During the first year of the pandemic, I watched the first three seasons of the Netflix show “The Crown”. I don’t know why I stopped a few episodes into the fourth season, but I picked it up today and remembered how very into it I had been: I checked Reddit discussions, articles talking about what had been historically accurate or not, and poured over Wikipedia pages. Par for the course—I have an affinity for modern British history, after all. 

Embarrassingly, something that proved hard for me was to separate what was depicted from reality, and yet the characterization and portrayal of characters and historical evens influences how you view their real-life counterparts if you’re not grounded enough. I wasn’t. 

It’s a well-made drama, there’s no denying that. As anti-monarch as I was, I was surprised when I found myself feeling sympathy for Prince Philip being denied a home he furnished where to raise and spend his life with his family; or with Queen Elizabeth having to mold herself into an impartial, emotionless symbol for the country; or with Prince Charles, told that his voice as an aristocrat doesn’t matter after he champions for Welsh independence. I found myself greatly disliking the Queen Mother even though I have never met her and I’ve only seen her in the “The King’s Speech”. 

It’s interesting how the show portrays infamous or almost mythologized figures. In a way, it’s sort of like their legacy and it exemplifies how the public views them and will view them from now on. That I know of, Prince Charles’ reputation went down the drain with the way his marriage with Princess Diana ended, but the writers made him entirely sympathetic in his relationship with his parents and with that episode about Wales. Margaret Thatcher is a political figure that seems so divisive and “love her or hate her”, but they made her realistic and human. Princess Diana has (not undeservedly; she certainly received the shortest stick) received the treatment of an Disney-innocent martyr for decades, but I’ve read some comments that the fourth season shows both her good and bad side, which I’m looking forward to.