Today, I'm staying home for Christopher Plummer.
I’m really enjoying The Crown. While it doesn’t capture my interest or affection quite as thoroughly as something like Call the Midwife, it’s still a splendidly-drawn British period piece that brings lush production quality and real heart to it (one spoiler that can’t be avoided.)
I’m really enjoying The Crown. While it doesn’t capture my interest or affection quite as thoroughly as something like Call the Midwife, it’s still a splendidly-drawn British period piece that brings lush production quality and real heart to it (one spoiler that can’t be avoided.)
Elizabeth
and Philip set off on a tour of the commonwealth in George VI’s absence, due to
the king’s continued poor health. While George stays at home, convalescing and
dealing with government officials who think it’s time for Churchill to step
down, the young couple arrives in Nairobi to represent the royal family. When
tragedy strikes back in England, however, Elizabeth and Philip are suddenly
called back with heavy hearts and, for Elizabeth, the heavy weight of her new
responsibilities.
Elizabeth
and Philip’s adventures in Kenya are a mixed bag for me. The show strikes a
balance in their behavior toward the locals, and while Elizabeth is frequently
respectful and Philip warm/ingratiating, there are also moments where their
attitudes drift closer to “the poor primitives, whatever would they do without
us.” I don’t doubt that such mindsets wouldn’t have been out of place for two European
royals in that period, but it’s still uncomfortable to watch. But it’s also
interesting because there are moments
of genuine respect/connection that they share with their hosts, defying a
simpler “racist”/“non-racist” dichotymy.
Meanwhile,
in England, Jared Harris’s George VI breaks my heart right until the end. He’s
such an interesting mix of both unassuming and vain, which I suppose is maybe
fitting for a prince who never seriously expected to become king. I like how
the show demonstrates the normalcy of his relationships within his family,
despite all the regal trappings, and when George passes in the night, the
strict clockwork of the palace staff and the propriety of the household goes
right out the window. In that moment, everything is immediate, wrenching, and
sadly universal.
I’ll
admit that most of my knowledge of the British monarchy comes from pop culture
– my chief understanding about George VI is framed by The King’s Speech and Darkest
Hour, and a shocking amount of my impressions of Elizabeth II can be traced
back to The Queen. As such, there’s a
lot of history here that I don’t know and am being introduced to through the
series (not to mention, I can’t tell you what’s accurate and what takes
dramatic license.) This episode really effectively conveys the overwhelming
juxtaposition between the personal and the royal, especially where Elizabeth
herself is concerned. From Churchill trying to hold back broadcasters from
reporting on George’s death until Elizabeth and Philip can be informed in
Kenya, to the newly-ascended young queen watching her grieving mother and
grandmother kneeling before her while she too mourns her father’s passing, it
hits home how “heavy lies the head that wears the crown.”
I
continue to like Philip a lot, his and Elizabeth’s at-times patronizing
treatment of their hosts in Kenya notwithstanding. It strikes me as a subtle
portrayal, both in the writing and in Matt Smith’s performance, but it still
comes across really well. In this episode, I especially like a scene of Philip
doing what he can to keep Elizabeth safe during a wildlife excursion and a
small but delightful scene of him playing with one of the boys who serves him
and Elizabeth in Nairobi.
From
these first two episodes, I can tell that his storyline is going to involve, at
least in part, him reconciling the subordinate position he’s required to take
toward Elizabeth with the socially-expected role of the man as the head of the
household. In the pilot, he grapples with it more forcefully, but even here,
when his intentions are less inwardly-focused (wanting to shield Elizabeth from
intrusive media attention after the death of her father,) he struggles to
accept that it isn’t his place to go ahead and protect her. I’ll be interested
to see how he deals with this over the course of the series. As far as “male
love interests of powerful women” go, my hope is that he’ll be more Marty
Ginsburg in On the Basis of Sex and
less Riley Finn in Buffy the Vampire
Slayer. Come on, Philip, you can do it!
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