TV

The Crown

God stream The Queen.

Photo: Keith Bernstein/Netflix

Perhaps the crown jewel (pun intended) of Netflix’s prestige offerings, Peter Morgan’s historical drama tells the story of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign over the course of six seasons that cover many decades, from her initial rise to the throne to Princess Diana’s death and everything in between.

Seasons one and two star Claire Foy as the young queen, with Matt Smith playing Philip. Seasons three and four jump forward in time as Olivia Colman and Tobias Menzies play an older Elizabeth and Philip, respectively. Season five, which hit Netflix in 2022, and the upcoming sixth and final season, star Imelda Staunton and Jonathan Pryce.

  1. Episode 10 Gloriana
    The Crown Season-Finale Recap: Duty Prevails “Gloriana” does its best to build Elizabeth’s decision as a real crisis.
  2. Episode 9 Assassins
    The Crown Recap: Painting Mr. Churchill Why does “Assassins” focus so heavily on Winston Churchill?
  3. Episode 8 Pride & Joy
    The Crown Recap: The Absence of Noise “Pride & Joy” lays out dueling visions of the British monarchy.
  4. Episode 7 Scientia Potentia Est
    The Crown Recap: A Good Dressing Down What can Queen Elizabeth II actually do?
  5. Episode 6 Gelignite
    The Crown Recap: Much Ado It’s time, at last, to dig into the Princess Margaret drama.
  6. Episode 5 Smoke and Mirrors
    The Crown Recap: Coronation Day “Smoke and Mirrors” is the first truly standout episode of The Crown.
  7. Episode 4 Act of God
    The Crown Recap: The Great Smog A true-to-life London tragedy offers no easy narrative in “Act of God.”
  8. Episode 3 Windsor
    The Crown Recap: The Duke of Windsor As a costume drama, The Crown is an absolute dream.
  9. Episode 2 Hyde Park Corner
    The Crown Recap: It’s Not a Hat Regnal name or not, Elizabeth is still Elizabeth.
  10. Episode 1 Wolferton Splash
    The Crown Series Premiere Recap: All the Princess’s Men “Wolferton Splash” is defined by the male influences in Elizabeth’s life.
  1. Episode 10 Mystery Man
    The Crown Season-Finale Recap: Shut Up, Philip Was Prince Philip involved in the Profumo affair?
  2. Episode 9 Paterfamilias
    The Crown Recap: School Days “Paterfamilias” is a truly devastating episode.
  3. Episode 8 Dear Mrs. Kennedy
    The Crown Recap: Meet the Kennedys A muddled heap of JFK imitations, African politics, and lessons about public grief.
  4. Episode 7 Matrimonium
    The Crown Recap: A Woman for the Modern Age You don’t need to know royal history to know that Margaret’s marriage won’t go smoothly.
  5. Episode 6 Vergangenheit
    The Crown Recap: Elizabeth Learns a Lesson About Nazis Edward VIII and his wife Wallis throw themselves back into Elizabeth’s life.
  6. Episode 5 Marionettes
    The Crown Recap: Why Do You Hate the Queen? Thank goodness for Lord Altrincham.
  7. Episode 4 Beryl
    The Crown Recap: Goode Times What comes next for Princess Margaret and Tony?
  8. Episode 3 Lisbon
    The Crown Recap: The One Where Everyone Shaves Are we really supposed to sympathize with Philip?
  9. Episode 2 A Company of Men
    The Crown Recap: Any Port in a Storm Anybody wanna join Philip’s beard-growing competition?
  10. Episode 1 Misadventure
    The Crown Season-Premiere Recap: Batten Down the Hatches Things are not looking good for the United Kingdom.
  1. Episode 10 Cri de Coeur
    The Crown Season Finale Recap: There Is Only One Queen By at last accepting the role that she spent decades fighting against, Margaret gives her sister the strength to move the royal family forward.
  2. Episode 9 Imbroglio
    The Crown Recap: Unsuitable Lord Mountbatten and the Queen Mother’s scheme to suppress Charles and Camilla’s relationship sets in motion the royal family’s slow evolution.
  3. Episode 8 Dangling Man
    The Crown Recap: The Right Woman Before leaving this earth, the Duke of Windsor uses Charles’s burgeoning relationship with Camilla to sow the seeds of another succession crisis.
  4. Episode 7 Moondust
    The Crown Recap: Failure to Launch The Apollo 11 lunar mission proves an inspired avenue by which to explore Philip’s deep-seated self-loathing.
  5. Episode 6 Tywysog Cymru
    The Crown Recap: Duty Calls Charles’ investiture as Prince of Wales is a learning experience in more ways than one.
  6. Episode 5 Coup
    The Crown Recap: It’s Not Easy Being Queen Elizabeth is cruelly reminded of why she can’t spend her days raising horses: She has to keep her power-hungry family members in check.
  7. Episode 4 Bubbikins
    The Crown Recap: Hidden Figure With Philip’s mother newly installed at the palace, Princess Anne coerces a family reconciliation via an age-old secret royal weapon: the press.
  8. Episode 3 Aberfan
    The Crown Recap: All Things Bright and Beautiful In the face of unfathomable disaster, Elizabeth remains frustratingly on-brand.
  9. Episode 2 Margaretology
    The Crown Recap: Dull vs. Dazzling We return to the complicated relationship between the royal sisters for a deliciously soapy (and historically suspect) Margaret showcase.
  10. Episode 1 Olding
    The Crown Season-Premiere Recap: Changing of the Guard We meet back up with Elizabeth, looking very different but still much the same, at the dawn of a particularly turbulent time in British history.
  1. Episode 10 War
    The Crown Season-Finale Recap: Iced Out Diana is the face of the royal family now, and she’s trapped inside its gilded cage.
  2. Episode 9 Avalanche
    The Crown Recap: All I Ask of You From “Uptown Girl” to Phantom, Diana just keeps looking for love in all the wrong places.
  3. Episode 8 48:1
    The Crown Recap: Queen of Denial In our reality, the Queen will never show partiality when it comes to her prime ministers. In The Crown’s reality, however…
  4. Episode 7 The Heredity Principle
    The Crown Recap: Family Secrets The first and only Margaret-centric episode of season four finds her once again trying, and failing, to stop hiding behind the shadow of her title.
  5. Episode 6 Terra Nullius
    The Crown Recap: The People’s Princess A tour of Australia and New Zealand exposes the untenable situation that is Diana and Charles’ marriage.
  6. Episode 5 Fagan
    The Crown Recap: The Visitor Michael Fagan urgently needs to talk to someone who doesn’t think the prime minister is the nation’s hero. Hey, how about the queen?
  7. Episode 4 Favourites
    The Crown Recap: Mom Guilt Despite their contrasting parenting styles, both the queen and Thatcher ended up with some hot messes for children.
  8. Episode 3 Fairytale
    The Crown Recap: Unhappily Ever After Charles and Diana aren’t starting a new life together, they’re securing the future of the monarchy. Love and affection need not apply.
  9. Episode 2 The Balmoral Test
    The Crown Recap: The Outsiders Thatcher and Diana both get a crash course in the royal family’s Ibble-Dibble-Dos and Ibble-Dibble-Don’ts.
  10. Episode 1 Gold Stick
    The Crown Season-Premiere Recap: The Troubles An eventful season kicks off with an eventful episode that delivers a major historical event, a doomed meet-cute, and the Iron Lady.
  1. Episode 10 Decomissioned
    The Crown Season-Finale Recap: Full Circle The season ends with another poll, another new prime minister, another boat trip, and a lingering sense of unease.
  2. Episode 9 Couple 31
    The Crown Recap: The War of the Waleses Breakups suck, but this episode doesn’t.
  3. Episode 8 Gunpowder
    The Crown Recap: The Wrong Side of History The evolving relationship between the media and the monarchy gets teased out in a classic ideological tale of old guard versus new.
  4. Episode 7 No Woman’s Land
    The Crown Recap: Tear Down the Temple If this episode of The Crown had aired three years ago, Martin Bashir might have gotten a very different edit.
  5. Episode 6 Ipatiev House
    The Crown Recap: DNA Business Ah The Crown, a show about the royal family — you know, the Romanovs.
  6. Episode 5 The Way Ahead
    The Crown Recap: Tampongate Some doubted The Crown would touch this incident, and yet here we are.
  7. Episode 4 Annus Horribilis
    The Crown Recap: Love’s Refrain Things heat up in this Margaret-focused episode (literally, in Windsor Castle’s case).
  8. Episode 3 Mou Mou
    The Crown Recap: Puttin’ on the Ritz The Crown steps away from the royal family and puts the spotlight on Mohamed and Dodi Al-Fayed.
  9. Episode 2 The System
    The Crown Recap: True Grief Philip helps a family member through a hard time but basically tells Diana to suck it up.
  10. Episode 1 Queen Victoria Syndrome
    The Crown Season-Premiere Recap: I’m on a Boat Netflix’s prestige drama is really amping up the drama as season five kicks off.
  • close read The Crown Did Diana Dirty Season five’s diminishment of the “people’s princess” as petulant and reckless feels like nefarious intent hidden behind fictional license. By Roxana Hadadi
  • emergency discussion Does The Crown Like the Royals or Not? A season about the Diana and Charles divorce would seem like a prime opportunity to tear into the monarchy. And yet … By Jackson McHenry and Kathryn VanArendonk
  • tv review The Crown Wades Into a Royal Mess The choppy but absorbing fifth season of Netflix’s monarchical saga feels divorced from what came before. By Jen Chaney

More on The Crown

  1. fall preview 2023
    Fall TV Can’t Stop Looking BackwardThis season, streaming embraces a model that makes it safer to tell stories about the past.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  2. casting call
    The Search for the Next Will and KateThe Crown’s casting director on how the show found the right pair to bring an interior life to these tabloided young royals.
    By Jackson McHenry
  3. the crown
    Tom Cruise and a Bear Added to King’s Coronation Guest ListAnd maybe Nicki Lewinsky.
    By Zoe Guy
  4. keeping up with the fake royals
    The Crown Coronates Its Kate Middleton and Prince WilliamSo prep.
    By Rebecca Alter
  5. close read
    The Crown Did Diana DirtySeason five’s diminishment of the “people’s princess” as petulant and reckless feels like nefarious intent hidden behind fictional license.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  6. chat room
    The Crown’s Olivia Williams Brought Monty Python Energy to Her Tampon Scene“It ends up with Charles, literally, saying he would go round and round the bowl and never flush down. It’s not a sexual fantasy.”
    By Devon Ivie
  7. chat room
    The Crown’s Lesley Manville Missed Her One Chance to Meet Princess MargaretVia an invitation from her friend David Bowie.
    By Jackson McHenry
  8. keeping up with the (fake) royals
    Princess Diana Is Haunting Her Biographer Through Elizabeth Debicki“It was like being with a ghost.”
    By Jason P. Frank
  9. emergency discussion
    Does The Crown Like the Royals or Not?A season about the Diana and Charles divorce would seem like a prime opportunity to tear into the monarchy. And yet …
    By Jackson McHenry and Kathryn VanArendonk
  10. tv review
    The Crown Wades Into a Royal MessThe choppy but absorbing fifth season of Netflix’s monarchical saga feels divorced from what came before.
    By Jen Chaney
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