The Crown's fifth season on Netflix. So what better time to share my favorite episodes from the five seasons of magnificent royal drama that Netflix has produced? From season 1 to season 5, from 1940's period piece to 1990's modernity, from Foy to Staunton, these are the best hours of television from the acclaimed series.
SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers of Real Life, spanning from the early 1950's to the late 1990's.
Here are my honorable mentions: Wolferton Splash (Season 1 Episode 1), Act of God (Season 1 Episode 4), Moondust (Season 3 Episode 7), Terra Nullius (Season 4 Episode 6), Gunpowder (Season 5 Episode 8).
10. Fagan (Season 4 Episode 5)
"What is it you'd like me to do?"
"Save us all. From her"
"Who?"
"Thatcher! She's destroying the country!"
While this episode does apparently take some liberties in making the bizarre real-life story even a touch more dramatic, I've gathered that a surprisingly large chunk of it is very much based on facts. The episode details the story of Michael Fagan (Tom Brooke), the man who broke into Buckingham Palace twice (as we all do from time to time), and found himself in Queen Elizabeth's bedroom, having a conversation with her before being escorted out by security.
The episode's focus on Fagan is a classic example of The Crown presenting pretty much everyone as flawed but humane individuals instead of demonizing or romanticizing anyone; he's not presented as a mere lunatic, but rather as a victim of the poverty in Thatcher's Britain, thus tying into the larger season 4 narrative quite neatly. But the star of the show is the late great Queen herself, portrayed here by Olivia Colman; Elizabeth's capacity to have a calm conversation with the random dude who broke into her bedroom, even hearing out what he has to say instead of going into shock and panic over the situation, is quite the lovely testament to her diplomatic and steadfast character.
9. Marionettes (Season 2 Episode 5)
"It's the assumption everyone has made. Because I dare offer an opinion, I must be trying to burn the temple down. On the contrary, I'm trying to make sure it survives"
This episode's script is a classic example of twisting the viewer's expectations, and holding a mirror to how we humans tend to jump to conclusions before knowing the whole story. We begin with a flash-forward, where we see that a man called Lord Altrincham (John Heffernan) has caused great pains to the royal family with criticism of Elizabeth, after which another man arrives to publicly punch him in the face. The scene is framed in such a way that the viewer immediately assumes Altrincham to be an antagonistic jerk, and the face-puncher is viewed as the knight in shining armor defending Elizabeth's honor.
The rest of the episode fills us in on the full story, including the substance of Altrincham's criticism being a series of points that most modern-day people would easily agree on, and the fact that the man who punched him was in fact a far-right extreme nationalist. This is quite the turning of tables, and the framing of the twist makes the viewer question what it is in us humans that we tend to automatically side with the person who is punching someone else in the face. Clever storytelling by Peter Morgan, and a nice tribute to Lord Altrincham, whose thoughts on the monarchy were ahead of their time.
8. Mou Mou (Season 5 Episode 3)
"It's about a young Jewish man..."
"A Jew? Couldn't you make a film about something else?"
"...who overcomes racial and establishment prejudice, runs the 100 meters in the 1924 Olympics, and wins gold"
"Really? That's a movie?"
"It's an inspirational story. Where the outsider...ends up becoming an insider"
"I like the sound of that"
This is the only episode from the newest season to make it into my top 10 - the season was by no means bad, but the amount of especially memorable individual episodes wasn't as large as in most of the show's seasons. However, season 5 does have its high points, chief among them this narratively specific episode that zeroes in on the 'origin story' of Dodi Fayed, played here by Khalid Abdalla. A lot of focus is put on his father Mohamed Al Fayed (Salim Daw), and following their story makes for a nice change of pace from the Buckingham Palace shenanigans we're used to.
The episode is also a prime example of a historical drama drawing lines between intersting events and phenomena, as the story of the Fayeds is shown connecting to so many intriguing points in history - how the Fayeds' connection to the royal family went back to the Duke of Windsor's (Alex Jennings) visit to Egypt in the 1940's, the connection to cinematic history as Dodi was a producer for Best Picture winner Chariots of Fire (1981), and other such links. It's a very fascinating and quite moving character portrait of the Fayed family, and the most memorable hour of season 5.
7. Gold Stick (Season 4 Episode 1)
"This is your duty now, your most important task. You are more than a man, more than a Prince, and one day, dear boy, you shall be King. But now, to the sea"
You know the feeling when you're a nerd watching a Marvel movie / a film based on a famous fantasy book etc., and they introduce their version of a very iconic character for the first time, and you get goosebumps from this epic fan service? Because let me tell you, it's weird as hell to experience that exact emotion but when watching a historical drama about the royal family.
But that's exactly what happened when I watched The Crown's season four premiere, where we meet Gillian Anderson's Margaret Thatcher and Emma Corrin's Diana Spencer for the first time. Those people are (for better or worse) so incredibly famous/infamous, that most viewers were high-key anticipating what their role will be like in this series for the duration of the seasons leading up to this. Especially Diana's first scene, where the shy girl meets the Prince of Wales while in costume and hiding behind a houseplant, was very goosebumps-worthy, with the dialogue and directing style being very "we all know that this will lead to some big events".
6. Aberfan (Season 3 Episode 3)
"We can't be everything to everyone and still be true to ourselves"
I suppose I'd have to call this episode slightly 'overrated', because IMDB has it as The Crown's highest-rated episode, and I don't quite see it as the show's best offering. That being said, it's a damn good one, and I do see why some viewers consider it to be the show's #1 installment.
Following the gripping landslide of 1966 in the Welsh town of Aberfan, which killed over a hundred children in a local school, the episode most definitely is one of the show's most emotional hours. Not even in a conventionally dramatic, tear-jerking way, but in a more hauntingly depressing fashion - we see what happened and what the aftermath was, and it leaves you feeling quite empty. Olivia Colman and Tobias Menzies deliver some of their finest work in their respective roles of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, and the overall bleak tone of the episode makes for a memorable and powerful viewing experience.
5. Dear Mrs. Kennedy (Season 2 Episode 8)
"That's the thing about unhappiness. All it takes is for something worse to come along, and you realize it was actually happiness after all"
This might come as a shock to you, but the half-American civil rights enthusiast / history buff writing this blog is quite a fan of the Kennedys. It's always cool when The Crown does tie-ins with historical figures who had something to do with the royal family (for example the episode with Boris Yeltsin and the Romanov connections was one of season 5's best, and wasn't far from making it onto today's list) - but it's especially cool when the tie-in in question is the iconic, forward-thinking Presidential couple whose life in the White House was cut tragically short but whose names are forever seared in history.
The episode connects British history with American history in a compelling fashion, and the parallels (as well as differences) between First Lady Jackie Kennedy (Jodi Balfour) and good ol' Liz (Claire Foy) are illuminating. All in all, an entertaining and historically fascinating hour of The Crown.
4. Vergangenheit (Season 2 Episode 6)
"We all suspected it"
"These papers must never see the light of day, Winston. Ever"
"Publication could do grave harm to the national interest"
"The gravest. What is written here brings the greatest shame upon this family. Our people would, rightfully, never forgive us"
Is it shocking that a member of the royal family turned out to be a Nazi sympathizer? Well, yes and no. On one hand, the dark reality is that it makes quite a lot of sense, as the British monarchy is based on ideals quite similar to Nazi movement - the idea of keeping the royal bloodline pure, due to the implication of white British people being inherently superior and therefore in their rights to colonize half of the world, certainly sounds similar to the thoughts of famous Nazis from Hitler to Bannon and everything in between. Although modern Britain has tried to move away from these fucked-up ideals, the system's inherent aversions towards any form of change has made it so that echoes of this worldview still have a voice in that world, which explains much of why Prince Harry marrying a person of color was such a shock and upset to many royalists.
Still, the fact that a former King turned out to be actively siding with Nazi Germany during World War II is something that the royal family quite understandably wanted to keep under wraps. The Crown does a good job making this revelation extra-shocking for those of us who didn't know their royal history before watching the series- the Duke of Windsor is presented in season 1 as a flawed but humane and likable -seeming person, which makes for a very sickening feeling when this season 2 episode reveals his Nazi ties. I certainly wasn't aware of this fact beforehand, and I had become so attached to the character that this episode's events were quite a powerful simulation of what it must've felt like for people who actually knew the man to find out this disturbing truth.
3. Hyde Park Corner (Season 1 Episode 2)
"This new Elizabethan age comes at a time when mankind stands uncertainly poised on the edge of catastrophe. I, whose youth was passed in the august, unchallenged and tranquil glories of the Victorian era, may well fill the thrill in invoking once more the prayer and anthem - God Save the Queen"
I've watched many, many television shows in my life, and I can wholeheartedly say that The Crown has the best second-ever episode of all time in my books. No other series comes close in how good their 'Season 1 Episode 2' is - in shows where the pilot isn't all that good, the 2nd episode isn't much better as it takes time to grow, whereas in most shows were the pilot is a masterpiece, the 2nd episode is a significant downgrade as the pace slows down et cetera. But in The Crown, the pilot feels like a prologue of sorts, and it's episode 2 where the show really begins.
That is because this is the episode where King George VI (Jared Harris) passes away, and young Elizabeth becomes Queen. This is dealt with in an insanely dramatic manner, as the directing, soundtrack and spectacular Claire Foy performance really zero in on what a huge deal it was for this innocent young woman to suddenly feel the pressure of the whole country and commonwealth looking to her for leadership, while having to deal with her father's death at the same time. The look on Prince Philip's (Matt Smith) face, when he has just heard the news and has to break it to his wife, really says it all, and rarely has a single facial expression been more Emmy-worthy.
2. Assassins (Season 1 Episode 9)
"If you're engaged in a fight with something, then it is not with me. It's with your own blindness"
This, this right here, THIS is how you do a character study. While being first and foremost about the monarchy and its longtime figurehead, The Crown does spend a lot of time with various Prime Ministers, as they have naturally played a major part throughout modern British history and coincided with Queen Elizabeth's story. Through a majority of the first season, the PM is the one and only Winston Churchill (John Lithgow), and this episode goes hellishly deep into his psyche and personality.
The episode is very much a character portrait, told poetically through the narrative of an actual portrait - we follow the sessions between Churchill and painter Graham Sutherland (played by Stephen Dillane in one of television history's finest one-episode guest performances), as the latter works on the official portrait of the former. Through this framework, we get a deep look at Churchill's soul, flaws and virtues and all. No matter what your opinion of the man is, it cannot be denied that he if anyone was a larger-then-life personality and real-life character, and Assassins is quite the tribue to his persona.
1. Tywysog Cymru (Season 3 Episode 6)
"People will always want us to smile or agree or frown or speak, and the minute that we do, we will have declared a position, a point of view, and that is the one thing as the royal family we are not entitled to do. Which is why we have to hide those feelings, keep them to ourselves. Because the less we do, the less we say or speak or agree..."
"Or think? Or breathe? Or feel or exist?"
"...the better"
"Well, doing that is perhaps not as easy for me as it is for you"
"Why?"
"Because I have a beating heart. A character. A mind and will of my own"
On paper, it would be hard to believe that "The one where Prince Charles spends time in Wales slowly learning the language" is a better episode than more conceptually exciting and media-sexy episodes like "The one where Lord Mountbatten attempts a coup", "The one where the Queen and Prime Minister clash over Apartheid", or "The one where Princess Diana gives an explosive interview on Guy Fawkes Day". But that is the reality - nothing that The Crown has done has been quite as moving, powerful and beautiful than this slow-paced Prince Charles character study.
This is thanks to many things, chief among them Josh O'Connor's astonishing performance. This is the first time we see him in the role, after the Prince of Wales had been previously seen as a child in seasons 1 and 2, and entirely absent for the first half of season 3. When we finally meet the grown-up Charles, we spend the whole episode with him, and as described in last week's post about the show's best acting performances, O'Connor makes every scene and every line of dialogue fascinating with his nuances. He portrays Charles not as the dud the media often presents the current King as, but rather as a deeply sensitive, vulnerable and humane individual who one can completely get behind and understand where he's coming from.
The sheer power of O'Connor's subtle yet masterful acting performance keeps you hooked throughout the episode, and it all culminates in the dramatic conversation between him and his mother the Queen (Olivia Colman). While most of the series paints Elizabeth in a mostly positive light (series creator Peter Morgan has described the series as a love letter to the Queen first and foremost), this episode shows arguably the worst side of her seen in the whole series, although the larger villain is the system of the monarchy itself, with her as mere 'product' of it, and Charles as the idealistic rebel who wants things to change for the better. It is a tough scene to watch, and will have viewers who might not be the biggest Charles fans feeling for the man more than they might expect. I found Tywysog Cymru to be the most powerful and moving of all The Crown episodes, and this is first and foremost thanks to the insanely skillful and emotional performance by Josh O'Connor.
Thank you for reading! Tune in next week for a list recommended by my Uncle Dan - the top 10 forgotten/overlooked gems from the world of television!
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