|
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
|
Positive:
143
Mixed:
34
Negative:
4
|
Critic Reviews
The Daily BeastNov 11, 2020
Season 4 Review:
Elizabeth and Diana's stories are parallel, though distinct, narrative threads that are duly and richly explored in the 10 episodes. In practice, they exacerbate what’s always been a nagging problem with the series’ hopscotching through history, a distracting incoherence. ... It’s not a catastrophic misstep. ... When it comes to the Diana plot, one of the sharpest moves the show makes is to drive home just how young she was when she entered the melee. ... Anderson’s disappearance into the role is so all-encompassing it’s nearly a distraction—which is mostly praise.
Read full review
The Daily BeastNov 4, 2019
Season 3 Review:
The parallels struck in each episode between what’s going on in the world and the royals’ own personal struggles can tend toward too clever, too forced, or too coincidental at times. [But] Concealing where Queen Elizabeth—the history and the person—ends, and Queen Elizabeth—the TV character—begins is where The Crown showcases its most delicate sleight of hand. And it’s in that, too, that the series continues to be the most compelling, teetering between tabloid snuff and reverent curiosity with a confident handle of the creative danger that entails.
Read full review
The Daily BeastDec 8, 2017
The GuardianDec 3, 2019
Season 3 Review:
It is all beautifully done and tastefully told. Every penny spent is up on screen. It is immaculate. It will leave you either longing for the monarchy to be decapitated for its endless, parasitical privilege (great scenes arise from Philip complaining about being asked to cut back on his yacht consumption, for example) or abolished for the Windsors’ own good.
Read full review
Nov 16, 2023Nov 5, 2022
Season 5 Review:
At a time when seemingly every tabloid saga of the past half-century is getting adapted into an Emmy-bait miniseries, The Crown distinguishes itself by doing what it’s always done best: combining clear-eyed empathy, shrewd commentary and a refreshing intellectual curiosity into ten elegant hour-long episodes.
Read full review
Nov 11, 2020
Season 4 Review:
The fourth season is the first in which the domestic tensions among the royals is anywhere near as interesting as the British history that unfolds outside the palace gates. Creator Peter Morgan and his writers remain impressive in their ability to condense national events into dramatically compelling crises-of-the-week and flesh out real-life personages through just a few scenes.
Read full review
Nov 2, 2016
Season 1 Review:
The first chapter of Peter Morgan's chronicle of the rule of Queen Elizabeth II remains gripping across the entirety of the 10 episodes made available to critics, finding both emotional heft in Elizabeth's youthful ascension and unexpected suspense in matters of courtly protocol and etiquette.
Read full review
The IndependentNov 16, 2023
The IndependentNov 5, 2022
Season 5 Review:
The reality is that The Crown ran out of steam a while ago. ... The longer it has gone on, the more it has assumed an exhaustive and soap operatic quality – not to mention that, in dedicating now two seasons to doomed lovers Charles and Diana, it has become increasingly tawdry. ... This penultimate season feels more insular, more gossipy, than ever.
Read full review
The IndependentNov 9, 2020
Season 4 Review:
So dazzling are these performances that the real historical events that serve as raw materials for The Crown often feel like an afterthought. ... The stillness at the centre of this storm is Colman. She is quietly riveting as the plot wends its way to a predictable conclusion.
Read full review
The IndependentJan 3, 2020
Season 3 Review:
Colman, by contrast, brilliantly inhabits the Elizabeth we all know and take for granted. There’s something dazzlingly banal about her. ... Tobias Menzies is less convincing. ... Three seasons in, the formula to which The Crown bends the knee is as plain as a huge gem-encrusted headpiece.
Read full review
Nov 9, 2022
Season 5 Review:
[Imelda Staunton] is splendid. ... [Peter Morgan] writes episodes as self-contained morality tales, emphasizing the construction of complicated metaphors over the mundane business of building characters. So Staunton fades away at times, to the show’s detriment. ... Season 5 doesn’t have the life, the hard snap, of “The Crown” at its best. And that’s where Charles and Diana come in. West and Debicki are, in different ways, both fine in the roles. ... But the two characters at the center remain opaque.
Read full review
Dec 7, 2017
Season 2 Review:
Not everything Mr. Morgan tries works--an episode involving Elizabeth’s complicated feelings toward Jacqueline Kennedy, and a plot contrivance in which Philip is more closely linked to the Profumo scandal than history would suggest, don’t pan out. But the pleasures of high-class melodrama are always present, as is the comforting notion--increasingly hard to believe--that our leaders can be compassionate, intelligent and exceedingly well behaved.
Read full review
Nov 15, 2022
Season 5 Review:
Startling letdown. ... The season lacks narrative deftness and historic scale. ... Season 5 takes a more he-said, she-said approach to her [Diana's] marriage. The depiction rings true, though it lacks the camp and chaos that enlivened the previous version. ... Season 5 shies away from the inevitable; Dodi is smitten with a different spotlight-seeking blonde by its end. Because of that timidity (and the compressed time frame), the larger arc feels incomplete, structurally unsound.
Read full review
Nov 10, 2020
Season 4 Review:
[Lady Diana Spencer (Emma Corrin)'s] transformation from the “Shy Di” young wife of Prince Charles (Josh O’Connor) to the desperately unhappy, but increasingly popular, Princess of Wales gives Season 4 a propulsive energy. Equally riveting are storylines involving Margaret Thatcher (played with clenched-jaw virtuosity by Gillian Anderson). ... If anything, Season 4 of “The Crown” suffers from an overabundance of plotlines that beg for more attention.
Read full review
Nov 14, 2019
Season 3 Review:
Colman is exceptional in everything she does, so she’s not afraid to make the Elizabeth of Season 3 look, at times, distressingly irrelevant and frustratingly complacent. ... Like Colman, the new cast members assume their roles with elegance and ease. ... The return of “The Crown,” with its irresistible blend of heightened history and peek-behind-the-brocade-curtain drama, is a gloriously welcome gift, arriving just in time for the holidays.
Read full review
The PlaylistNov 16, 2023
Season 6 Review:
The four episodes don’t drag, and knowing what will happen builds dread before giving way to sorrow. In its final stretch, it tips further into overly symbolic dialogue, but thanks to Debicki’s stirring performance, “The Crown” still reigns when depicting this sprawling family soap opera.
Read full review
The PlaylistNov 6, 2022
The PlaylistNov 9, 2020
Season 4 Review:
The surprise this season, however, isn’t Corrin’s at times heartbreaking performance, but that Gillian Anderson’s portrayal of another prominent figure of the era, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, somehow overcomes the supernova of Diana’s still-cherished moment in history. ... Yes, Morgan has peppered the sit-downs between Anderson’s Thatcher and Colman’s Queen with more condescension and sly digs than any of Elizabeth’s previous elected cohorts (and it’s absolutely glorious to watch), but its a creative liberty that works in the context of their unique places in history.
Read full review
The TelegraphNov 9, 2020
Season 4 Review:
The encounters between the two women [The Queen and Margaret Thatcher] are a running theme, and make for delicious viewing. But the real star of this fourth season is, inevitably, Diana. ... It all makes for a riveting soap opera. And, against all this, Mrs Thatcher is almost light relief.
Read full review
Nov 16, 2023
Season 6 Review:
Seemingly determined to both avoid the kind of rubbernecking that caused it and do justice to its enormous impact, creator Peter Morgan stretches the princess’ brief dalliance with Dodi, and the Crown’s harumphing response to same, across three slow, sparse, portentous episodes. Yet when it’s not simply boring, the season can be weirdly audacious, milking the mystery of Diana’s last days—as well as, unfortunately, her imagined afterlife—for manufactured poignancy.
Read full review
Nov 5, 2022
Season 5 Review:
The Crown has always been both a pleasure to watch, thanks to its lush production design and soapy undertones, and a more mixed success from an artistic standpoint. Season 5 is the same, but for different reasons. While the acting is no longer stellar across the board, and a vividly evoked Queen Elizabeth no longer dominates the story, the narrative itself becomes richer than ever.
Read full review
Nov 4, 2019
Season 3 Review:
In terms of performances, The Crown 2.0, which arrives on Nov. 17, marks an improvement over its fine predecessor. The versatile Colman makes a more complex Elizabeth, one who isn’t brittle so much as ill at ease in her own exalted skin. ... The same aura of mystery that Elizabeth defends in the documentary episode also limits the mostly reverent Morgan’s insight into his characters, to the extent that their conflicts get repetitive.
Read full review
Nov 4, 2016
Season 1 Review:
The show will be compared to Downton Abbey, but that late soap opera was able to invent ahistorical or at least unexpected notes of benevolence and wisdom among its upper-crust characters. Foy struggles mightily, but she’s given little: Avoiding her children, her husband, and her subjects in favor of meetings at which she either acquiesces to her advisors or puts off acquiescing until fifteen minutes later, The Crown’s Elizabeth is more than unknowable. She’s a bore.
Read full review
Nov 13, 2019
Season 3 Review:
The series itself struggled between finding its own balance — with some episodes striking resonant chords ("Bubbikins," "Margretology") and others falling painfully flat ("Coup," "Moondust"). But as Elizabeth herself states during one of her meetings with PM Wilson, sometimes it's better to simply look the other way, to wait for this to pass. Season 3 is a time of transition — for the royal family, for the United Kingdom, for The Crown itself.
Read full review
TV Guide MagazineNov 19, 2020
Season 4 Review:
The richest season to date of this juicy drama. [23 Nov - 6 Dec 2020, p.10]
TV Guide MagazineNov 25, 2019
Season 3 Review:
Each of the 10 episodes tells a complete and gripping story. ... By peering through what the queen calls "the mystery and the protocol" to witness the stifled humanity of these iconic public figures, this drama truly is a crowning achievement. [25 Nov - 8 Dec 2019, p.10]
TV Guide MagazineNov 27, 2017
Season 2 Review:
A slow-starting but ultimately satisfying season that once again rules. [27 Nov - 10 Dec 2017, p.9]
TV Guide MagazineNov 3, 2016
Season 1 Review:
The irony is that while Elizabeth is continually told to suppress her individuality for the sake of the monarchy, the marvelous The Crown renders her more fully human than ever. [7 - 20 Nov 2016, p.12]
UPROXXDec 6, 2017
Season 2 Review:
The drama’s second season (it debuts Friday; I’ve seen all 10 episodes) unfortunately isn’t at that level [of season one]. It’s peppered with moments, and even whole episodes, that evoke the quality of season one, but overall there are enough decisions to bring it down into “If you like this sort of thing, you’ll probably like this sort of thing” territory, where once it was the sort of show where I always had to preface my remarks with, “I know this doesn’t sound like it’s for you, but…”
Read full review
Nov 16, 2023
Season 6 Review:
If Season 5 was a bit boring and uneventful, Season 6 attempts to give every moment the taut tension of a violin string. Sometimes it makes for powerful television, but at other times it's exhausting, particularly in the third episode, which chronicles the night Diana and Dodi died.
Read full review
Nov 9, 2020
Season 4 Review:
Season 4 largely succeeds because of the way Diana (Emma Corrin) and Thatcher (Gillian Anderson) are integrated into the cast and stories, and how creator Peter Morgan is able to use both characters as broader symbols for the monarchy's continual crash into modernity. It also doesn't hurt that Corrin and Anderson are both excellently suited for their roles.
Read full review
Nov 15, 2019
Season 3 Review:
Elizabeth is no longer the most interesting figure in her own story. Colman is conspicuously absent through much of the season, which focuses more heavily on Phillip, Margaret and Charles, and her role in her family members' stories is nominal at best. Despite the marquee position of Colman in the opening credits, "Crown" doesn't feel like her show. ... The series remains fully capable of making the family a little less mysterious and a little more entertaining.
Read full review
Dec 7, 2017
Season 2 Review:
The season leans into the melodrama, filling every episode to the brim with plot and snappy dialogue, encouraging a binge-watch. And it may be even more tantalizing to viewers put in a royal mood by the recent announcement of Prince Harry's engagement to American actress Meghan Markle. It may be a fairy tale with the cracks showing, but it's still a fairy tale.
Read full review
Nov 3, 2016
Season 1 Review:
What matters more is the way Morgan uses events--as small as Elizabeth's choice of a personal secretary and as large as her struggle to preserve the monarchy against duplicitous officials and her sister's need to "shine"--to illuminate Elizabeth and the country she rules. Those events may sometimes play out a bit slowly, but they're usually fascinating and they're never dull.
Read full review
Nov 6, 2022
Season 5 Review:
The fifth season really zings when the show turns a hard gaze toward the maddening ways that Elizabeth and her cohort refuse compassion and adaptation. But just as often, if not more often, The Crown cozies up to its subjects, bathes them in a reverent and affectionate glow. ... It’s almost cruel how effective Debicki is in the series, when we know what all her fascinating portraiture is heading toward.
Read full review
Nov 20, 2019
Nov 16, 2023
Season 6 Review:
In humanizing the two [Princess Diana and Dodi Al-Fayed] in life and in death (there are no “ghosts” here), juxtaposed against the reigning monarch’s stoicism and commitment to grating tradition, the show invites the audience to consider the choices made by the British royal family, which have contributed to its relic-like state.
Read full review
Nov 9, 2020
Season 4 Review:
For four seasons now, Morgan has written a remarkably addictive, stealthily silly royal soap opera that only occasionally understands just how obvious it can be. And yet, complemented with razor-sharp performances and furnished with the most luxurious set design that Netflix money can buy, “The Crown” has successfully sold itself as one of TV’s most serious dramas. The fourth season, in all its shameless glory, may be its most successful yet even as it puts that prestigious perception to bed.
Read full review
Nov 4, 2019
Season 3 Review:
This dual attempt to humanize the royals without going too far in any direction presents an uneasy balancing act that “The Crown” doesn’t always nail. The moments when it does can be transcendent, which is almost always thanks to the actors, not to mention the directors guiding them. Without these steady, nuanced performances, “The Crown” could easily droop under the weight of its own ambition and others’ expectations. With them, “The Crown” becomes as compelling a portrait of how power warps individuals, and the world along with them, as exists on TV.
Read full review
Nov 27, 2017
Season 2 Review:
Foy is doing the best performance currently on dramatic television in her Elizabeth. ... There are few shows currently on air that convince you of how carefully considered its vision is, but The Crown does it constantly--whether that is the way the light streams through the window onto Philip’s shoulders, or the set of Elizabeth’s jaw as she addresses her prime minister. For that alone it is remarkable.
Read full review
Dec 11, 2017
Season 2 Review:
Despite the roiling tensions of the imminent ’60s and the various revolutions it holds, the Royal Family’s domestic politics are still what The Crown does best. And for every moment that falls apart under the weight of leaden metaphors, there are still several that shine. Royals may not be just like you or me, but they are, The Crown insists, prone to indulging the same trifling nonsense as the rest of us.
Read full review
Nov 7, 2016
Season 1 Review:
The Crown struggles at times, but there’s something within it — a slumbering beast, deep beneath its waves, just waiting to surface. You catch glimpses of it here and there--when Elizabeth betrays someone in the name of the crown, especially--and those glimpses are enough to animate this first season.
Read full review
Nov 12, 2020
Season 4 Review:
Superb and sprawling. ... Where most shows would try to cram everything in, “The Crown” is all about smart choices. We don’t get the full blow-by-blow of Diana’s strange engagement to a difficult and even cruelly neglectful Charles, played terrifically by Josh O’Connor. ... These Charles/Di go-rounds may indeed butter “The Crown’s” bread, but the real news this time is Gillian Anderson’s devastatingly precise portrayal of Margaret Thatcher.
Read full review
Nov 14, 2019
Season 3 Review:
It has a smashingly good new cast (whose performances are equal if not better than their predecessors) and a brisk, almost urgent sense of galloping through the long life story of Queen Elizabeth II. ... Colman is convincing in the role from the moment we see her, conveying the queen’s deepest worries with just the slightest twitch. ... It blends fact, fantasy and humanity in a way that allows us to wonder if the crown truly does rest where it ought.
Read full review
Nov 21, 2017
Season 2 Review:
Unafraid to delve deep into the Monarchy’s turbulent history, in its second season The Crown has once again set the bar for Netflix Originals. The series’ regal production design, sublime writing, and ravishing camerawork frame the ensemble’s consistently impeccable theatrics in pure gold. The biographical drama has justified its minutely dull setup and indeed shown viewers that heavy lies the crown.
Read full review
Current TV Shows
By MetascoreBy User Score