The fifth season of The Crown just released on Netflix. Naturally, viewers are exhilarated because it has been two years since they debuted a new season. It takes place in the early to mid 90s and covers the end of Charles and Diana’s marriage including their divorce and the domino effects of such a major event. 

Every two seasons of The Crown, we get introduced to a new cast to reflect how the characters mature and change. Season five brings new cast members such as Dominic West as Charles Prince of Wales and Elizabeth Debicki as Diana, Princess of Wales. The story of season five mainly revolved around Charles and Diana’s tribulations and how rocky their relationship was throughout the divorce due to televised interviews they both gave. Charles gave his interview first where he admitted to an adulterous relationship with Camilla Parker Bowels, played by Olivia Williams. This invokes Diana to give her own interview, with her perspective and experience of it all to the BBC which eventually was the tipping point in the couple divorcing. 

The new episodes of The Crown came out just over a month after Queen Elizabeth II died which sparked the world’s interest in the life of the longest reigning monarch in England’s history. Viewers poured into the new season to try to get an idea of how the Queen lived her life. Imelda Staunton plays the Queen in season 5 as she becomes the third actress to take on this role in the series. She displays how the Queen changes as she becomes an older woman, one who’s now a veteran of the throne and deemed “stable” and “reliable”. The new season also portrays the loving relationship she has with her husband, Prince Phillip, who is played by Jonathan Pryce. 

The Crown has created a peep-hole into one of the most important families on earth and the trials and tribulations they have gone through, many of the problems similar to regular people all over the world. This window provides a different perspective for the public on how the royal family operates on a more personal level which is something that no other experience has.