An
important episode. It both captures an iconic moment in British history and
seems to suggest a potential turning point for the season. I’m looking forward
to seeing where we go from here.
As
Elizabeth’s coronation draws nearer, she overrules the usual protocol to
install Phillip as the chairman of her coronation committee, where he proceeds
to horrify the stuffed shirts on the committee with his newfangled ideas.
Meanwhile, David is brought back to England by his mother’s poor health, and
the wounds of the past are prodded at again.
We’ll
start with the David stuff. Because this episode also features a flashback to
the time before George VI’s coronation (after David’s own abdication,) I
realized how equally effective both Jared Harris and Alex Jennings are in their
respective roles as George VI and David/Edward. Seeing both of them in this
episode, albeit in separate scenes, it occurred to me that David is every bit
as punchable as George VI is lovely, pound for pound. David’s disdain,
entitlement, and victim-playing is insufferable.
And yet, again in a testament to how well this character is done, I’m also able
to see it at least a tiny bit from
David’s perspective. Elizabeth’s mother views him as having run away from his
duties and foisted them all onto George VI, but in David’s mind, he didn’t run
– he was forced out for the
unforgivable sin of falling in love with a divorced woman. In his mind, he gave
up the kingdom, quite literally, for love, and he doesn’t really have the
constitution for that level of self-sacrifice. So he snipes, and preens, and
performs his suffering for all to see, sending home awful letters to Wallis
about much he hates everything in England while seething with bitterness at
what he feels was taken from him.
(Still,
Wallis Simpson was a Nazi sympathizer, so I don’t exactly feel sorry for either
of them.)
As
for Phillip, I’m a little mixed on him this episode. First of all, he does have
some genuinely good ideas about the coronation, and it’s interesting to see his
unique perspective as the member of a royal family who had to flee Greece after
they were overturned. He knows that rulers are ultimately subject to the opinion
of the people, and his most “radical” notions are predicated on making the
British public feel like Elizabeth belongs to them, their beloved queen instead
of some far-off monarch so removed from their lives as to be surplus to
requirements. I like that. For all the truth and practicality in Phillip’s
ideas, though, there’s at least a little
strutting, waving his power around with the old fogeys on the committee simply
because he can. This isn’t a bad thing, and goodness knows there are enough
dyed-in-the-wool traditionalists around Elizabeth and Phillip wringing their
hands about “the way things have always been.” I just wish that Phillip’s
notions didn’t always wind up blowing back primarily on Elizabeth. I’m pretty
sure that, since Elizabeth became queen, every single episode has featured
Churchill approaching her all grim-faced about something Phillip has said or
done, and it has to be exhausting for her.
Speaking
of exhausting for Elizabeth? This is another banner episode for Phillip’s male
fragility, and while there’s a glimmer of hope that things may be turning a
corner on this front, he once again spends an important chunk of the episode
Not Getting the Picture. It adds up in a lot of little things (this episode, I
really noticed how often he, in moments where he’s expected to be quiet,
insists on talking to Elizabeth about whatever subject is currently on his
mind,) and it comes to a head in a big way when he and Elizabeth clash over one
key aspect of her coronation.
Through
it all, Matt Smith plays the role with just enough understanding/rootability
that I mostly want to see Phillip turn it around. Whereas I love to hate the
wonderfully-terrible David, Phillip leaves me wanting to shout, a la GOB from Arrested Development, “Come on!!” He’s shown that he can be sensitive and supportive, that
he’s capable of getting out of his own way and recognizing that Elizabeth can
rise without that diminishing him. Time and again, though, his ego infects
things, and he makes it harder for everyone. Here’s hoping that this episode
paves the way for better things ahead from him.
No comments:
Post a Comment