The Crown

If you’re a history buff then this next show is definitely for you. Even I like this show despite the fact that I’m the farthest thing from a history buff.

The Crown is, at its core, a historical reenactment. However, it rarely feels like those cheesy history shows that you were forced to watch in your middle school history classes. This one follows the complex life of the royal family, in particular, Queen Elizabeth II. Queen Elizabeth II is still alive and the royal family actually endorsed the first season. They agreed that the events portrayed by the show were reasonably accurate. The second season, on the other hand, was dismissed by the royals. This one was filled with scandal such as  the unhappy childhood of royals and infidelity (lots and lots of infidelity).

As mentioned before, the primary character is Queen Elizabeth II. She is a conventional rule-follower forced out of her comfort zone by the sudden passing of her father. She is portrayed as an exemplary example of how a member in the royal family should act.

Her sister, Princess Margaret, on the other hand, is the exact opposite. She is portrayed as being extremely envious of her sister’s power, and often does things almost just to spite her. For example, she becomes insistent on marrying a divorced man which cannot being endorsed by the church. The Queen, as the head of the church, cannot allow this even though personally she just wants her sister to be happy.

Another scandalous character is none other than the Queen’s husband, Prince Mountbatten. He also envies his wife’s power and often has trouble accepting the rules of the royal family. For example, he must bow before his wife on her coronation day which  he does not like.

Best Parts About the Show: You can google just about anything that happens in the show if you want to read up on any particular event. It makes history, what I consider to be a relatively boring topic, much easier to digest. I find it particularly fun to look at pictures of the people in real life and compare it to their characters. The likeness between the two is normally pretty impressive.

Nothing that happens is overly dramatic. Since just about everything that happens in the show actually happened in real life, you don’t get many bizarre and unbelievable story lines.

You feel enriched while also being entertained. I know I mentioned this before, but it bares repeating. You can watch this show for the entertainment value alone and still have an enjoyable time. However, if you want to, you can use it as a way to broaden your knowledge on these historical events. Watching the series gave me insight into the royal family that I never would have had otherwise.

Worst Parts About the Show: The episodes are long. They are each about an hour long which means you typically have to be prepared to set aside a sizable amount of time to watch even one. The length is not really conducive with stereotypical binge watching.

The Crown can get a bit boring at times. There was a few times when I was watching and found my thoughts somewhere else completely. If I was even a little bit tired, I had a tough time keeping up with what was happening. There’s a lot of characters and historical context that you need to be on top of for the plot progression to make any sense. It definitely took some will power to keep myself interested.

My Overall Ratings

Binge-worthy-ness: 5/10 – this show can be a bit boring especially if you watch episode after episode. Each episode is also really long. I don’t think I ever watched more than 3 in one go.

Plot: 7/10 – no crazy, dramatic, unbelievable things happen considering this is history. Season 2 does a little better because there’s a lot more scandal, but all in all the plot is nothing particularly fascinating

Characters: 9/10 – the actors/actresses all did an amazing job and also look just like their real like counterparts.

Overall: 7.7/10 – this show was a great watch, and I’m glad I finished it, but it’s not for everyone

And, as usual, one final gif