The ending seems rushed and incomplete.
After spending an entire episode on Willsmania, which had no point, and the topic was brought up again two episodes later, the last episode ended up covering too much but there was so much more to tell. We could’ve had an episode on ‘Waity Katie’ and how they prepared her compared to Diana, on Will and Kate marriage (which made the Queen so happy), on how the Tories came back into power and led to Brexit (which the Queen didn’t support), the Queen’s speech during Covid (which was one of her most remarkable), her humour with Paddington bear or the opening of London’s Olympic Games, Prince Philip’s death, her final jubilee and finally her death.
The Queen seemed too soft in this last part, more grandmother than Queen. Her thinking of abdicating was a ridiculous plot, since she was never going to do it. We already had too much soap opera, we didn’t need more! In contrast, they ignored that Prince Philip didn’t attend the civil ceremony for being against the marriage. It was a nice touch to have William be realistic and in touch with the Crown needs, but ultimately Charles and Camilla marriage happened because people were fed up with the subject.
Rushed and incomplete, the final episodes fail to be a “love letter to Queen Elizabeth” as the producer wanted, but instead putting himself in good graces with the current King and with Netflix business partner, Prince Harry.
Review by moonilismBlockedParentSpoilers2023-12-18T11:22:09Z
I cried so much this season. I think it was an unexpected place to end the show but they pulled it off gracefully, imo. The queen's unwavering determination to do the job she's been tasked with has been the through-line drawn across all the seasons and they doubled down on it in this ending in a very touching way. It's bittersweet, almost all bitter: you feel how truly alone she is and the absence of the person she could have been without this great burden. But she has support in her husband, who believes she is the only one fit for the job, as well as the nation's. And that has to be enough.
On a lighter note, they did Harry kind of dirty. I don't know if it was the casting, the script, the editing or all of the above, but aside from his only plot line being the Nazi costume, this last episode especially felt like Harry's villain origin story :laughing:. He was shooting death glares left, right and centre and looked like he was plotting to kill William at more than one point hahaha. Meanwhile this show has also been very gracious to Charles. Overall I'm sad to see it end, but it did have to at some point because it was starting to get uncomfortably close to the present day.