Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Crown’ Season 5 on Netflix, Cruising Into The ‘90s With A New Cast and a Ship-load of Drama

Netflix’s The Crown is one of the most critically acclaimed shows on the streamer, but it’s not without its detractors, especially now that Queen Elizabeth II has died and the show is about to dive into some of the biggest royal controversies in recent history. The show has always done a great job fictionalizing real events and every group of actors who has assumed the roles of the royals has set the bar incredibly high. This season will be a test of not just how the show handles the subject matter, but how the actors stack up to their predecessors.

THE CROWN: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: CLAIRE FOY IS BACK. Okay, only in this one scene but we’ll take it. The new season opens with black and white footage of Foy as Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 as she visits the Scottish shipyard where her royal yacht, the HMY Britannia, was built. If Prince Andrew, as we learned in season four, is Elizabeth’s favo(u)rite child, this yacht is her favo(u)rite residence, and means a lot to her, as we will come to find out in this episode.

The Gist: It’s a breath of fresh air to see Foy once again playing the young queen on the show, but we’re soon reminded that the queen, in 1991, when this episode actually takes place, is no longer the spring chicken she once was. She is now played by Imelda Staunton, who we first meet during a doctor visit where she realizes her body is betraying her in several ways, from her aching feet to weight gain, but no need to keep reminding her of it, thank you veddy much. So when she travels to Balmoral castle on her beloved yacht, Brittania, which is now nearly 40 years old, and she and Prince Philip realize that the ship is starting to crumble, it’s a whole damn maritime metaphor for the queen herself. To make matters worse, a poll by the Times of London has also declared that the queen (who, let me remind you, will go on to rule for 32 more years) is a seen as too old to rule and out of touch, and half the British public think she should abdicate the throne and hand the reins to Prince Charles.

In previous seasons, Charles has been portrayed as a simpering pawn in the royal line of succession. Josh O’Connor’s portrayal was so devastating that it’s hard to imagine anyone could elicit so much sympathy despite being so self-centered and acting this helpless. This season, Charles is played by Dominic West who so far doesn’t require any sympathy at all, he’s become more shrewd and his desires are unequivocal: he agrees with the Times and wants to make a play for the throne. He goes so far as to have a private meeting with Prime Minister John Major (Jonny Lee Miller in the world’s most obvious wig) to gather support there, but Major is seen here as being wary of Charles’s request. (The entire episode suggests that Major is incredibly wary of the entire royal family and the requests they make of him, including the queen asking him for more than 14 million pounds in government money to repair her ailing ship. 1991 was a time of global recession, and Major scoffs at the idea, only to have the queen berate him for refusing. In reality, Major appears to be the only high-level politician to have maintained a trusted, long-term relationship with the royals. He is one of the aforementioned detractors of the show, calling the events of this episode “malicious fiction,” in case you’re curious.)

And of course, there’s the Diana of it all. Emma Corrin was incredible as Princess Diana, but the role has now been assumed by Elizabeth Debicki, who clearly majored in bashful, downcast eye glances at the Royal Academy of Diana Arts. Debicki plays her as being more glamorous and mature now, and not afraid to speak her mind in front of Charles and anyone else around her, as we see when they stage an argument on a private yacht full of their kids and Charles’s friends and she holds her ground, calling Charles out for wanting to appear a family man while also abandoning their family. (At this point, his relationship with Camilla Parker-Bowles is an open secret that even Diana acknowledges.) But in this first episode, she wasn’t given that much to do, which only helps build the tension of the what’s to come.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? I mean, it’s The Crown. It’s kind of a singular television event at this point.

Our Take: There’s so much at stake this season on The Crown, so much for this show to compare itself to. Not just the comparison to real life events, which is a real rabbit-hole to jump down if you’re so inclined, but also to past seasons. And in typical Crown fashion, no detail is spared, there is nothing unintentional about anything that appears on the screen, and that attention to detail pays off. Whether it’s wardrobe choices, references to news of the era, or the blaring of Mariah Carey’s 1991 top-ten single “Emotions” on the deck of Charles’s yacht, everything is meant to evoke the real-ish events that happened. (Although really, who hasn’t had a serious conversation about their doomed marriage while “Emotions” was blasting?)

It’s fascinating to watch the new season with an eye toward the actors as they start to own the roles played by others in the past and see how they make them their own, too. Part of the enjoyment of this show is the process of how time has affected and changed the royal family and we see them evolve; it’s like watching Boyhood but with crusty accents. West, Debicki, and Staunton were front and center in this episode offering fresh takes on characters we’ve grown attached to and it’s exciting to see how they’ll develop, but it’s also exciting to see what the show will do with Lesley Manville as Princess Margaret, Timothy Dalton as Peter Townsend, and Olivia Williams as Camilla Parker-Bowles.

Sex and Skin: None so far, but I hear that Tampon-gate makes an appearance in later episodes so get ready to shudder at Charles’s Tampax-sponsored phone sex.

Parting Shot: After attending the raucous Ghillies Ball at Balmoral Castle, Prime Minister John Major retires to his room for the evening, watching the junior royals party on the grounds below. “The senior royals seem dangerously deluded,” he tells his wife, while the junior royals are “feckless, entitled, lost.”

“It’s a situation that cannot help but to affect the stability of the country. What makes it worse is it feels it’s all about to erupt… on my watch.”

Sleeper Star: I think everyone watching is here to see what Debicki does as Diana, but I can’t help but be more intrigued by Jonny Lee Miller as John Major. So far, the leader of the Conservative Party is the only person serving as a moral compass (ironic, in that he would later be outed himself for having an extra-marital affair) as he observes the privileged, debaucherous behavior of the royal family.

Most Pilot-y Line: “The Prince of Wales, impatient for a bigger role in public life, fails to appreciate that his one great asset is his wife,” John Major says as he scornfully looks down at the young revelers partying at the Ghillies Ball. In one sentence, he manages to set up so much of this season’s story, Charles’s desire for the throne, Diana’s dynamism, and his own disdain for the way the family conducts themselves. It certainly sets the stage for all the power struggles to come this season.

Our Call: STREAM IT! Episode one was, as always, an education in a seemingly trivial moment in royal history – a boat needing repairs! – as so many episodes of this show are. And yet nothing is actually trivial on this show, even the smallest moments have deep consequences. It was a good, but not great episode, and it’s indicative of a good, bot not great season. Still, it’s thrilling all the same to see new actors take the places of the old and honestly, if an episode about the queen’s love affair with her royal yacht is good, we can only hope that the really juicy stuff will indeed be great.

Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.