Hello! Welcome back to TV Tuesday! Today I’m going to be talking all about season five of Netflix’s The Crown.

This seasons starts off slow. We open with Princess Diane and Prince Charles going on their second honeymoon to what? Re-ignite the marriage? I doubt anything could help them at this point.

It’s also time to get used to new actors playing the royals. Imelda Staunton is a good Queen I’m curious to see how Dominic West does at playing Charles. He’s good at playing charming so we’ll see how that works for him here. I was also excited to see Jonny Lee Miller as the new Prime Minister, John Major.  

The first real drama piece, aside from the Charles/Diana marriage debacle, is a poll that went up in the Sunday Times. It stated that the Queen was basically old and out of touch and that Charles would make a great King. She won’t admit it, but it’s clear on her face that she now fears being obsolete, essentially. It’s interesting given she was Queen until she was 96 so really, she had nothing to worry about.

BUT as much as Charles likes the idea of becoming King… that would mean Diana would have to be Queen… and that isn’t so appealing to him.

I haven’t gotten used to Elizabeth Debicki as Diana just yet, but so far she’s doing a good job.

I find it interesting that everyone has confided in the PM when they’re at the ball. I feel like this could be bad for all parties, but I’ll let it play out.

What is with Philip and his obsession with carriages? What is the purpose of it? I do like his speech on grief though, he spoke from the heart and it felt really true.

So Diana is having a book written about her? A tell all. Interesting. She wants everyone to know how she’s been treated by the royals, the ins and outs of her marriage. Philip comes in and tells her the same thing he told her at the end of last season… that it’s all a system and she’s stuck in it whether she likes it or not. So she should keep quiet, basically.

This book is going to cause big waves.

They also really like the boat metaphors this season too. Philp tells Diana not to rock the boat… then we have the yacht that is old and falling apart that Elizabeth wants to fix (using tax payer’s money, no less) while Charles thinks it’s silly to keep it up. This is also a great representation of Elizabeth’s rein (being old and obsolete) compared to Charles (young and modern). 

I spent most of the third episode confused as to what was going on. The Royal family take a back seat to this episode and we get the story of three men of colour. One is Mohamed Al-Fayed who, after further research, was a self-made billionaire, a second is Sydney Johnson who was the personal valet for King Edward VIII, and the third was Mohamad’s son Dodi, a film maker.

At first, when Mohamed sees Sydney he wants him removed because he thinks he makes the hotel he just bought look bad, which is completely racist. Then he changes his tune once he finds out who that man is because he can do something for him… teach him how to be treated like royalty because in Mohamed’s mind British royalty is the highest form of notoriety.

The bond they do end up forming is an interesting one. I think over time they do end up somewhat caring for one another, but it’s such a strange dynamic.

Then there’s Mohamed’s song, Dodi. He wants to use some of his father’s money to start up his independent film career, in which his father just laughs at. But when he goes on to direct the film Chariots of Fire and it wins four Oscars… who’s laughing now? I did like seeing the proud dad face… even if Mohamed isn’t the greatest person.

So then Mohamed then buys the Duke’s house after his pass, wanting to fix it up as a gift to the royal family. But all the royals see is a mess they need to clean up because it holds a treasure of things that could show the royals in a bad light, oh no, the horror.

He invites the Queen to the house, only to get her people instead of her. Then when he thinks he’ll finally meet her, Diana is sent instead of the Queen. I like the connection Mohamed, Mou Mou, and Diane form; they are hilarious together, I could see them causing trouble together.

Finally, in episode four is when the show starts to become the show we have come to know and love. Oooh does the drama heat up. I love seeing Margaret, she has got to be my favourite and I feel like I’ve said this before.

The fourth episode starts with a letter from Peter to Margaret that he’s going to be in London and that he’d like to see her. I do remember him from either season one or two. It’s so nice to see the two of them together again. But he comes to her because he’s sick and wanted to see her one last time basically. This of course brings up all those feelings again and she lashes out at Elizabeth for taking Peter away from her. Elizabeth tells her it was her queenly duty, not her sisterly one… as if that makes it any better.

Then we have all of her child who are not happy. First we see Andrew who wants to divorce his wife because they aren’t happy and his wife is getting her toes sucked by some guy and it’s in the papers – so weird! Obviously, their mother doesn’t think it a good idea. Then we see Anne who has gotten divorced but she’d like to get married again, but her mother thinks it’s too soon (3 years). Lastly, we have our favourite messy couple, Charles and Diana – Charles goes to his mother to ask her if he can divorce her and again she goes absolutely not, since he’s going to be ascending the throne.

I hate that they all call their mother “mummy”, ugh.

Gosh, Elizabeth’s mother is the worst. We think that Elizabeth is harsh on everyone, telling them who they can and cannot be with, but wow her mother is the devil. Elizabeth wants to apologize to the people, since it’s been a rough year and her mother’s like ‘that word should not be in your vocabulary’ w-o-w, bitch. I like that Philip stood up for her.  

I think after her conversation with her mother and with Margaret she starts to realize how awful everyone must feel because no one is happy.

Here comes the scandal!! So we open episode five on a very, very intimate conversation between Charles and Camilla. I’ve been sorta waiting for this, to see how it would all go down.

So some random guy finds their conversation while I guess surfing the airwaves and records it. He sells the tapes but the newspaper doesn’t run it… just yet.

Jump three years later and finally Charles and Diana are separating. I thought it a bit much how hurt and upset the country was when they announced it. Like bagpipes for the death of their marriage!

Now, that scandalous phone call has been transcripted and published which causes a complete uproar. I have to say though, that would be so embarrassing having something so intimate be released like, ugh.

Then of course there’s Camilla. I wondered how much her husband knew. Like when Charles calls, he gets Andrew and it’s played out like this happens all the time… so he has to have known something was up. It isn’t until that article is released that it looks those two separate. Everyone is just fake happy here.

I never realized how progressive Charles’ viewpoints were. I just assumed he was as stuffy as the rest of their family, but hearing him talking about helping youth who don’t have the means to go to school, and adding women to things and talking about other religions was something I didn’t know. 

Ok, so I don’t quite hate Dominic West as Charles, it suits him and I see a bit of Noah Salloway that he’s brought to the character.

I find it funny to see everyone talking about Charles (and him, himself) becoming King, yet he won’t be for another 30 years.

We get some Russian history come up. Philip learns that he’s related to Russians who were murdered and Elizabeth wants to use this to bridge the gap between the Russians and Brits. We also learn that Elizabeth’s grandparents were possibly responsible for those Russian deaths.

The way Philip goes off on DNA is hilarious, it’s this whole concept that totally fascinates him. We also see him talking to Penny, a cousin’s wife or some sort – anyways she’s a younger woman nonetheless and so rumours are obviously flying about what it looks like… an affair.

Elizabeth feels like Philip has become distant and she thinks that when they take a trip to Russia, it will bring them closer… instead it actually brings them farther apart.

Philip likes having Penny as a companion, but Elizabeth doesn’t think it’s a good idea, shocker! All he asks is for her to become friends with Penny so that it doesn’t look like Philip is having an affair.

I have to say, I’m surprised that Elizabeth agrees and goes along with it. They meet and are cordial, but I know it’s all for show. Penny is so set on her research into the family history. She really believes it was Elizabeth’s family who killed them.     

What were those marks that we subtly saw? Did the Queen try to kill herself? They never go back to this, but it was such a weird thing to add.

So William (played by real-life son of Dominic West!) starts boarding school, the school Charles always wanted to go to. Diana misses him dearly, you can tell she’s close with her children, especially now that she’s on her own. I like single Diana, she seems so fun, even if she’s struggling. I have to say, her and the doctor are cute.

But now someone is essentially stalking her… and I’m pretty sure it’s the journalist. At the beginning of the episode we see the one journalist wondering how they’re going to get her to talk and so they start forging letters, bank statements, all for his personal – ok maybe not personal, but his professional gain. He wants to be seen as more, especially as a person of colour, but I don’t think this is the way to go about it… by lying like that. I guess we’ll see how it goes.

So Diana’s brother warns her of this journalist and that she shouldn’t trust him or do the interview… but she does it anyways. Woof the backlash to that, wowie. Everyone from Charles, the Queen and even their son, William was affected.  (that poor guy is really struggling, but he’s struggling silently, sadly. I was surprised Diana talked to him like she would a girlfriend… is this because she didn’t really have any friends? Poor guy.)

I don’t think anyone is happy that she did this tell all and that it aired publicly on TV.

I’ve also noticed how often they’ve had Diana in a car… it’s almost like this foreshadowing of her death, like they’re playing with their viewers, teasing them about what’s to come.

Diana and Charles finally get their divorce… and of course now that they’re officially divorced Charles finds himself going to visit Diana, go figure. I feel like this happens a lot of the time when couples get divorced ­­­– they find themselves gravitating towards each other now that they’re not legally bonded to one another.

I do like the truths that come out of the conversations they have with each other; they were honest and raw. I like that they apologize to each other… before it all went to shit.

I know nothing about divorce, but I didn’t realize you had to petition for divorce and the court has to approve of it. I thought you filed for divorce, paid the fee and you’re done. Maybe it’s different in other counties? Or the times are different? I just thought it was interesting, plus it was interesting that they decided to show other couple getting divorced too, as if to show royalty are just people too.

Also, I thought it was interesting that the Queen asked the Prime Minister to be a meditator during their divorce, which is a strange request if you ask me. For some reason, we also see this PM chilling around as if he doesn’t have a thing to do.

Are we really going here? Elizabeth and Charles have it out about who he’s going to be with because the public don’t want to him to be with Camilla. Geeeez. They talk about the crown as if she’s going to give it up to him instead of passing it on when she dies. He keeps asking her when and she won’t say. So, I’m wondering, if Charles had done every little thing that his mother wanted, staying married to Diana and following the values in which she upholds, that she would have given the crown up to him. Probably, but I guess that’s just not the way things go. He’s so about modernizing everything, which is what they need.

This damn yacht is getting so much air time. Now that Tony Blair is PM he’s not about having the government fund its repairs and so she must say goodbye to it. I do wonder whose idea it was to have it sit and become a museum essentially? Because it sits in Edinburg where you can pay money to tour it… I’ve done it myself… it’s actually really impressive.  

Speaking of Tony Blair, I found him interesting because Charles believes he will get along with him well since he thinks they have the same goals in mind – I can already tell that Elizabeth is not going to like him. But I think Blair finds Charles strange and is going to fake like him, like be nice to his face but not really work with him. I guess we’ll see.

So ok, that was an interesting ending because it simply just ends. Elizabeth tours her yacht one last time, we get a shot of Diana, I guess to foreshadow that she’s going to die, and then the Queen one last time and that’s it.

I also guess that the reason we see Mou Mou again is because it was set up for how Dodi and Diana met. I’m interested to see where that goes next season.

This season was a lot of set up for what’s to come that’s for sure. I think we were all expecting this season to cover Diana’s death and instead we get the slow painful death of their marriage. I feel like this season could have picked up the pace a little, but I guess they wanted us to really know who Diana was as a person. I’m curious to see where the last season will go. Obviously that one will deal with her death, but I’m also curious to see how far they’ll go to. I highly doubt they’ll reach current day.