Thursday, December 24, 2020

What I’m Watching: The Crown

The Crown: Season 4, Episode 6 “Terra Nullius” (B+)

It has seemed to me for most of this season that Prince Charles is no longer the sweet-natured, well-intentioned man seeking a simpler life that we got to know in season three, and instead someone who has grown tired of his wife being unwilling to make sacrifices for a royal life. There was an important turning point midway through this episode where he and Diana really seemed to connect and finally understand each other, and things were set to get better from that moment. It didn’t last long, however, since, as assessed back at home, Charles wasn’t a hit in Australia and New Zealand, but having Diana there with him made him likeable. Take her away and he was a disappointment, and that’s what got him so upset since he really did want to be in the limelight. Diana’s visit to Elizabeth was a startling display of personality, one that found Elizabeth unsure of how to respond to being hugged and told that some physical comfort and warmth was all that she wanted. She did reflect back on it when she was going over the event with her mother, Margaret, and Anne, but it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that she was the softest of that group. Seeing her acting nostalgic and watching footage from her own formative trip abroad was a nice callback to early moments of this show, and it’s so interesting to see how she and Philip process their own experiences in comparison to what the new generation is going through in this moment.

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