1x03 Windsor

[7.6/10] Up to this point, The Crown has been a very humanist, character-focused show. It being concerned with monarchs and prime ministers, there’s obviously been some political elements at play. But it’s largely been more of a character drama, focused on what it’s like to experience these situations more so than the larger governmental and political forces in effect.

“Windsor” is different. Suddenly, we’re in Game of Thrones-like territory. (Or, more accurately, two shows that both pulled from the power struggles of English history are converging.) In the wake of King George’s death, various power brokers are coming out of the woodwork to try to secure this and that.

The former King Edward is back in the fold, still harboring grudges and trying to secure a greater allowance for him and legitimacy for his wife. Queen Elizabeth’s father-in-law, the cheerfully named “Dickie” Mountbatten wants to ensure his name is emblazoned on the royal house. One of his party guests turns out to be the German nephew of Elizabeth’s grandmother, who engages in an equal and opposite campaign to ensure that the crown remains in the House of Windsor.

Churchill himself gets pulled into the mix, delaying Elizabeth’s coronation because he knows his party won’t push him aside until it happens, and trading favors with Edward and others to keep things rolling. And all the while, Elizabeth’s mother and grandmother are keeping up appearances, but working to slight or stymie Edwarad who they see as selfish for forsaking the responsibility of being king and casting it onto his brother. And all of these people mean to steamroll young Elizabeth in the process, a veritable babe in the woods amid so much plotting and horse trading.

I have to admit that I enjoy it. It’s not something I need every week or anything, but seeing how power is made and maintained, the various deals and conflicting objectives and ascendent and falling centers of interest is fascinating to me. If nothing else, it’s good drama, watching various bitter or power-hungry players do battle with one another on their field of choice.

But I also like seeing how, right from the jump, Queen Elizabeth is snot someone who can be bulldozed. She rejects the pretenses of decorum that Churchill insists on, confronts him over his delay of her coronation, and tells him to inform, rather than consult, the cabinet of her decisions about her name and place of residence. She recognizes what her uncle is after in their sit-down, insists on an apology, and handles a mercenary offensive with grace but also cunning. And notably, when she gets a box with her title emblazoned on it, she remembers her father’s advice and flips the stack upside down to get to the important stuff first. Part of the benefit of “Windsor” is to show that despite being new in the job, Elizabeth is no pushover, but rather a formidable player on the board in her own right.

And yet, what distinguishes her from her uncle, among many other things, is that she will make the hard choice and sacrifice her persona and domestic bliss in the name of fulfilling her duty. The show seems a bit sanguine about that choice. The former King Edward is something of an antagonist in this piece, coming up with cruel nicknames for his relatives, planning to drain them dry to the best of his abilities, and making backroom deals to accomplish all this. And yet, as seen in his willingness to abdicate, and more artistically, in the scene of his sunlight dance with Wallis, he’s also treated as someone who genuinely loves the woman he’s with, with his devotion painted as admirable.

And it cuts against Elizabeth’s reactions to Philip. Despite the importance of both to him, she’s ultimately persuaded by her government to have her family adopt the Windsor moniker rather than his surname and to move their family into Buckinghma palace, the two points he wanted to stand firm on. He’s not wrong when he says that this has meant giving up his career, his life, his name, and his home. It is an awful lot to ask of someone, particularly when balanced out only by propriety and hierarchy of old houses and old titles.

But what I find most fascinating about “Windsor” is the suggestion that it’s the same sort of sacrifice for Elizabeth. The ghost of King George lingers in the frame here. In speeches about wanting to be a simple country wife, a mother, a woman, we understand that however instinctively good she may be at all of this, it’s not what Elizabeth truly wanted, anymore than her father did. She might have preferred the quiet life, one where such concessions are not necessary, one where they could be a anormal (if obscenely privileged) family away from the spotlight. As much as Elizabeth is asking of her immediate family, she’s forced to give up just as much, if not more, when thrust into the center of so many demands greater than herself.

Otherwise, the episode is sound on its own terms. I can’t say I’m enraptured with the story of Princess Margaret’s affair with Peter, but the salad days before some inevitable downfall are interesting enough, especially when they almost get caught. The back-handed put downs Elizabeth’s grandmother offers for the former King Edward are quietly brutal in an entertaining way. And little details like the grandmother’s delight in Prussisan cooking or Elizabeth’s disdain for pugs add texture to the world.

Despite all of that, despite all the political mishegoss that surrounds her, she’s still gracious and canny enough to want the advice of her defamed uncle. There are so few people who know the difficulties and intricacies of the job she’s about to step into. However much of a disgrace he may be, however much her family members may blame him for the death of her father, she recognizes the practicality of hearing his perspective. That alone is a sign that she's more ready for this than anyone thinks.