ReportWire

Tag: Diana Spencer

  • Diana’s Ghost Might Actually Come Back to Punish Those Responsible for The Crown Season 6

    Diana’s Ghost Might Actually Come Back to Punish Those Responsible for The Crown Season 6

    [ad_1]

    Princess Diana’s life, of course, has always been the stuff that soap opera fodder is made of. But usually, that “fodder” has been given the “prestige drama” treatment. Most recently, in a movie format with Kristen Stewart playing the part of Diana in Pablo Larraín’s 2021 film, Spencer. But at least Larraín had the good sense to commence his movie with the warning, “A fable from a true tragedy.” Because, in effect, that’s what any attempt to make a film or show about Diana’s life (particularly her “later years”) is. That has become increasingly true with products like The Crown, which seem to enjoy an especial emphasis on who/“what” she was during the brief period when she was officially divorced from Prince Charles. Sadly, Diana scarcely got to experience a full year as a free woman before the car crash that would take her life. 

    The first part of The Crown’s sixth season (because, unfortunately, they want to drag it out in two parts) wastes no time in commencing with the tragedy right away, for viewers are made to understand that it’s August 31, 1997 with the opening shot trained on the Eiffel Tower—this after panning upward from a man leaving his apartment to walk his dog. It is this man who will serve as the anchor for the crash scene, with his literal “man on the street” perspective serving to highlight that, even if Diana were an “ordinary mortal” (which she technically was after being stripped of her royal title), this “incident” would have been regarded with shock and outrage. Which is precisely how the dog-walking man views it when he calls emergency services to report the crash. Though the audience already knows how it all built up to this senseless moment, writer and show creator Peter Morgan wants to take us through the usual structural rigmarole that goes hand in hand with Diana: starting with her death and then “taking us back” to the moments before it all went so horribly awry.

    Having already written about this death with a better angle in 2006, when he received acclaim for The Queen’s screenplay (complete with an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay), Morgan is beating a dead horse in more ways than one with this rehashing. And perhaps trying to make season six as “different” as possible from the way he told the story of her death in The Queen. Well, that it certainly is…most notably in using the ultra-cheesy trope of wielding “Diana’s ghost” (though Morgan insists, “I never imagined it as Diana’s ‘ghost’ in the traditional sense. It was her continuing to live vividly in the minds of those she has left behind…”) to help give closure to the ones who were the biggest assholes to her: Elizabeth and Charles. Obviously, in the former’s case, Morgan wants to show respect for a dead royal, and, in the latter’s case, doesn’t want to ruffle the feathers of a king by presenting him as having blood on his hands. Instead, Diana consistently comes across as the trainwreck, the one who “did it to herself” in the end. This much is underscored at every turn throughout all four episodes of season six’s “part one.” Even in little details where Morgan can take more creative license with dialogue that paints Diana as “addicted to drama.”

    In fact, there’s a scene of her on the horn with her therapist, Susie Orbach (the name of Diana’s real-life shrink), just so we can witness Morgan-as-Orbach chastising her with the lines, “Let’s face it, this [relationship with Dodi] is just drama again. Drama is adrenaline. Addictive. And in many ways, the opposite of adult behavior.” Referring to her latest “boyfriend,” a still-engaged (as far as his fiancée, Kelly Fisher, was concerned) Dodi Fayed (Khalid Abdalla), Orbach wants, like so many others in the Royal Family, for Diana to stop being, well, “so dramatic.” Not only that, but to stop courting the drama that already surrounds her without her “trying” to cultivate more. It’s a take on the People’s Princess that isn’t exactly new (in addition to billing her as someone with persecutory delusions). But it is one that feels increasingly in poor taste amid a more theoretically “modern” climate. One in which it’s no longer acceptable to paint women as the villains who “asked for it.” And that is often how Diana comes across in this final season. 

    Which is why something about Morgan’s representation of Diana and the circumstances leading up to her death feel more than somewhat fishy. As though The Crown itself paid him off to keep the narrative of Diana’s inevitable self-destruction going. And with Charles as the current monarch, his “dashing” portrayal is suspiciously over-the-top. This includes Diana’s specter informing him on his private plane, “Thank you for how you were in the hospital. So raw, broken…and handsome.” Cue vomiting here (no allusion to Diana’s bulimia intended). And yeah, what about that scene in the hospital of Charles? The one where he’s wailing over her body so that everyone else in the building can hear it. As if. Not only because Charles himself simply wasn’t that way, but because of the old British adage about always maintaining a “stiff upper lip,” most especially in public. Therefore, Morgan’s additional very “creative” (read: ass-kissing) license with this scene seems to indicate his further not-so-coincidental affection for the new king of late. For, as Morgan himself commented in an interview with Variety about season six, “I probably am a monarchist, but out of appreciation for what they do when they do it well. I think if we’re all adults, we would say that the system makes no sense and is unjust in the modern democracy. But I’m not sure Britain would be Britain without a monarchy.” Ah, one of those. A man who would sooner imagine the end of Britain than the end of its monarchy. We’ll see where that takes the country in the years to come…

    And so, as a self-proclaimed royalist (where once he claimed not to be), that sentiment of Morgan’s has been rather apparent throughout The Crown, as the show mutated into an evermore royal puff piece, particularly toward Charles in the episodes that aired leading up to his real-life coronation. This extended in casting someone much better-looking (Dominic West) in season five and season six to play him, as well as portraying him as someone with viable breakdancing moves in “The Way Ahead.” In the actual footage, Charles looks far less at home on the dance floor among what The Crown title card calls “disadvantaged youths” (that’s polite Queen’s English for “Black people”). Indeed, where Charles’ charity work is made to appear dignified in the series, Diana’s is eventually made to appear as yet another manifestation of her attention-seeking love for spectacle. This angle, spun by Morgan, is apparent when her relationship with Fayed becomes more central to her press conference in Bosnia about landmines than the victims of the landmines themselves (this, by the way, is another fictionalization on Morgan’s part, as the photo of “the kiss” between her and Fayed wasn’t printed until after that conference). As though, again, it’s somehow Diana’s doing that this is the reaction to her. As though, in the end, she “sought it out” with her behavior. Her “recklessness”—not just in general, but in matters of love. Yet it was clear there wasn’t any real “love” between her and Fayed. Or at least, that’s how The Crown paints it, with Fayed’s interest in her largely driven by his father’s pressure to “acquire” her like another British asset for their portfolio. 

    As we all know without watching The Crown, that “acquisition” didn’t happen. Nor did the proposal Dodi botched in a room at The Ritz-Carlton, with all signs pointing to the fact that Dodi would not have proposed in the hotel before they headed back to his place on the night of their death. In truth, the only “accuracy” about their relationship appears to be the idea that they were both “using each other” for various reasons. And yes, in all likelihood, things probably wouldn’t have lasted romantically between them. If one can even call what they had a “true romance” as opposed to just a “bad” one (if for no other reason than being perpetually hounded by paparazzi, as Fayed was painted in the press as an “ill-advised choice” [to put it as non-racistly as possible on behalf of the Brits] for Diana). 

    With part two of the season set to refocus more on Elizabeth and Charles (yawn), there are also reports that the fallout from Diana’s death in terms of how it affects William and Harry will be a factor as well. Whatever the case, it’s surely got to beat seeing, once again, the reductive bastardization of Diana’s final years. Something that has never quite been “warmly received” by those who revere the princess (one such other example being 2013’s simply-titled Diana starring Naomi Watts in the titular role). Least of all when she’s presented as some kind of ghost with predilections for blowing smoke up the Royal Family’s ass…which, of course, was never her style.

    [ad_2]

    Genna Rivieccio

    Source link

  • The “Difficult” Woman

    The “Difficult” Woman

    [ad_1]

    There is no shortage of examples of the “difficult” woman in history. Better known as “crazy.” For when a woman is deemed too difficult, the crazy label always comes in quite handily for those looking to silence her “psychotic” nature. Few ever stopping to consider that “psychotic” behavior is pretty much anything that doesn’t fit into the limiting box put forth by patriarchal society. And that limitation is very much by design. Hence, the rate at which far more women are diagnosed with “mental problems” than men. Because, shit, they straight-up invent mental disorders specifically for women (see: hysteria, Angry Woman Syndrome, Post-Abortion [Stress] Syndrome)—all created to hem in very natural reactions that would not be seen as “problematic” in men.

    People have continued to fool themselves into believing that “we’ve come so far” and that a level playing field has been formed. One on which women can thrive and “have it all.” That odious phrase that would never need to be applied to men because they’ve always had everything, no questions asked. Looking back on the women who have been branded with the “cuckoo” mark, it’s plain to see they were set up to fail. Frances Farmer, Zelda Fitzgerald (who was somehow viewed as “crazier” than F. Scott), Sylvia Plath, Princess Diana and, perhaps most illustriously of all, Britney Spears. Frances and Zelda were both relegated to mental institutions; Plath suffered her “madness” while only able to cast some of it out of her through her poetry and The Bell Jar; Diana was painted as the irrational, paranoid woman, whose paranoia was then preyed upon by the likes of Martin Bashir for profit.

    Britney, however, might have suffered the worst “consequence” of all: being betrayed by her own family. Who used the perception of her “insanity” (a.k.a. a normal reaction to living in a fishbowl and having every move she made interpreted as another sign of her incompetence) to their benefit. Specifically, Jamie and Lynne Spears colluding with Tri Star Sports & Entertainment’s Lou Taylor to entrap Britney in a conservatorship. Truly, the stuff of Hollywood horror story legend.

    As many remember, it was Britney snapping one night on February 16, 2007 (thus, the mocking t-shirt that reads: “I Feel Like 2007 Britney”) by shaving her head at a Tarzana salon that provided all the cannon fodder anyone needed to call her “crazy.” Frances Farmer endured a similar phenomenon on October 19, 1942, spurred from the instant she was stopped by a police officer for being parked on the side of the road with her high-beams on in a blackout zone (this being a wartime practice meant to prevent enemy aircrafts from detecting a target). Talking back to the officer (including telling him, “You bore me”), she was accused of being drunk (without any test actually given) and thrown into the clink for the night before she paid her bail.

    Other “drunk and disorderly” accusations were lobbied at Farmer in subsequent months that year as well. Namely, while in Mexico to shoot a movie version of John Steinbeck’s Murder at Laudice. Upon arriving, she found that the shooting script wasn’t even completed, so what the fuck else was she to do but entertain herself while she waited? Something any man in her position would have done as well—without the curse of being called “drunk and disorderly.” It was Mexico in the 1940s, what did anyone expect? Especially since the movie never even started filming.

    This led, soon enough, to “too much free time” on Farmer’s hands as she was additionally accused of disturbing the peace. She then endured something akin to the Spears family’s treatment of their star member upon trying to return to her Santa Monica abode after the botched film shoot, only to find that it had been cleared of all her possessions and another family was living in it. Farmer stated that her mother and sister-in-law were responsible for this abrupt ousting, after which she ended up staying at a room in the Knickerbocker Hotel. Of this bizarre turn of events, Farmer would later remark, “I suppose it seems peculiar that I never asked questions, or received an accounting, but I didn’t give a damn. At the time I neither knew nor cared.”

    Just before her “forced transference” to the Knickerbocker, studios were continuing to pass her around during this period. Mainly because Frances was declared to be a “difficult woman” for actually “deigning” to make suggestions about the character she was playing. Per Patrick Agan’s The Decline and Fall of the Love Goddesses, “She incurred studio wrath by demanding they rewrite the glamor out of [her] character [Calamity Jane in Badlands of Dakota] and give her back her original grittiness. Again she lost the battle and another mark was chalked up against her on Hollywood’s list of troublemakers.” That word “troublemaker” being reserved for any woman who doesn’t do as she’s told without “making a fuss” about it. The same went for women like Plath, Fitzgerald and Princess Diana, who were viewed as “problematic” and “threatening” because of their unwillingness to suffer in total silence. Plath spoke out in her venomous writing, and so did Zelda and Diana, for that matter (with the latter doing so secretly through biographer Andrew Morton).

    All these examples, of which there are so many more, prove solely that the “difficult” woman is often not so difficult at all. She merely expressed herself “out of nowhere” (as though she hadn’t been saying the same thing for some time while being ignored) when a man in the oppressor position expected her to go along as usual (e.g., Britney saying no to “one dance move” and then being admitted to a psychiatric facility by her father in 2019). And the same cycle of gaslighting a woman into thinking she’s “crazy” continues (for if she wasn’t to begin with, she certainly would be if forced to endure enough repetition of mantras like “you’re crazy,” “you’re imagining things,” et cetera).

    Just look at Britney being accused of insanity every day on her Instagram now that she’s free. For, no matter how many monuments or “holidays” we seem to generate (e.g., Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day) to tell us that women are important and deserve to be heard without the risk of seeming “difficult,” the actions of the world daily persist in emphasizing the contrary.

    [ad_2]

    Genna Rivieccio

    Source link

  • Harry & Meghan: A Love Story Bogged Down by Family, Media and Racism

    Harry & Meghan: A Love Story Bogged Down by Family, Media and Racism

    [ad_1]

    In the fifth episode of Harry & Meghan, the lyrics to Nina Simone’s “Do What You Gotta Do” play (which Kanye “Ye” West unfortunately repurposed for “Famous”). On a side note, the director of the series (save for episode six), Liz Garbus, also brought us the 2015 documentary, What Happened, Miss Simone? In any case, in this particular song, Simone sings, “I just wanted you to know/I loved you better than your own kin did.” For both parties involved in this love story, that’s all too true—but most especially for the way Meghan Markle has loved Harry. Even in spite of his crazy, inbred family. Even so, many still view Markle as a social climber who had only something to gain by “tying herself” to Harry. To that, one must ask: who would want to gain something as famously cold and judgmental as the Royal Family? And all the media smearing that comes with being part of it?

    What’s more, Meghan was already rich in her own right before meeting Harry, making roughly $450,000 a year while starring in Suits. But acting was never Meghan’s number one priority—not compared to social justice issues and using her “platform” (whatever that might be at the moment) to spotlight them. In this regard, Meghan’s connection to Harry was always in the bag, even if she’s very obviously lived more lives than him, from being a calligrapher and bookbinding teacher between acting jobs to a “briefcase girl” on Deal or No Deal. Through it all, she has shown her propensity for reinvention and her willingness to pull herself up by her bootstraps, as it were. Alas, rather than this being seen as an admirable quality, it has been met with quite a bit of venom—to say the least—over the course of her relationship with Prince Harry. The one that commenced in the summer of 2016, when Meghan was determined to be single (“I was really intent on being single”) after having recently come out of a two-year relationship with celebrity chef Cory Vitiello. But, as John Lennon said, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”

    So it was that Meghan was directed to Harry’s Instagram account by a mutual friend—though some have tried to cast doubt on their credibility because they’ve said they started messaging on Instagram and that they were set up by a mutual friend… why can’t it be both? Per Harry, “I was scrolling through my feed and someone who was a friend had this video of the two of them, like a Snapchat and, um… I was like, ‘Who is that?’” A question that Harry’s family would soon be asking repeatedly. To the point of being “set up” and meeting through Instagram, Meghan being “both”—Black and white—is another thing that people simply can’t “accept.” Can’t “compute.” Especially the whites.

    Indeed, the contempt often directed at Meghan does seem to spring from some form of jealousy, particularly on the part of white women (including Meghan’s own half-sister) who perhaps feel some resentment that a Black girl landed the prince in the end. An outcome that goes against essentially every Disney movie ever hammered into one’s head. And oh, how Harry has committed to this love, serving up the ultimate “fuck you” in every sense by severing ties with his family as a business and as an actual family. Though it’s hard to be the latter when the business side of things so frequently takes greater precedence. And, as Harry notes at one point in the limited docuseries, “If you speak truth to power, that’s how they respond”—with “institutional gaslighting.” Of the very same variety that Diana was subjected to.

    To be sure, Princess Diana is invoked many times—whether by name or via archival footage—throughout Harry & Meghan, it being rather overt that there’s something of an Oedipus complex at play with Harry being so keen to paint Meghan in the same image as his mother, media hell endurance-wise. But Diana undeniably had to go through more strain, simply as a result of the 80s and 90s being a more tactile time, when paparazzi would actually bombard her in the flesh at every turn. Eventually causing her death in Paris as she was pursued in a tunnel (though, no, it didn’t help to have a drugged-out driver).

    While Meghan’s life has been threatened countless times by those odious internet trolls (episode five focusing on how a small group of people coordinating to spread online hate about Meghan amplify it with their determination and obsession to make it seem like far more people actually despise her), it’s apparent that Harry is never going to allow anything to happen to her. Precisely because of what he saw happen to his own mother. Thus, all those exorbitant security costs that did likely help propel making this documentary.

    What’s more, it’s very interesting indeed to note that Harry freely uses the footage from Diana’s Panorama interview that William denounced in 2021 after an inquiry into how the interview was obtained by a Supreme Court judge (John Dyson). William’s statement denounced the BBC for aiding and abetting Martin Bashir in contributing to her “fear, paranoia and isolation” during her final years. Of course, a lot of Diana’s fears and “paranoias” were completely valid. Which is perhaps why Harry’s separate statement on the matter strayed from totally dismissing what she said in the interview itself and focusing more on the unethical way it was obtained. Hence, his assessment: “Our mother was an incredible woman who dedicated her life to service. She was resilient, brave and unquestionably honest. The ripple effect of a culture of exploitation and unethical practices ultimately took her life.” But clearly, he feels that a lot of what Diana said in that interview was truthful regardless of what circumstances she was “made” to say it in.

    That candor appears to have been passed down to Harry, who addresses everything from his father and brother’s colluding throughout the downfall of his and Meghan’s tenure as royals to the fact that the monarchy has continued to thrive, without batting an eyelash, on the generational wealth that was gained by forcible extraction from other nations (a.k.a. former colonies). Accurately stating that the Royal Family already missed a huge opportunity to remain relevant by “using” (instead of abusing) Meghan—the entire reason for the monarchy still existing being because of the excuse of the Commonwealth (“our great Imperial family, to which we all belong,” as Queen Elizabeth II once billed it)—this docuseries makes it all the more obvious that it’s Harry and Meghan who have a far greater chance of surviving and enduring than the monarchy itself. And that chance for survival is, in large part, precisely because they defected from Britain, where the media is, incredibly, far worse and more ruthlessly underhanded than the one in the U.S. (see also: Spice World). This defection was a choice that Harry maintains was ultimately his own, despite caricatures depicting him as being on Meghan’s leash… literally. Something Harry described eye-rollingly as, “Misogyny at its best.” But no, misogyny at its best came in the wake of this docuseries, with Jeremy Clarkson of The Sun commenting on Meghan, “At night, I’m unable to sleep as I lie there, grinding my teeth and dreaming of the day when she is made to parade naked through the streets of every town in Britain while the crowds chant, ‘Shame!’ and throw lumps of excrement at her.” Demonstrably, Meghan must be doing something right to be seen as such a threat to pencil-dicked fuckfaces that likely believe “miscegenation” (as it was once derogatorily called) should still be illegal.

    In the face of all this hate, Harry’s commitment not just to his wife, but to being an anti-misogynist and anti-racist (yes, he brings up that Nazi uniform “incident” from 2005 as one of the most shameful moments of his life) are what makes him stand apart not just from his own family members, but from most white men in general. And there’s no denying that Markle has been a key factor in motivating his education. Just another “thing” that catalyzed his outgrowing of the role he was “born to play”—second fiddle to big bro. But, like Charles before William, the latter didn’t much care for losing the limelight to someone who wasn’t heir apparent. Although William might have possessed some of Diana’s charisma in the past, it seems as though the second he lost his hair, there was a shift. He became stodgy, old guard. Granted, it is the indoctrination every royal is given to remain stoic and “neutral,” namely with regard to political matters. Meghan was never going to be able to do that, having spent her entire life being political, starting from the moment she wrote a letter at eleven years old to Procter & Gamble informing them that their soap ad was blatantly sexist. So yes, you might say standing up for what’s right has long been encoded in Meghan’s DNA (even if some of that DNA came from her sleazebag father).

    With that in mind, another topic (of which there are many) tackled by the couple in this series is the reaction to the “race element” brought up during 2021’s Oprah with Meghan and Harry (a special title that leads one to wonder why the Netflix series isn’t called Meghan & Harry instead of Harry & Meghan). It was yet another example of Meghan thinking that speaking her truth and being candid about the reality of her harrowing few years as a royal would be a useful change of pace, but somehow managed to get contorted into something else. Even her volunteer work with the women who suffered displacement in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire was turned into her linking up with people with “ties to ISIS.” Needless to say, it’s ostensible that she can’t do anything right because she’s at the mercy of a largely white male media that has done things “a certain way” since time immemorial (in The Sun’s case, that means since 1964). So sure, Meghan being a “breath of fresh air” (to slowly choke out of her) was great for their front page, but never something the media cabal’s political leanings actually wanted for their precious Tory country.

    All the better for Harry, who seems to have suffered his own version of Get Out (cue the famous photo of Diana whispering in Harry’s ear, perhaps something to the effect of, “Leave Britain as soon as you can”). For far more years than Meghan ever had to. And it is undeniably true that she did spare him a life of further imprisonment in that “institution” (one could say Wallis Simpson did the same for Edward VIII [an actual Nazi sympathizer, in contrast to Harry], the former being, like Meghan, a demonized American divorcee). Harry’s gratitude for Meghan throwing a wrench into his so-called Life Plan is most overt when he declares, “I genuinely feel that I and we are exactly where we’re supposed to be” (#CaliforniaLove).

    After watching Harry & Meghan, any viewer with a romantic bone in their body will be inclined to feel the same (though it might be a stretch to fully agree with Meghan when she says, “Love wins”). Regardless of whether the documentary was shot in their real home or a “fake” one. But then, that’s been the jealousy-laden accusation against Harry and Meghan all along: that their love “can’t” be real. That everything about it is phony baloney, posturing, performance, etc. A sentiment so observably rooted in racism that it’s almost too predictable.

    [ad_2]

    Genna Rivieccio

    Source link

  • Diana Is Saintly No More After Some Pronounced Charles Ass-Licking in The Crown Season 5

    Diana Is Saintly No More After Some Pronounced Charles Ass-Licking in The Crown Season 5

    [ad_1]

    The unspoken norm, especially when it involves the martyrdom that comes with being dead, is that no one should speak ill of Princess Diana. Who later became just “plain” Lady Diana in the wake of her very public and very tumultuous divorce with Prince Charles. The Crown’s fifth season explores the final breakdown of the doomed-from-the-start marriage, this time with Elizabeth Debicki in the role. Admittedly, her forebear, Emma Corrin, was slightly more likable—and, to be frank, Debicki looks better suited to play Paris Hilton than Diana Spencer. But that’s nothing compared to the physical upgrade Prince Charles gets in the form of Dominic West (whose real-life son, Senan West, plays Prince William). This being just one of many initial telltale signs that the series’ creator, Peter Morgan (who wrote every episode of this season), is determined to present Charles in a more favorable light than he’s ever been accustomed to.

    But before Morgan paints his pretty picture of a rather hideous man, the requisite “metaphor” is established for the season. Specifically, the four-thousand-ton yacht created for Queen Elizabeth (shown as Claire Foy in the flashback scenes). Appearing at the launch of the yacht, dubbed Britannia, in 1953, the queen declared to a public in Scotland that was still under the trance of worshipping her, “I hope that this brand-new vessel, like your brand-new queen, will prove to be dependable and constant.” If by that she meant “stoic and rigid,” she fulfilled her promise.  

    A pan over from the young queen of yore to the queen of the present-day (set in 1991)—played by Imelda Staunton—as she gets a check-up from her doctor finds her being asked a “personal” question. That being: is Balmoral her favorite home? The queen coyly answers, “There is another that’s even more special to me.” Obviously, it’s the royal yacht, the only “dwelling” ever created expressly for her tastes, whereas everyplace else she inhabits is haunted by the tastes of other rulers. Just another case of the laughable amount of sympathy we’re supposed to feel for her when this is expressed. “Oh you poor thing, the various castles you live in don’t suit your personality? How badly we should feel for you!” But anyway, Morgan does his best to evoke “empathy” not only for the monarchy as an institution, but for Charles in particular. Not just because he’s so “full of potential” and such an educated man (as anyone given his education could be) who can never make his mark in any real way while he waits for the role he was “destined” for. But also because he’s been “saddled with” Diana. She with her “middle-class” interests like shopping and pop culture. This divide is drilled further into the viewer’s mind as the episode, called “Queen Victoria Syndrome,” shows Charles and Diana on their “second honeymoon” in Italy. Namely, off the coast near Naples, where Charles’ own yacht, the Alexandra is enlisted.

    As Charles’ sole motive for agreeing to the so-called second honeymoon is to benefit from the goodwill of a new poll that posits most would be in favor of the queen abdicating early to give up her crown to someone younger and more “modern,” Diana is once again led down the primrose path of believing her marriage might have a chance. Moreover, when she expresses an interest in beaches and water sports and shopping as Charles goes over a historical value-oriented itinerary, Morgan makes his message clear: neither he nor Charles saw Diana as an intellectual equal. Coming to her defense on the shopping desire is William (Timothée Sambor) and Harry (Teddy Hawley), the latter barely seen in this season (perhaps some kind of undercutting shade at his current overall absence). And yet, he being the first to raise his hand to defend Diana in her desire to shop feels like a poignant moment for showing their deeper affinity.

    The continued displays of their lack of similar interests are further made manifest by Diana riding away on a boat with William and Harry to the mainland as she blasts “Emotions” by Mariah Carey and calls out, “Bye Charles! We’ll miss you while we’re having all the fun!” Unable to handle his “petulant” wife any longer, Charles exits the friend-filled “honeymoon” early under a pretense, then angles for favor with Prime Minister John Major (Johnny Lee Miller) by using the poll as a launching point to poison him against his mother—the first of many instances in this season. Which, no, doesn’t make Charles come across as noble, so much as a backstabbing little twat who can’t handle a woman in power. Even a superfluous one who does repeatedly show herself to be out of touch. And, after telling Major she welcomes any comparison to the long-reigning Queen Victoria intended to be an insult, she then requests the funds necessary to refit her royal yacht—again, the “grand metaphor” of the season meant to hit us over the head with the analogy that she, like it, has become a liability that few people have use for. Least of all “common” people. “We’re in the middle of a global recession,” Major has to remind her before suggesting the royal family bears the cost of repairing the yacht themselves. Needless to say, the queen is scandalized by such a response.

    The next episode, “The System,” veers away from the queen and Charles to give us a requisite glimpse into the goings-on of Prince Philip’s (Jonathan Pryce) life at the time. It was comprised mainly of carriage driving and forming a close bond with Penny Knatchbull (Natascha McElhone), the wife of Lord Romsey a.k.a. Philip’s godson, Norton Knatchbull (Elliot Cowan). When Penny is brought closer to Philip in the wake of her daughter Leonora’s death at the age of five, it gives him more clout in terms of suggesting she take up his same invigorating hobby of carriage driving.

    But while the senior royals are having their fun and frivolity, Diana’s resentment is gathering—prompting her to take up an offer presented by her close friend, Dr. James Colthurst (Oliver Chris), in being interviewed secretly by journalist Andrew Morton (Andrew Steele). The eventual biography that results, Diana: Her True Story, is released in 1992—the queen’s self-declared “annus horribilis” (also the title of episode four, in which Princess Margaret [Lesley Manville] is given her biggest storyline of the season with the reemergence of her one true love, Peter Townsend [Timothy Dalton]). Notably, the illustriously terrible (mainly for Diana) Christmas of ’91 is only glossed over (even in the finale of season four), with primary emphasis on Penny being seen publicly with the queen (per Philip’s request, lest the media “get the wrong idea” about his increasingly close relationship with her) in episode six, “Ipatiev House.” Perhaps because Kristen Stewart in Spencer already got to cover that ground from Diana’s perspective so thoroughly.

    In any case, the Andrew Morton biography of ’92 would be nothing compared to the bomb set off by her infamous Panorama interview for the BBC in 1995, which episodes seven through nine, “No Woman’s Land,” “Gunpowder” and “Couple 31” all address in a three-act format. “Couple 31” serving to show the “fallout” of what Diana “hath wrought,” even though many responded favorably to the interview (regardless of it being obtained via extremely nefarious methods). Especially with regard to her frank discussion of her eating disorder, exhibiting a candor that undoubtedly gave many others the courage to come forward about their own.

    Alas, that wouldn’t be in keeping with season five’s overall determination to portray Diana as a very insecure and unstable woman. And Charles as an intelligent man dealt an unfortunate hand for wanting to actually use that intelligence. Enter a flashback to 1989 in the most pandering-to-Charles episode, “The Way Ahead.” Opening on a scene during Christmas as Charles sits at a table of close friends, he complains, “Previous princes of Wales have been happy to spend their life in idle dissipation, but my problem is, I can’t bear idleness… In any other professional sphere, I’d be at the peak of my powers. Instead, what am I? I’m just a useless ornament stuck in a waiting room, gathering dust.” Here, too, the amount of “empathy” we’re supposed to feel for this person is perhaps overshot by Morgan.

    Morgan’s subsequent attempt at making Charles seem “with it”—of the people and among the people—isn’t very successful either. This occurring in the final scene of “The Way Ahead” that features him attempting to breakdance with non-white youths to the tune of Eric B. & Rakin’s “Don’t Sweat the Technique.” A moment meant to spotlight his triumph in overcoming the scandal of his Tampongate conversation with Camilla being released to the public (thankfully, for there was a moment there when one was led to believe The Crown might never bring it up).

    Almost as though fearing Charles in his new current role as King of England, this midpoint episode is also the only one to offer the kowtowing written-out epilogue, “Prince Charles founded the Prince’s Trust in 1976 to improve the lives of disadvantaged young people. Since then, the Prince’s Trust has assisted one million young people to fulfill their potential.” That last phrase sounding vague enough to make the prince seem very charitable indeed. The last title card concludes, “And returned nearly £1.4 billion in value to society.” If Morgan says so…

    With the finale, “Decommissioned,” we’re brought back to the most unique episode of the season, “Mou Mou,” in which it is gradually revealed how Diana came to be in Dodi Fayed’s (Khalid Abdalla) orbit. The answer being, according to Morgan, a result of Dodi’s father, Mohamed “Mou Mou” Al-Fayed (Salim Daw), being some sort of sycophantic Anglophile. This prompting him to do everything in his financial power to get the queen to notice him—even buying Harrods. Unfortunately, the queen’s inherent racism and elitism appears to have made her averse to sitting next to Mou Mou at the Harrods Cup Polo Match. Per The Crown, this led the queen to send Diana in her place while she sat with Margaret.

    In “Decommissioned,” it is Mou Mou who suggests that Diana bring William and Harry to St. Tropez for the summer on his new yacht, the Jonikal. This being yet another symbolic moment in which, as the queen’s own Britannia is put into retirement, Diana appears to be getting a shot of life via this new yacht. As we all know, that life would be cut tragically short after her vacation, the one that featured the iconic telephoto lens-procured image of Diana in a blue bathing suit perched at the edge of a diving board—so much about that being a type of foreshadowing and a summation of her entire life. Something Morgan wants to stretch out into a final season that will focus on her death and its aftermath.

    Hence, the anticlimactic ending of the season… even if meant to be a cliffhanger, of sorts, as it offers scenes of Diana as she gets ready for her summer in the South of France with the boys and Dodi as he proposes to model Kelly Fisher (Erin Richards). The last scene then shows Diana and the queen looking in a mirror, as the latter says goodbye to her precious royal yacht (invoking nothing except the reaction of “oh boo-hoo, you don’t get a massive boat paid for by the British people anymore”).

    Charles, meanwhile, is given another moment of “grace” and “sagacity” when he forewarns his mother, “If we continue to hold on to these Victorian notions of how the monarchy should look, how it should feel, then the world will move on. And those who come after you will be…left with nothing.” A.k.a. he will be left with nothing. And it remains to be seen if Charles truly will practice what he once preached when it comes to “rallying” for a more “progressive” monarchy.

    Incidentally, “A house divided” is the tagline for the season. And yet, it applies not only (even now) to the House of Windsor, but to those who can see the monarchy for what it is—parasitic and long outmoded—and those who would cling to it as the crux of British identity.

    [ad_2]

    Genna Rivieccio

    Source link