The Crown: The Complete Final Season: A Weak Start Leads to a Strong Finish (Blu-ray)

The Show:

Just last year, "The Crown" took its final bow as its epic telling of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II came to an end. The seasons leading up to its grand finale had their share of highs and lows, with a particular high coming in its fourth year that focused on the courtship of Charles & Diana, as well as the leadership of Margaret Thatcher (this season also swept every major drama category at the Emmys that year, including Outstanding Drama Series). It hit a small rough patch in its fifth year, but still delivered a fine season that mainly focused on the breakup and divorce of the aforementioned royal couple. As the show headed into its final frame, fans anxiously tuned in to see if it would be able to return to its former greatness, or if it would merely be content to go out on another satisfactory note.

Season Six is split into two distinct portions of four and six episodes. The first set mainly focuses on the relationship between Princess Diana (Elizabeth Debicki) and Dodi Fayed (Khalid Abdalla), a joining that his father, Mohamed Al-Fayed (Salim Daw), tries to orchestrate to raise his family's status. Dodi eventually tries to propose, but is rejected by Diana, who believes it would only make his father happy. Tragically, this is shortly followed by the car accident that would claim both of their lives, as well as that of the driver and Dodi's bodyguard. Naturally, Diana's death deals a heavy blow to her children, Prince William and Prince Harry, and her ex-husband, Prince Charles (Dominic West). Silence from the royal family causes some backlash, but is calmed after Queen Elizabeth (Imelda Staunton) makes a public address and agrees to a large ceremonial funeral.

The second set covers a few different topics, including Prince William (Ed McVey) trying to cope with his mother's death, his relationship with Kate Middleton (Meg Bellamy), Tony Blair's (Bertie Carvel) suggestions for modernizing the monarchy, the deaths of Princess Margaret (Lesley Manville) and the Queen Mother (Marcia Warren), and the marriage of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles (Olivia Williams), ultimately bringing the show to a close in 2005.

As mentioned, leading up to its final bow, "The Crown" had been a mostly outstanding collection of seasons, with the only minor stumble occurring in its fifth year. Season five had been rather sluggish to get a move-on, even wasting an entire episode focusing on Mohamed Al-Fayed, but luckily it was finally able to find its footing and recover as it dove into the fascinating story of Charles & Diana's divorce.

Strangely, the sixth and final season has a similar problem for its first set of episodes in that showrunner Peter Morgan made the curious decision to drag out the storyline of Princess Diana & Dodi Fayed's relationship. There's just not a whole lot of material there, certainly not enough to fill three entire episodes, which leads to a very sluggish start for the season. The fourth episode is a slight improvement, covering similar territory as the outstanding film "The Queen" (i.e. the royal family's response to Diana's death), but it too has an odd feeling of being drawn out.

That said, the season makes a rather stunning resurgence with its second set of episodes. This is where the show is able to become more focused on different topics, covering fascinating areas like Prince William's formative years, the deaths of major royal family members, and Charles & Camilla's wedding. For these six episodes, none of these subjects are dragged out, with each receiving only as much attention as they need, making for a far more engaging & engrossing experience. With this stark difference between the two volumes, one gets the feeling that Netflix split them up very much on purpose because even they realized that there was a distinct difference in quality.

Overall, the season balances out to become a pretty good final outing. It may start off rather weak, but it comes back remarkably strong, hitting its stride and once again giving the viewer a remarkable front seat to the important events of the royal family. Yes, some creative/dramatic license is taken as they've done all along, but it's to be expected when trying to dramatize these events for a television show. It's been an incredible ride over the course of these six seasons, and it's wonderful to see that, even after a couple of missteps in the final two, it was able to rebound triumphantly to go out on a marvelous high note.

Video/Audio:

"The Crown: The Complete Final Season" comes to Blu-ray in 2.00:1, 1080p High Definition transfers of excellent quality. The picture looks absolutely gorgeous throughout the entire season, highlighting its beautiful designs & cinematography. Likewise, the 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio is wonderful, giving you all of the dialogue and music in outstanding quality. Overall, Sony has done a fantastic job in both departments for the show's final bow.

Special Features:

A Family Saga (9 Minutes): A featurette that focuses on Prince William's part in the season.

Royal Weddings (7 Minutes): A featurette that takes a look at the show's weddings, with an emphasis on Charles & Camilla's.

A Lasting Legacy (8 Minutes): A featurette that explores the show's remarkable detail.

Conclusion:

"The Crown: The Complete Final Season" may start off a little weak as it trudges through the remainder of Princess Diana's drawn-out storyline, but luckily it's able to make a remarkable resurgence in the second set of episodes, finding much more focus on several fascinating events, and ultimately balancing out the season to take the show out on a triumphant high note.

Score: 3.5/5

Now available on Blu-ray.

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