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icepixieI'm a season into The Crown and am enjoying it a lot. However, I have a bone to pick. Namely, that Philip Is A Sexist Dick is not compelling drama. It is especially irksome when the much more compelling conflict of Establishment Monarchy vs. My Family Got Couped Out of Our Throne and I Want to Not Be Hanged in a Another Revolution, So Let's Modernize This Institution exists. The hint of that conflict in the coronation episode? Awesome! More, please! Wait, no...back to Whiny Sexist Dick. Okay.
By the end of the season it did get somewhat more nuanced, at least. I'm not unsympathetic to Philip getting bored because he doesn't really have a defined job like Elizabeth does, and it's more interesting than "My kids should have my last name because I'm a man!" and "I shouldn't have to kneel to the queen because I'm a man (whereas if the situation were reversed I would totally expect her to kneel to me)!" Yeah, yeah, historically accurate. Telling an interesting story trumps historical accuracy, IMO. Or make him a sexist asshole, but don't make plots pivot around it.
It would help if Matt Smith had any expressions beyond sneering from under his eyebrows. That is getting reeeeally old.
But by and large, that's the only thing I dislike about it. I wouldn't mind seeing the ratio of political to Windsor family drama shift more to the political--though, yes, technically Elizabeth can't actually do anything--but it's not bad the way it is. It's fun seeing Elizabeth come into her power but still think of herself as a regular, albeit upper class, person, like the scene where she asks the butler(?) if she can borrow the crown to practice with and he asks who she'd be borrowing it from. My favorite episode was "Scientia Potentia Est," since she was a girl after my own heart who recognized her lack of education, got pissed off about it, and got herself a tutor! I hope he sticks around. He was fun.
By the end of the season it did get somewhat more nuanced, at least. I'm not unsympathetic to Philip getting bored because he doesn't really have a defined job like Elizabeth does, and it's more interesting than "My kids should have my last name because I'm a man!" and "I shouldn't have to kneel to the queen because I'm a man (whereas if the situation were reversed I would totally expect her to kneel to me)!" Yeah, yeah, historically accurate. Telling an interesting story trumps historical accuracy, IMO. Or make him a sexist asshole, but don't make plots pivot around it.
It would help if Matt Smith had any expressions beyond sneering from under his eyebrows. That is getting reeeeally old.
But by and large, that's the only thing I dislike about it. I wouldn't mind seeing the ratio of political to Windsor family drama shift more to the political--though, yes, technically Elizabeth can't actually do anything--but it's not bad the way it is. It's fun seeing Elizabeth come into her power but still think of herself as a regular, albeit upper class, person, like the scene where she asks the butler(?) if she can borrow the crown to practice with and he asks who she'd be borrowing it from. My favorite episode was "Scientia Potentia Est," since she was a girl after my own heart who recognized her lack of education, got pissed off about it, and got herself a tutor! I hope he sticks around. He was fun.