Observations on the TV Series THE CROWN

THE CROWN

SEASON ONE - Coming to terms with adulthood and responsibility

SEASON TWO - Marriage and Gender roles

SEASON THREE - Sibling Rivalry and family competition

SEASON FOUR - False notions about BREEDING & notions of Parental Control

To me, one of the most interesting aspects of THE CROWN, aside from the admittedly fictional aspect to the glimpse of life in a Royal family, is the universal themes played out not only in the tv series, but in the real world of the Royals as well as the real world of the rest of us.

As we all watch our younger family members struggle with the responsibility of adult life, and for some the added responsibility of new parenthood, we can empathize with Princess Margaret, newly married and trying to navigate that perilous patch of sea, and then suddenly being thrust into one of the most mysterious and difficult jobs a person could be forced into - governing a realm! What woman among us hasn't struggled with the demands of male/husband entitlement at the same time time as she struggles to learn how to run a household. Husbands newly removed from the total care of mothers (by which I mean mothers do their laundry, buy and cook their food, clean up the dishes and the kitchen, clean their rooms, and provide emotional support) and then a man gets married and expects all of that from a new wife who herself has just left a household where HER mother mostly provided those services. Now, she not only has to do all that but for most, if not all young American women, she has to hold down a full time job and maintain an attractive appearance to compete with television and advertising models of what women should look like. It is too much. It takes all we have in emotional intelligence and resilience to sort through these expectations and find a viable way forward. Then comes pregnancy and childbearing - WHEW!

Prince Phillip expected to be the Lord and Master and had such struggles with his wife's superior status within their world. His sense of male entitlement bubbled up continually, at least in the portrayal of Phillip in the tv series. Some of what I have read about the real Prince Phillip has denied that he, for example, refused to kneel before the Queen. They said that having been raised in a Royal household, he was used to deference to those of superior rank. Who knows? Society, however, has continually, supported the notion of male superiority in general. Male physical strength has been used continuously to uphold male domination over women, and the pervasiveness of it has become so much a part of the ordinary world that most people don't even notice it. Strip clubs and prostitution are just some of the continually evident forms of economic domination and female subservience and degradation that are taken for granted. Sexism, like Racisim is so prevalent that a lot of people don't even notice.

Sibling rivalry and jealousy has been a theme in a variety of TV Series lately, too such as in SUCCESSION allegedly based on the Murdoch family struggles over inherited control of the family business and wealth. Along with the struggle Queen Elizabeth had with her envious and reckless sister, there was the constant battle to keep the reckless and ego driven impulsiveness from sinking the whole family ship. Plenty of us in the real world have this constant battle with our impulsive and reckless siblings, as well as coping with mental illness and emotional disability. What family hasn't had tragedy related to depression, suicide, drug addiction, alcoholism and promiscuity? Frankly I don't know a single family that hasn't had to cope with at least one of these issues.

BREEDING - People have such foolish notions about breeding. Anyone who knows anything about the health of species knows that breeding-out produces the best defense against genetic abnormalities and diseases. Pure-bred means a recipe for disaster. The King Charles Spaniel is a perfect example of a poor dog bred to brain dysfunction through too much in-breeding. Breeding too close causes great damage to offspring. The Royal families should have learned that lesson by now, look at the damage inflicted on the children of the assassinated Russian Royal family - the hemophila for example. Even today in the everyday world, I meet people who have just spent thousands of dollars they probably shouldn't have buying a 'pure breed' dog of some kind. The old saying used to go that the healthiest dogs were the street dogs of Dehli because they cross breed and have survived every manner of deadly affliction. In the fourth season of THE CROWN, we are introduced to five poor cousins who were placed for life in mental facilities because they were congenitally disabled. The family marked them in the book of Peerage as dead, then hid them away and shunned them. And when poor Prince Charles was mated off with the appropriately young, healthy and single Princess Diana, all manner of catastophe unfolded, although I suppose it must be saud that the goal was fulfilled because she provided the Royal family with two healthy male heirs.

This is the second time I have watched THE CROWN, and as is so often the case, I have seen more and noticed more the second time around than I did the first. This time I watched THE CROWN in honor of Queen Elizabeth who had just died. And I honor her because although I am not pro-monarchy and most definitely opposed to hereditary monarchy and primogeniture in any form, she was an example of dignity under pressure and self-restraint, courtesy and forebearance in a world where such traits are increasingly rare. They used all the 'D' words for her: duty, diligence, dignity, devotion, discipline. And these are all admirable traits. Look at some of the other world leaders and compare.

Sadly, however it appears she was missing some of the 'C' words - in particular, Compassion. You cannot watch anything about the Royal family without being sad for the tragedy of Princess Diana, married too young, too unprepared for what was expected of her and unaware of the swirling deadly undercurrents stirred up before she was on the scene. Charles's resentment towards the control imposed on him by his role in the family spilled out like acid on the heart of poor romantic Diana. Nothing she could do could please him or win her the warmth and acceptance she craved from his family because they didn't have it to give. She was tormented, twisted, used up and discarded. And so much for wealth and privilege.

I can't help but wonder whether the monarchy will continue to toddle along in the leftover aura of the irreplaceable Queen, or if it will wither in the dry desert of the damaged and untalnented new King, a pompous and blundering man detached from the modern world and lacking the grace and perception of his mother. Like a pure bred dog in some rural breeding farm, he was taken too soon from the nurture he should have received from his maother, and denied the loving attention of a family pack and a father, and forced to bumble and battle his way to adulthood and finally his inheritance which may turn out to be a crown of thorns.

In November, we will see SEASON FIVE of THE CROWN. It is indeed an epic tale.

Happy Trails, Jo Ann

wrightj45@yahoo.com

(as always, if you wish to contact me, use e-mail not the comments section of the blog because 'comments' is pertpetually poisoned by robo spam. Thank you)