The Crown

Absorbing but choppy fifth go-round. While it depicts tumultuous and unpredictable times for the royal family, it also presents some of the members of that family in ways that seem inconsistent with what we’ve come to expect from them, both within the context of this series and in the real world.

There’s a sense this time around of, “Get to the good stuff!” The frustrating thing, I’m sure, is that there is no blame to be assigned to the series for that. The Crown is as engrossing (and endlessly watchable) as ever. The subject matter is the culprit. That said, the show does seem to be leaning into that obviousness in a way it never did before.

The mimicry can be grating when you're more familiar with the real thing. The pace and the cast aren't quite as finely tuned as the previous series either, though the good moments are still really, really good.

Despite scripts that toil through the pulpy details of a very public divorce, strong design work on every level, and enlivening portrayals from the fresh ensemble (Lesley Manville is so good in her criminally truncated time as Princess Margaret), “The Crown” Season 5 suffers from a narrowed point of view.

[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.

Season Five is replete with terrific performances, especially from actors in recurring roles, but it’s no longer enough. Writer and creator Peter Morgan’s vision, like the monarchy circa 1990, is showing signs of strain.

The new season of "The Crown", which covers this tumultuous time in the Windsor clan, is more fine than good, blandly agreeable rather than stirringly risk-taking.

It’s an uneven, uninspiring season of television that fails to live up to the high standard of past seasons. ... It’s not all disastrous, though; there are some excellent things about this season, too. Namely, Lesley Manville’s Princess Margaret. ... Key members of the new ensemble cast feel like downgrades from the Emmy-winning stars of seasons past.

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.

These new episodes are bitty and often just boring, with [creator Peter] Morgan casting around for side plots to hide the fact that everything he has to say about the Windsors has already been said.

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.