Recasting any form of filmed entertainment is certainly not without its dangers. Ask any actor or actress who has played a signature character in an installment of a James Bond film or the now legion of individual Doctor Whos, for that matter. Considering its mandate to chronicle the over sixty-year reign of Queen Elizabeth II, it was always known that Peter Morgan’s “The Crown” would present a new monarch and Royal Family following its second season. The first Elizabeth (Claire Foy), Prince Philip (Matt Smith),and Princess Margaret (Vanessa Kirby) delivered stellar performances that made the Netflix series one of the premier programs of the decade. The improbable news is that Morgan’s writing and the performances of the “new” Queen Elizabeth, Olivia Colman, and her sister Margaret, Helena Bonham Carter, allow the series to ascend to an even greater tier of episodic excellence.
READ MORE: Helena Bonham Carter used a psychic to try and contact Princess Margaret
Despite the fresh faces, it goes without saying that the last season not only informs but haunts this one. When we left “The Crown” the Queen (Foy) had mishandled the appointment of a new Prime Minister and was struck by potential evidence of Phillip’s philandering. The final shot found her carrying for her newborn son Andrew in a family portrait where barely anyone can keep still around her. It foreshadowed that controlling future chaos would not be easy.
Season three begins in 1964 as quiet trumpets from Martin Phipps’ stunning score heralds a change. Our first look at the new “old bat” is a not-so sly wink to the audience. As Elizabeth, Colman gazes upon a new stamp of her “current” visage. She matter of factly notes, “Age is rarely kind to anyone. Nothing anyone can do about it. One just has to get on with it.”
Morgan, who created the series and wrote the entirety of this season, knows that both the United Kingdom and the Windsors had a rough time during this particular 13-year span. The Royal Family were at a position in their lives where their pasts started to catch up with them and Elizabeth was intertwined in more political intrigue than the public was aware of. There is the genuine Cold War threat of Russian spies, a potential coup (perhaps one of the season’s most shocking historical revelations) and growing anti-Royal sentiment. No, we’re not dealing with where the drama of what school to send Charles to or how to impress the Kennedys any more.
Frankly, the scope is quite tremendous in this regard. Season three takes viewers from political upheaval in Athens, Greece to Princess Margaret dancing with President Lyndon B. Johnson at the White House (the “Special Relationship” is taken much more seriously) to the historic Aberfan disaster (an event few Americans are aware of), to a scandalous affair in the Caribbean, among other locales. Morgan actually has his share of events to choose from and smartly selects the ones that allow him to best convey the thematic arcs for each of the central Royals. In many ways, that benefits Carter’s Princess Margaret the most.
In the first two seasons, Kirby played Margaret as a rebel who relished her freedom and had a knack for bringing a modern flair to her old school family. At this point in time that unbridled shine has worn off and Elizabeth’s sister is in a much darker place. Margaret is one of the more complex figures in the current incarnation of the Royal Family and both Carter and Morgan know the weight of being second fiddle to the Queen and her tempestuous relationship with her husband Tony Armstrong-Jones (now played by Ben Daniels) reached a peak during this period. Margaret is still the life of the party, but Carter doesn’t just give the gays everything they want in a performance full of a meme-worthy-moments. She finds a way to punch you in the gut as you realize just how isolated she feels in a family increasingly willing to take the side of a man they once despised.
If Foy’s Elizabeth was a woman trying to find her footing, Colman’s portrays a more confident and hardened Queen. She has been betrayed time and again and makes a number of decisions that are unpopular not only within her family but amongst her subjects. Behind closed doors, however, Colman brilliantly holds Elizabeth’s emotions in check, gloriously hinting at the anger and sadness that is often present behind the steely visage. And when the Queen doesn’t have the emotions when you expect her to? Colman somehow makes the weight of the crown more heartbreaking than Foy ever could.
Philip, Elizabeth’s husband, has perhaps the most drastic change among the principal cast. Where Smith never lost the laissez-faire attitude of portraying Philip as a Naval Officer who really didn’t want to be there, this incarnation is much more comfortable in giving political advice to his wife than perhaps he should be. Menzies also has the opportunity to show other shades of Phillip as the Prince’s remarkable mother (a wonderful Jane Lapotaire) unexpectedly arrives to live at Buckingham Palace and when he finds himself at a loss after discovering his heroes, the astronauts of Apollo 11, aren’t who he imagined them to be.
Other standouts in the cast include a marvelous Jason Watkins as Harold Wilson, an anti-monarchist who became one of the Queen’s most beloved prime ministers and Josh O’Connor who generates genuine sympathy for a twentysomething Prince Charles attempting to win over a Welsh constituency increasingly open to leaving the U.K.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLXYfgpqb8A
It’s not just the changing of the actors on the screen that gives “The Crown” a different flavor this season. While production designer Martin Childs returns for an impressive third go-around, Amy Roberts does wonders in the Costume Department (the attention to Margaret’s shoes is hard to miss) and the aforementioned Phipps sets the tone with his gorgeous and affecting compositions. Morgan and his production team also make a change by having Benjamin Caron, who directed four episodes sporadically over the first two seasons direct the first four here. Caron collaborates with director of photography Adriano Goldman on fashioning an aesthetic that strays far enough from what Stephen Daldry and Philip Martin established to truly stand on its own.
And perhaps that’s what’s most remarkable about what Morgan and his colleagues have accomplished this time around. “The Crown” season three isn’t just a strong series chugging along hoping to maintain the status quo. It takes remarkable creative leaps when ironically chronicling a family that is still thought of as the most established of the elite establishment. As with the first two seasons, you can argue how much of Morgan’s writing is conjecture and how much isn’t but as a narrative its a saga full of such rich characters and poignant drama it practically leaves you begging for more. [A]
Note: Episode nine of the 10 episode season was not made available for review.
“The Crown” Season 3 launches on Netflix on Nov. 17.
