What I’m Watching: The Crown

The Crown: Season 1, Episode 5 “Smoke and Mirrors” (B)

This show’s title really is fitting, since the crown seems to be an entity all its own. The Duke of Windsor returned again for what ended up being his mother’s funeral, and it’s strange to see how things are different when he comes home. His fate – having to watch the coronation on TV like everyone else, describing how the anointment is so important that the guests don’t get to see it – served to remind him that he has to be a commoner like everyone else. I understand that Elizabeth is trying to keep the peace at home, but placing Philip in charge of her coronation hardly seemed like the best idea. Wanting to televise the coronation makes some sense since his point about the public desiring to be a part of the ceremony and feel like they’re connected is well-taken, but refusing to bow was yet another reminder that he doesn’t understand the role he needs to take on. “Are you my queen or my wife?” was a relatively childish question, and this is obviously going to be an enduring issue between the two of them, and really between him and the whole country. Making comments about how the queen mother’s funeral was awfully similar to the late king’s hardly seemed sensitive, thinking of the events as merely ceremonial and not designed to mourn the loss of people who were around for most of her life and whom she likely needed to say goodbye to instead of him making the moment about him.