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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on Oct 9, 2023 21:22:29 GMT
Diana is the only reason to keep watching this and she's about to be written off rewatched The Queen a few months ago. More irritatingly propagandistic than I remembered. I wish I could see what people see in these stuffy old bastards in their palaces.
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Post by JangoB on Oct 26, 2023 15:06:31 GMT
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Post by ibbi on Nov 22, 2023 18:20:12 GMT
The first three episodes of this were horrifying. Leave aside Peter Morgan doing his bit for the fucking cult of personality and that it has almost literally nothing to do with THE CROWN, but it is bordering on race-baiting in its portrait of father and son (There's more than one manipulative sack of shit in this situation, you'd never know it from watching this). Then we get the sound effect of the car crash at the end of episode 3 all it needed was one of those Batman speech bubbles to complete the effect. Anyway, the last episode improves a fair bit. Imelda Staunton is amazing ("You heard me"), and after wasting three episodes on pounding the exact same not over and over (it's not dissimilar to the beginning of season 2) you finally start to see them tying the 5 season long threads together for the road home. They even almost (but not really) salvage the Al-Fayad subplot. The Charles stuff and all the emotion is a little over the top, and will probably piss off plenty of the same stupids that the last season did, but I get why they do it. It makes storytelling sense. You take what positives you can.
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on Nov 22, 2023 18:51:58 GMT
ibbi is it true they bring back Diana as a ghost?? spooky season was last month
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Post by ibbi on Nov 22, 2023 18:55:50 GMT
ibbi is it true they bring back Diana as a ghost?? spooky season was last month I don't know that it's supposed to be a GHOST. I took it as one of those situations where someone is basically daydreaming their conversation with a dead person. It didn't seem as bad to me as people had made out. But yes. Twice.
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Post by TylerDeneuve on Nov 23, 2023 23:58:49 GMT
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Post by Pavan on Dec 7, 2023 13:36:08 GMT
Finished the first half of 6th season. It dragged a little in between and Charles becoming emotional and the talking to ghost felt forced and not organic. Otherwise a decent season so far.
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on Dec 17, 2023 5:50:29 GMT
the embarrassing and awkward Diana and Dodi ghost scenes in ep 4 aside, I thought the first half was good and it reveals yet again that this show is most interesting when it focuses on the human elements in this stuffy institution (even when it hews melodramatic) and away from the institution itself as embodied by an Elizabeth less relatable and human than ever. Ep 3 focused exclusively on Dodi and Diana's chaotic final night in Paris and was the show's best moment since S4 and among the best in the entire show's six-season run. It's a frantic and sad episode that places you right at the center of this already-broken relationship with no diversions to other characters or conflicts, with each short break from the ravenous paparazzi presaging an even worse onslaught later that just keeps growing in intensity. This was the most effective the show has been at putting the viewer in Diana's headspace and its quiet final moments before the storm were incredibly cathartic.
stepping back into the show with Ep 5... well I liked that one too because it was all about Charles and the boys navigating the fallout of Diana's death. But Ep 6 is giving me the same whiplash S5 gave me because even if you're a shameless royalist like Peter Morgan clearly is, Elizabeth pooh-poohing Tony Blair's ideas for reforming her stale institution doesn't make for an exciting or dramatic hour of TV. Now that we're in the 2000s and Elizabeth has become completely irrelevant, I'm worried the rest of the season is going to fall into its rinse/repeat cycle from S5 of introducing criticisms of the monarchy followed by lazy rationalizations delivered with chilly politeness by a schoolmarmy Staunton. An old bag can't change its stripes.
Debicki was great as was Abdallah and I'm loving what I'm seeing from West so far (even though he's nothing like the Charles of S4 -- talk about a glowup). Basically whenever the show strays from Elizabeth it's interesting but now that its best character is gone I don't know what that means for the rest of S6 lol. We'll see
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on Dec 17, 2023 18:53:55 GMT
alright so ep 7 isn't that interesting but also inoffensive because there aren't any old people whinging about modernity. Young William is pretty boring, young Harry a generic fuckup. Only 3 eps left till we say goodbye to the Netflix Royal Family forever (unless Morgan adapts Harry's Spare ) and it feels like nothing has happened since ep 3... let's pick things up and pack it in.
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on Dec 18, 2023 2:51:36 GMT
the scene in the finale with the ghost of Claire Foy's young Elizabeth was just as bad as the Diana and Dodi ghost scenes in ep 4, and echoes of past seasons reoccur awkwardly throughout the whole ep, but as a whole it was a decent season and got better towards the end. Highpoints were "Dis-Moi Oui" and "Ritz" with the finale being a bit boring but Elizabeth's speech was pretty great. Liked the moment in ep. 8 where William leaves his GF Kate Middleton to support his mom on her Grand Jubilee. These are the moments of warmth and humanity I like in this show, not so much the monarchist apologia dressed up in dryly reverent declarations of sacrifice and duty. well that's that. End of an era.
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Post by ibbi on Dec 21, 2023 20:57:30 GMT
Since at least season 3 it seemed obvious that they needed to end this show exactly at this point, after this wedding, that this was what it all built to, and they did, but... I don't know, I can't help but think this whole final season felt half-hearted, only half-thought-out, just throwing all kinds of crap at the screen and seeing what would stick.
Talking to her younger selves was stupid, I thought the entire final episode basically being a tribute episode was... Well, it wasn't as good a one as it could have been. The only two bits I really liked were the little Margaret tribute, and the ending of Foy's scene. This show never came close to season 1, and that scene looped it all back to that final scene of that first season really well.
The amount of time this final season spent on Diana and Dodi (his dad and his obsession with this stupid fucking country was interesting, and completely undercooked, the stuff with junior much less so) was hilarious. I know you have to pander to her legion of lunatics, but for a whole half a season? The William and Kate stuff felt overdone too, and I thought the stuff with her mum was a bit much, but it all came good in the end. That William and Harry conversation that echoes Elizabeth and Margaret, and then when they start recalling Malta, that was the good shit.
All in all, season 1 of this show remains one of the best that I've ever seen. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, it was just The Godfather with a woman at the centre instead of a man. They could have ended it there quite easily, and most of the episodes since have just repeated points already covere there.
Season 2 grew on me a lot over the years, and I loved most of 3, but ever since then it's just been going off on increasingly stupid tangents. There's no way those last 3 seasons have had three seasons worth of material in them. It just turned into a family soap opera without anything like the focus it earlier had.
I did think Imelda, unlike Colman, was incredible with what she had to work with though.
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Post by TylerDeneuve on Dec 23, 2023 3:21:08 GMT
Talking to her younger selves was stupid Especially considering that Staunton and Colman look roughly the same age.
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Post by Pavan on Dec 28, 2023 20:04:07 GMT
Pretty good final season except some moments that felt 'coz writer put it there'. First half was spent on the Diana stuff and even though i liked that part it did felt like watching a different show altogether. Later half felt like neatly put vignettes. Half of them were excellent but the other half were just there.
All the main actors got material to shine but i feel the Queen herself got sidelined on a few occasions. Imelda Staunton is exceptional with what she is been given. She is better than Olivia Colman and comes second after Claire Foy who got the best bits. I was curious how would they end the show and was wondering "would they go till the end?". It felt a little abrupt and i even checked the timer on the player but after giving it some thought it was actually the best decision to end there. A graceful ending. When i started watching this show back a few years i did not expect much but it took me by surprise how it maintained a stature of its own quality and how its distinct from other period shows. Credit to the writing, acting and production values. It quickly became one of my favorite shows. Although it dipped here and there in quality it did not lose its footing. Firm till the end. I empathized with the Queen. If that's what the show wanted from its watchers, then its a great success i think.
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