1x01 Wolferton Splash

[8.0/10[ What stood out to me here most is the acting. This is not a plot-heavy first episode. There’s not a ton of dramatic things that happen or major changes to start the series off on any kind of intense foot. Yes, there’s a wedding, and there’s a major medical episode. But that’s not the thrust of this opening hour.

Instead, the point of this one is simple but grave. King George is dying. Not everybody knows. Some aren’t willing to even admit it. But the head of state, and the head of a family, is not long for this world. The hour is about establishing who he is and what his presence means, so that it has an equal amount of meaning, for Elizabeth, the Windsors, and the apparatus of the monarchy and the government, when he inevitably departs this mortal coil.

So given the lack of eventfulness in that, it comes down to the actors to tell that story. This is an episode as much about establishing everyone’s place, everyone’s connections to one another and to this peculiar institution, as it is laying the groundwork for the future. Which means much of what the performers are called on to do is react, to emote, to be given news or realize something is afoot or sense a great change coming, and respond to it.

No one does that better than Jared Harris as King Geroge himself. I'll admit I’m in the tank for him after his memorable turn as Lane Pryce in Mad Men. But he is incredible here. You get the sense of someone who means a great deal to the country who demands to see him at his daughter’s wedding, to the head of government who’s pleased to see him as a friend and worries after his health, and to the family who still reveres him as a parent and partner as much as a leader. What “the job” means to him, and the struggle he undertakes to fulfill his duties despite his speech condition, despite a certain diffidence, and despite his declining health, all drive home the significance of what will soon be going away.

And yet, we also see this man who realizes he doesn’t have much time left. We see him tear up singing of country in front of his family on what will almost certainly be his last Xmas. We see him simply wanting to spend time with his daughter, wanting to impart the importance of a good partnership to his son-in-law, wrestling with his own limitations and the realization of what he’ll be leaving behind. These are hard, complicated things to convey. And yet Harris captures the warmth, the worry, the anger, and the love, often wordlessly. There are so many layers to this proud but retiring man, and Harris’ performance makes it a shame that his character will soon leave the show.

But you also get a sense of the rest of the royals, and the apparatus that exists around them. Elizabeth is a bit inert here, as suits a young woman who thought she had years before this would be her responsibility, and is otherwise kept on the sidelines. But we see the bumps of her marriage both inside and outside of it, the hints from an observant grandparent that she may yet be a force to be reckoned with, and the sense of someone just now reckoning with the size of the job in front of her. Clair Foy does a super job with the little reactions that reveal the true feelings of an upper cruster almost bred to keep a stiff upper lip. There’s a lot of strong underplaying to it, which is encouraging to see.

I’m admittedly a little more sanguine on Philip as a character (though Matt Smith does sound work in the role). Phillip is the bad boy, or what passes for it in royal circles. He’s disliked by the family. He doesn’t get all the traditions. He bristles at having to give up his naval career for this dog and pony show. But he and ELizabeth do seem to genuinely love one another and, more to the point, his growing up outside of this power structure lets him see what his fellow royals don’t -- that their aides are puffing them up about George’s health.

That is the other major thrust of this. It’s not simply that George is dying of a cancer his doctor won't’ even name until the King’s condition worsens. It’s about how this institution is meant to maintain stability, project strength, in ways that are abnormal and arguably inhuman for the people inside it. The royal family, including George himself, are kept out of the know. And so the way everyone seems sheltered, unprepared for the tremendous blow that’s about to come, stands out in an organization devoted to duty and continuity. If there is a recurring motif in the episode, it is George having some drastic health episode, only to light up another cigarette, showing the hypopia, the ignorance, the ongoing tragedy, in the face of something that is getting worse, not better.

But other institutions exist, and the most interesting wildcard in this equation is none other than Winston Churchill. The superlative Jonathan Lithgow chomps down on the role and never lets go. His Churchill is every bit witty and gregarious grump you would want, full of bon mots and a slick but sincere devotion to his country. The fact that Winston picks up on George’s illness, with it strengthening, rather than diminishing, his resolve to see it through for another term as Prime Minister, shows a savvy perceptiveness.

But he is also Geroge’s parallel. The two men feel they must continue, for the good of the nation and the institutions they serve. And yet Winston too smokes up his own cigars, and gets pained looks from his wife when he declares the country needs five more years of stable administration and they return to 10 Downing Street. He too is a man with a shelf life, another giant and icon of the hardships of the Second World War sticking it out as best he can because he must, but no longer possessed of the strength and vigor needed for these posts.

That is the focus of this opening hour -- two lions in decline, surrounded by their pride, who slowly come to grips what they are losing, and what they’ll be inheriting, when their new age unexpectedly begins.