Saturday, December 24, 2016

The Crown Season 1: A Masterpiece, quite simply

I belatedly watched Netflix's newest show, The Crown. Each time I sat down the show excited me with just how amazing its execution is. Each shot as it lingered, each framing of the scene, the way it zooms in and out. The show made it very clear that it was a portrait of a country at a time of significant change, and at the center a mindful and passionate - if a bit hapless - young woman suddenly thrust into the most looked upon in her country.

But the show does more than that. Much more.

More #1: The Show is not just about England

I'm American. For that reason, the British Royal Family and its place in the political spectrum of modern day England does not concern me. My biggest concern when I began to watch the Crown was that I would not be intelligent enough about the history of England to recognize the stories taking place in the show.

And I was thoroughly wrong.

The Crown concerns itself with characters, first and foremost, and their relationships to each other. England, the Monarchy, and the Politics that run the nation are treated very realistically as the very things they are: monolithic ideas that are more brushed and understood as abstract philosophy than boiled down to easy choices or motivations.

Elizabeth is not simply the Queen, she is a young woman out of her depth in a world of politics and ruling that she never got the proper time to understand. She just very recently was married and then her Father has died out from under her. Her introduction to the role is as much her storyline as everyone else's. If the characters ask Elizabeth, "What will you do?" her very frequent response is, "I don't know, what do you think I should do?"

*ahem* I'm waiting...

This brings us to our second point,

More #2: Characters

If the Crown merely concerned itself with Elizabeth, it would lose its tracking. Instead, we also have her Uncle, Edward VIII who abdicated the throne so he could marry the love of his life. Princess Margaret is the impish sister who captures the nation's heart with a relationship scandal echoing her Uncle's. Elizabeth's Father plays a very important role in defining his children and their relationship with each other and their respective roles. Winston Churchill (played excellently by Jon Lithgow in a "best of his entire career" type of performance) plays advisor and introducer to Elizabeth in the show, making him the most respectable and most ugly of the characters. Churchill is a figure who stands in Elizabeth's way and shows her the ropes. By far these two are the central focus of season 1 and its overall theme of transition. We also have the Duke of Edinburgh, Elizabeth's husband, played almost archvillanously by Matt Smith. The Duke is a man who wishes to be recognized and powerful like his wife, but who has very clear problems submitting to a female authority. If everyone else is testy, the Duke is outright vicious about it. It's almost inhumane or far too caricaturish to buy into and believe, but even by the end of the show, I felt he had somehow grown into his role and emerged a human character.

This picture well represents the societal pressures young women must go through.

To be clear, nearly every episode represents a type of loss. Typically this is the loss of the old and the established to the young and the new. Not every episode, however, and it is in this sense that the show crafts itself. Each character represents nuanced bits of humanity, the lovers who just want to marry, the old abdicator who just wants to be part of the family, the father who just wants to see his daughters a little older before they take power or the mother who finds her place rapidly disappearing as her friends and allies die. It's by backing away from historical fact and significance that the magic of the Crown works, and why I think this first season will stand as a testament.

More #3: Cinematography

Film is an art dedicated to change over time. It shares this in common with music and is that which Literature is entirely out of touch with. Nothing changes a book. If you could read it in a single second it would not count or rely on the transition of said second very much. But Film is about being in a fixed place, a moment.

So when I say the cinematography of The Crown is hands down some of the best work I've ever seen, understand I am talking about the way it focuses on just the right aspects at just the right time. There are moments where the camera holds still while an actor on an elaborately designed set takes their time processing and thinking, about what? Sometimes we know sometimes we don't.

Longer shots are the lifeblood of characteristic, tone driven cinema, and The Crown god damn knows it. The Crown is about contemplation. It is about time. It is about change. And it accomplishes those things in nearly every shot. If nothing else, this element will allow the shows "planned" six season run to be executed with an artistic perfection.

What you don't know is that they've been shaking hands for five minutes.

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The Crown is beautiful. It is hands down the most beautiful tv show I've ever seen. Its stories are far more humanistic than the Queen of England has any right to be. It's characters so fully flesh out the world we live in, full of people who want and take and suffer and it paints so much life and blood into these things that I just want to throw it into a time capsule already. This show features so much of the life people suffer through on a day to day basis. If this is truly what the Queen represents to the people of England, then I fully understand. Even if it isn't, this is what everything in life represents to everyone.

To put it short, if you cannot relate to this show you cannot relate to humanity. If you think that's a tall order, then I urge you, watch this show. It is a modern masterpiece.

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In the next few days, I will write on my indifference towards mass surveillance, but also the differing art forms of Games and Film on the topic of such. I'll be discussing Orwell, a recently released game, and how its small focus perhaps sells the horror more than Snowden, the most recent Oliver Stone film, on why surveillance should be scary.


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If you enjoyed the modern day struggles of Elizabeth becoming Queen, you may be interested in a more historical period piece as well. Queen Victoria was one of the youngest monarchs at the time, and did not see herself as a placeholder for more experienced men. Follow her journey, by purchasing the first season by clicking on the image below.

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