Season 3

S3 of 'The Crown' is the weakest of the opening three seasons. With that said, it still maintains a strong level to remain an impressive show.

I'm always against recasts, no matter the reasoning. It takes me out of the production completely, which makes me spend a decent amount of episodes rewarming to the new faces. That's the exact same feelings as I have here, though I do at least appreciate their reasoning for doing so is at least meaningful.

The toughest one to realign my positive beliefs for was obviously Olivia Colman replacing Claire Foy. Colman is no Foy but by the midway point I got back to enjoying seeing Queen Elizabeth II onscreen. Tobias Menzies is another, one who I'm still not entirely convinced by though it's undeniable that he produces good things in season three. Ben Daniels as Antony is one that probably affects the character itself most, as I had no interest in him throughout despite finding Matthew Goode's portrayal interesting last time out.

Those are my somewhat gloomy thoughts of the new cast members, but I do have constructive opinions on a few of the others. Firstly, Josh O'Connor (Charles) and Erin Doherty (Anne) are excellent additions - they both give terrific performances. Helena Bonham Carter (Margaret) and Charles Dance (Mountbatten) are also pleasing to see appear.

I look forward to seeing season four arrive.

This show has become a weird one to rate, because while I don't think the quality has gone down at all from a production or performance standpoint and thus this is still one of the best crafted shows I've seen, my interest seems to be going down. It was a harsh transition to the new actors in this third season. I don't think anyone is miscast, I think the performances are spectacular and really show a maturing while also now bringing in more central roles for characters who are coming of age, but it was still a harsh transition after falling in love with the performances of the first two seasons. I also just found so many of the episodes pretty boring in here, and that's probably just due to the novelty wearing off and things feeling very monogamous with not enough new to keep me engaged. I had a hard time finishing this season. Whenever I had some spare time I would think about watching another episode and I just never really wanted to watch any more. There are some big standouts though, particularly episode 7 which may just be my favorite episode of the entire series to this point. But it's just buried in between so many other episodes that I didn't connect with or engage with beyond the phenomenal production. IDK, I just seem to have lost interest on a personal level. Still a good show but one that I will probably take a break from and perhaps revisit later if I feel the desire to again.