«The crown 5», we enter the horrible year of the English monarchy (score 7) – Corriere.it

With the fifth and penultimate season of the pop series written by Peter Morgan, «The crown» enters the horrible year of the English monarchy, in the middle of the 90s, when the queen, of whom we are orphaned today, is close to 40 years of reign , an anniversary marred by the triumphal entry of gossip into Her Majesty’s salons. An immediate success on Netflix, the product corresponds to expectations even with some inexplicable and avoidable delays, such as the Russian episode that recalls the grim end of the Romanoffs, of which the queen still laments for parental secrets, having to accept unpleasant truths, while doing friendship with Boris Yeltsin and his alcoholic states.

But it has nothing to do with the problems of «The crown» at the time of Lady D., the greatest marriage of the century which will become, obliviously with the monarchist, also the greatest divorce. These are the years of the great crisis, of the collapse of the Soviet Union, of the end of the British protectorate over Hong Kong, in troubles with China; and also of the British Parliament with the changing of the guard, after many years, of Major’s Conservative Party which finally gives way to the well-known Labor Tony Blair. But this fifth season is even more feminine, all based on the suffering of Diana whose threesome with Camilla causes her pain and melancholy while one of the children is already starting to leave the building to go to college and today there is the book of Prince Harry spreading his truth.

The sufferings of Cinderella-Diana (but the series stops before the fatal car event under the gallery in Paris, with a gaze that crosses Elizabeth’s horizon) dominate the series, at the risk of repetition, despite Elizabeth Debicki (“Vita e Virginia” ) corresponds to the role for physical resemblance and it is clear that the series is on his side, despite the gamble of a live confession on BBC TV that scandalizes the whole royal house and beyond. Jonathan Pryce is perfect as Philip consort, still capable of some distinguished royal escapade well absorbed by the queen, Dominic West (“Tha affair”) is much more expressive and seductive than the real Charles who here struggles in the dynastic tangles, ready to back up the Labor to approach the throne.

She, the late queen, is no longer Olivia Colman, but the splendid Imelda Staunton who won the Volpi Cup in Venice for “The Secret of Vera Drake”, entered the Harry Potter team, and here she stands out for the modest sadness of a woman who basically reigns for so many years without real allies, ending up gossiping on the sofa with his sister Margaret. The product corresponds to the expectations of a season of marital sadness and announced betrayals, from which Carlo emerges battered and it is he who pushes Diana towards divorce. Meanwhile, the new protagonists arrive, the nouveau riche, the not elegant Egyptian billionaire Mohamed Al Fayed with his son who wants to become a film producer and we know how it will end (but he won the Oscar with “Chariots of Glory”).

Deep down the series has understanding both for the institutional solitude of the queen and for the sentimental one of Diana, ready to find comfort in a Pakistani doctor who is frightened when he notices the media machine. In the end it is the ancient pleasure of spying through the keyhole, but fate has it that “The crown 5” has reached the public right after the disappearance of the beloved queen, causing greater attention even for previously snubbed characters like Camilla, of whom it is revealed the hypothetical life-saving humor. Saunton is really good at being moderate and foregrounding the belief in the hereafter and the royalist hereafter.