We are done with S1 of The Crown in two sittings. I say this first so you would know that I think it’s excellent for many reasons. In fact, I think it is a crowning achievement, a bona fide masterpiece. Opulent and resplendent with visual details and rich with subtle graduations of characterisations. Above all, it offers a window into the daily grind of being the monarchy. It’s no fun, really.
This show focuses on Queen Elizabeth II as a young newlywed faced with leading the world’s most famous monarchy, while forging a relationship with legendary Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill. The British Empire is in decline, the political world is in disarray, but a new era is dawning. Peter Morgan’s masterfully researched scripts reveal the Queen’s private journey behind the public façade with daring frankness. Prepare to see into the coveted world of power and privilege behind the locked doors of Westminster and Buckingham Palace.
We all know every family has stories – good, bad, sad… you name it, so why not a royal family? I have no idea how much of what transpired in The Crown is true, but I definitely know the broad strokes did happen because those are public knowledge. Interspersed with newsreel footage, the narrative throws you into the folds of being the Queen of England.
I love how Claire Foy portrays Queen Elizabeth II, Lilibeth. She is like Batman in the sense that she is the reluctant hero. Thrust onto the throne at 26, she has been earmarked for the throne early on but never thought she would ascend to the throne at such a young age. I love her growth in character and it isn’t hard to get under her skin to feel the ramifications of her hard decisions, sometimes to the point of severing familial ties. I love how the writers never attempt to whitewash her to the point of lily white and she is just as human as you and I. The highlight for me is always her weekly exchanges with Prime Minister Winston Churchill. I know Gary Oldman won the Oscar for Best Actor playing Churchill, but when I saw John Lithgow play the mountain of a man I forgot about Oldman. The verbal exchanges between the Queen and Prime Minister are so well played out. In the beginning, the insolence and borderline disrespect is evident, but as Queen Elizabeth grows in maturity you could almost feel they are like conversations between a daughter and her father.
Talking about dialogue, oh my goodness, I had no idea how much I miss Downton Abbey and The Crown is a reminder of how amazing English can sound like. The way they drop multiple adjectives and adverbs in just a sentence is music to my ears. my wife can attest how I would recite the words that were not in my lexicon, hoping to memorise them. Sometimes the conversations can be laced with so much double entendres and sarcasm that it is spellbinding. In today’s world, the character just has to drop an F-bomb and that’s it. Here, they used an entire paragraph just to mean that. Give me a time machine man!
Bring on S2.
After The Crown, it’s time to dive into another series. I gave my wife a choice but knew what she would choose. I whatsapp her the choices: Korean (It’s Ok not to be Ok), sci-fi (Firefly), lawyering (Defending Jacob), drama (The Leftovers or The Crown S2) and historical (Rome). I knew she would choose Defending Jacob because she loves intelligent lawyer stuff, but sadly this isn’t intelligent storytelling at all.
Andy Barber (Chris Evans) has been an assistant district attorney in his suburban Massachusetts county for more than twenty years. He is respected in his community, tenacious in the courtroom, and happy at home with his wife, Laurie (Michelle Dockery), and son, Jacob (Jaeden Martell). But when a shocking crime shatters their New England town, Andy is blindsided by what happens next: His fourteen-year-old son is charged with the murder of a fellow student. Every parental instinct Andy has rallies to protect his boy. Jacob insists that he is innocent, and Andy believes him. Andy must. He’s his father. But as damning facts and shocking revelations surface, as a marriage threatens to crumble and the trial intensifies, as the crisis reveals how little a father knows about his son, Andy will face a trial of his own – between loyalty and justice, between truth and allegation, between a past he’s tried to bury and a future he cannot conceive.
The problem with Defending Jacob is that this is a 2-hour movie expanded into an 8-episode (each an hour long) mini-series. It’s like you sporting a medium build but wearing an XXL t-shirt walking along main street and you are mistaking all those sniggering eyes looking at you for you looking as smooth as Fonzie. This is so frustrating to watch because it could have been awesome.
A story like this needs to be driving, needs to punch hard like Rocky, but it pulls its punches every single time. It could also have been an effective and affective social commentary but it just skims the surface. Red herrings are littered around and never gain any traction. Big terms are thrown around like “murder gene” and “cutter porn” that are so random that I can’t be bothered. The courtroom narrative framework is also lame – why is the trial becoming about Andy when it should be more about Jacob. It’s called Defending Jacob for goodness sake. The only reason we have persisted is Chris Evans and he is excellent in his role. In fact, other than the late Chadwick Boseman, Chris Evans’ post MCU career is in full-swing.
The last two episodes didn’t even try to right the ship, they sank it. 5 minutes into the last episode, my wife guessed how it would end and hit the nail on the head, but she didn’t see the next part. The next part is half an hour of falling action and trying to drop a second climax. In the end, it is just awful writing. So full of pregnant pauses with just air in them. I read the ending of the book is different. Now I feel like reading the book’s ending and see if it’s better.
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