The Crown season 5 first reviews are in and they’re a seriously mixed bag. The latest season of Netflix’s royal drama welcomes a new cast in the leading roles as it tackles the early 1990s. The 10-part saga covers Princess Diana and Prince Charles’s divorce, Queen Elizabeth II’s "Annus horribilis", and Diana’s notorious BBC Panorama interview.
Some critics have been praising the performances of stars like Elizabeth Debicki as Diana and Imelda Staunton as the Queen, while others have said the series is falling into more soap opera territory than ever before. We’ve delved into the first reviews with a round-up of the verdicts below.
The Times – Carol Midgley – 4/5
"The virtue with which viewers of The Crown will need to be blessed this series is patience. Lots of it. Despite the thousands of outraged words that have been written accusing it of turning the royal family into a cheap soap opera, I’m afraid the first three episodes are ditchwater dull. But here’s the good news. It gets better. Much better. And the absolute star is Elizabeth Debicki, whose performance as Princess Diana is at times freakishly good. Her voice, her body language, the way she dips her head, eyes looking upwards, is uncanny and an impersonation at Rory Bremner level."
BBC – Hugh Montgomery
"This series, when it hits its stride in the second half at least, is compelling as soap opera. Where the show has previously used the royals as a prism through which to explore national and geopolitical history, it now feels hermetic and insular, at once a family psychodrama and the story of an institution contending with internal dysfunction."
Deadline – Dominic Patten
"Despite the material they’re given, there are some unsurprisingly fine performances here from theater legend Staunton, Jonathan Pryce as Prince Philip, Lesley Manville as a fading Princess Margaret, and West’s own son Senan makes a noteworthy debut as Prince William. Within seconds of her appearance onscreen in the opening 'Queen Victoria Syndrome' episode, no one can doubt that Debicki was born to play Diana, and the casting of The Night Manager actress was a masterstroke among the precarious scripts."
Guardian – Jack Seale – 2/5
"Its cast is cartoonish, the plot is packed with dull speeches and multiple episodes could have been binned entirely. The royal drama has never been less relevant. Six years ago, when Netflix debuted a plush, true-ish drama about the British royal family, it was a period saga set in the half-forgotten past, and a production with a direct link to modern times: incredibly, the woman we saw becoming Queen in 1952 was still on the throne. Season five of The Crown now arrives as the first to be shown since its protagonist’s death – and the show itself feels as if its time has come and gone."
Variety – Daniel D'Addario
"Perhaps it’s merely reactive to the genuinely impressive work in the Thatcher-and-Diana era that lends the sense that the new, fifth season of The Crown is the show’s weakest outing yet: A generally scattered and unfocused show is less disciplined than ever. The fact of the divorce between Prince Charles and Princess Diana being so obviously the point of greatest interest for a contemporary audience has forced the series to slow its pace and linger."
The Hollywood Reporter – Angie Han
"The latest batch also revolves more heavily than usual around the Windsors’ internal dramas, primarily the contentious split between Diana and Charles. Plots that take a broader view of the family’s role on the world stage still occur, but are more exception than rule. And so The Crown largely becomes a front-row seat to the Windsors’ penchant for inflicting damage upon themselves, in service of an organization that’s warped them so much already and against the drumbeat of public polls that increasingly label the whole endeavor irrelevant and out of touch."
The Crown season 5 is out on Netflix on November 9. Check out our guides to the best Netflix shows and the best Netflix movies for what else to watch.
