The Crown; A Season In Review
Written by Jamie Randall, Staff Writer
For Gen Z, the members of the royal family that have been present in the media the most have been Prince William, Kate Middleton, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. As a young girl, I remember the excitement about Prince William marrying Kate Middleton who is from the middle class and had no ties to the royal family prior to marriage.
However, many of the older generations remember the royal wedding of Lady Diana Spencer and Charles, the Prince of Wales. It was known as “the wedding of the century,” and season four of The Crown depicted the famous wedding ceremony. The new season ranges from the year 1979, to when Charles first met Diana, to the early 1990s. It’s more than their wedding; the show covers their whole relationship while also bringing to light more historical events that happened during that time.
The Crown makes it clear that the relationship between the Prince and Princess of Wales was not perfect. While being composed in front of the camera, “The Crown” portrays the struggle of Princess Diana. She developed bulimia, a severe eating disorder that revolves around binge eating and purging, pretty early on and it was clear that no one in the royal family offered their support to her in any way. While this was going on, Prince Charles appeared uninterested because he was having an affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles, who was already married at the time and was disapproved of by the Royal Family.
The show’s portrayal of this rocky marriage has led to complaints from friends of Prince Charles, as well as other members of the Royal Family, “accusing producers of the hit Netflix drama of ‘trolling on a Hollywood budget’” (Rodriguez, 2020). Royal insiders also complained about how their lives are being “hijacked and exploited” and how there is no actual regard to how these people are feeling after the whole world is seeing their lives on-screen (Rodriguez, 2020).
Charles’s friends aren’t the only people who think The Crown is trying to capitalize off of the Royal Family. Prince William was not too pleased with the new season and felt his parents were being “presented in a false, simplistic way to make money” (Rodriguez, 2020).
While the Royal Family has pointed out that many of the scenes in The Crown of Diana and Charles are fake and inaccurate, Diana’s former butler, Paul Burrell defended the show. He said, “this is just a peek behind the doors of Buckingham Palace, that perhaps the palace doesn’t want you to see because this is the truth in many ways” (Ferguson, 2020).
While all of the hysterics and drama around the marriage of the Prince and Princess of Wales isn’t new for our parents, for Gen Z and Millenials, this is the first time they are learning about the tumultuous history of Diana and Charles’s marriage. There have also been many questions about whether The Crown is accurate or not. The Crown is actually based on events that actually happened and all of the characters are real. However, the script is fiction so the dialogue between the characters may not be entirely true. (Hunt, 2020). Many family members of the Royal family have argued that Netflix should address in the beginning that this is based on real events and not everything in the show is true. Netflix even addressed the ongoing controversy surrounding the accuracy of the show, defending that it is in fact a drama and that the cast understands that this drama is based on historical events (Hunt, 2020).
The Crown has been able to provide a glimpse into the lives of the “untouchables.” While filled with drama, it helps the older generations remember and newer generations learn what it was like to be a member of the Royal Family. And for all, it spreads a message that what may appear to be a fairytale can actually be a person’s worst nightmare.
Sources:
Rodriguez, C. (2020, November 16). ‘The Crown’ Season Four Controversy: Is Netflix Using The Royal Family For Money? Retrieved December 06, 2020
Ferguson, E. (2020, November 16). Prince William upset and ‘unhappy’ with The Crown for ‘exploiting his parents for money’. Retrieved December 06, 2020
Hunt, A. (2020, November 24). How accurate is The Crown? We uncover how much of the show is fact – and how much is fiction. Retrieved December 21, 2020