The first four seasons of "The Crown," the Netflix period drama about Queen Elizabeth II's long reign, covered roughly forty years of British history. For many American viewers, the appeal of the series lay not only in the fair-minded characterizations of the Royal Family and the visual extravagances of one of the most expensive shows ever made but also in the deft incorporation of events that shaped U.K. politics, culture, and national identity. Season 1 revisited the Great Smog of 1952, which killed thousands of Londoners; Season 2 the Profumo scandal, which brought down a Prime Minister; and Season 3 the Aberfan disaster, a Welsh mining collapse that buried dozens of schoolchildren, whose deaths Elizabeth would later wish she had commemorated more swiftly.
By contrast, nearly half of the sixth and final season traverses less than three months in 1997: the weeks leading up to Princess Diana's death and its immediate aftermath. That time frame underscores the narrowing of the show's focus. Its creator, Peter Morgan, seems to have lost all interest in Elizabeth's subjects, except when they turn on her for her conspicuous silence in the days following that fateful car crash in Paris. Prime Minister Tony Blair (Bertie Carvel), too, is most notable for his approval ratings; his popularity, which earns him the nickname King Tony, gives the Queen literal nightmares. Morgan treats the Windsors primarily as media figures-the people watch the Queen on the telly while the Queen watches them back. (Reports suggest that she watched "The Crown," too.) But the post-Diana episodes are a study of celebrity without the requisite star power.
Esta historia es de la edición December 25, 2023 de The New Yorker.
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Esta historia es de la edición December 25, 2023 de The New Yorker.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 8500 revistas y periódicos.
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INSIDE JOB-"Hit Man"
Years before Hannah Arendt coined, in the pages of this magazine, the phrase \"the banality of evil,\" popular films and fiction were embodying that idea in the character of the hit man. In classic crime movies such as \"This Gun for Hire\" (1942) and \"Murder by Contract\" (1958), hit men figure much as Nazis do in political movies, as symbols of abstract evil.
WHATEVER YOU SAY
Rereading Jenny Holzer, at the Guggenheim.
SUBCONSCIOUSLY YOURS
Does every generation get the Freud it deserves?
BY A WHISKER
Louis Wain and the reinvention of the cat.
Beyond Imagining
Bessie, Lotte, Ruth, Farah, and Bridget, who had been lunching together for half a century, joined in later years by Ilka, Hope, and, occasionally, Lucinella, had agreed without the need for discussion that they were not going to pass, pass away, and under no circumstances on.
STATES OF PLAY
Can advocates use state supreme courts to preserve-and perhaps expand-constitutional rights?
THE LONG RIDE
The surf legend Jock Sutherland's unlikely life.
ARE WE DOOMED?
A course at the University of Chicago thinks it through.
GOD EXPLAINS THE RULES OF HIS NEW BOARD GAME
Guys, want to play this new board game? It’s called Life. No, it’s not “one of God’s impossible-to-understand games that take three hours to learn.” It’ll be fun, I promise!
RED LINE
With the election approaching, the U.S. and Mexico wrangle over border policy.
