Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		4.0

The Crown: The Complete Fifth Season Blu-ray Movie Review

"Well, I've had to seek companionship elsewhere."

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown November 23, 2023

While the first and second installments of 'The Crown' covered 1947 to 1955 and 1956 to 1964, respectively, the third series (which introduced Olivia Coleman as Queen Elizabeth II) ran from 1964 to 1977. Season Four began in 1979 and ended in 1990, with Margaret Thatcher (Gillian Anderson) at the center of the drama. Season Five focuses on the royal affairs of the 1990s, specifically 1991 through 1997, the year of Princess Diana's tragic death. Not only did Diana and Charles battle through a nasty split, Diana sat for a bombshell tell-all interview with the BBC, and a fire destroyed large portions of Windsor Castle. The season also uses "Diana: Her True Story", the Princess's biography (the writing of which she participated in), as some of its primary source material. Queen Elizabeth is played by Imelda Staunton this go-around, Jonathan Pryce is Prince Philip, Elizabeth Debicki portrays Diana, Dominic West is Prince Charles, Dominic West's son, Senan West, is Prince William, Lesley Manville steps in as Princess Margaret, Claudia Harrison plays Princess Anne, James Murray is Prince Andrew, Sam Wolf is Prince Edward, Olivia Williams and Humayun Saeed are Camila Parker Bowles and Dr. Hasnat Khan, Jonny Lee Miller is Prime Minister John Major, Bertie Carvel plays his successor Tony Blair, and Amir El-Masry and Salim Daw split the role of Harrods tycoon Mohamed Al-Fayed.

The draw of Season Five is, of course, Charles and Diana, former (and possibly current) targets of obsession of the US populace, who has long had a bizarre thirst for gossip concerning the British royals. There's plenty of dilemma and spectacle from the remaining slew of characters but C&D are what The Crown fans have been waiting for. The emotional and mental abuse Diana suffers, the cold calculations and distant affections of Charles, the affairs that lure them into the arms of others, the desire to hide the truth from the public, and Diana's stunning willingness to break centuries of protocol and bare all to the media, exposing the royal family for the vice-ridden narcissists they can often be. What more could you want? An alternate history twist where Princess Di survives the paparazzi chase and subsequent car accident of August 1997, sure. But consolation prize and minor spoiler: the fifth season ends in the summer of 1997 but doesn't go so far as to reach or depict her death. So brace yourself for tragic foreshadowing and an intense exploration of a royal family that's far more dysfunctional that it appears from the outside. And prepare to desperately want to free the woman at the center of the insanity. Like Spencer (one of the best films of 2021... period) and Kristen Stewart's haunting, albeit largely fictional, depiction of Diana, scene stealer Debicki offers up a tough but delicate rose of a rare royal, trapped by obligation and obedience but longing for a sense of self and loyalty from those who claim to love her but, especially in the case of Charles, prove otherwise.

If that all sounds a tad soap-y, well, it is. The magic of The Crown is that it's a soap opera that never presents or even feels much like a soap opera, which tend to drape themselves in hyperbolic anythings and everythings. Instead the series takes its sweet time, sketching out convincing people at the heart of every plot and conflict, then filling in the lines with a tapestry of details so researched and subdued that it begins to feel more like a documentary than docudrama. But take any two seconds and pull away from the mezmorization that has dug its claws into your brain and you'll spot the code in the Matrix, and it's a soap opera through and through. Is that a bad thing? God no. We live and die on the hill of soap operas; well, soaps cleverly disguised as more serious stuff, more legitimate heady drama for real actors with award-winning careers. But we all wink at one another and know. We all secretly see the thing that drags us from one episode to the next, greedy for the juicy bits and the next plot point that will send the royal family in the real world into a tizzy (probably when the writers manage to hit too close to home, nail down some deep truth exactly as it is and spook the person being portrayed on screen). Don't deny it. You love it. Is The Crown an amazing revelation of television drama? Not exactly. It's just the kind of show that opens its arms, wraps them round you and doesn't let go. So settle in and feed the gossip beastie lurking within the series pretending to be the next great TV masterpiece. Chances are you'll love every minute.

Season Five episodes include:

• 1. Queen Victoria Syndrome - A much-needed update to the Royal Yacht draws scrutiny to the Queen's reign. Hounded by the press, Charles and Diana have a second honeymoon in Italy.

• 2. The System - Prince Philip offers his support to a grieving family member. Keen to snatch a scoop, a tabloid journalist approaches Diana about a tell-all book.

• 3. Mou Mou - In 1946, an Egyptian street vendor finds inspiration in the abdicated King Edward. Years later, he eagerly tries to integrate into British High Society.

• 4. Annus Horribilis - Between a fire at Windsor Castle and tensions in her children's marriages, the Queen commemorates and reassesses her forty years on the throne of England.

• 5. The Way Ahead - Faced with the fallout of an intercepted call with Camilla and the consequent kickback to his marriage to Diana, Prince Charles finds himself at the center of a scandal he has to navigate often on his own.

• 6. Ipatiev House - Eager to lead a newly democratic Russia, President Yeltsin tries to win the Queen's support while she navigates new rifts in her long marriage to Prince Philip.

• 7. No Woman's Land - As the BBC's Martin Bashir goes to great lengths to secure an interview with Princess Diana, the lonely royal finds purpose and warmth in a London hospital.

• 8. Gunpowder - Queen Elizabeth II spends quality time with Prince William. On Guy Fawkes Night, fireworks make for a nice, perhaps even perfect, distraction from Diana's bombshell BBC interview.

• 9. Couple 31 - The Princess of Wales contends with the repercussions of her very public statements. The Queen asks the Prime Minister for his help, meanwhile, in a bit of a delicate family matter.

• 10. Decommissioned - After an onslaught of public scrutiny, Prince Charles forges a new geopolitical alliance in Hong Kong. Hohamed Al-Fayed offers his support to a newly divorced Diana, paving the way for a tragic end.

The Crown: The Complete Fifth Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Like other Sony TV releases, the 4-disc Blu-ray release of The Crown: The Complete Fifth Season features a fantastic 1080p/AVC-encoded beauty of a video transfer, one which represents a noticeable upgrade from the solid but low-bitrate streaming presentation of its Netflix counterpart. The series' color palette is suitably chilly and perfectly British, with cool primaries, lifelike fleshtones, natural black levels and nicely delineated, cinematic shadows. There isn't a hint of the artifacting and banding that plagues the Netflix image, nor is there any other anomaly to gripe about. Detail is outstanding; organic, not abnormally or artificially sharp but convincing. Fine textures are revealing and the series' lush production design, costuming and set work is captured with ease. The only thing that could make The Crown stand out any more than it does here is a 4K edition, but with this being Season Five, the likelihood of that is slim. Perhaps a future 4K box set. Either way, you can't go wrong with this one, particularly if you already own the previous four seasons on Blu-ray.

The Crown: The Complete Fifth Season Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Crown's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track is exactly as it should be: convincing and immersive, with the same touches of reality that the show brings to the screen. Voices are clean and crystal clear, without ever being overwhelmed or lost in the mix. Likewise, the side and rear channels are teeming with slick, subtle pans and spot-on directionality. Each castle, manor, governing hall and back room of power features the sounds of the world, nearby or pressing in from a distance; the drone of a clamoring media circus, the roar of an adoring crowd, the rage of protestors, the busy streets of London, the calm breeze and insect-songs of the countryside... these dance at the edges of the soundfield, creating a terrific experience. Low-end output is reserved, obviously, as there are rarely the sorts of moments that demand it throw its weight into the proceedings. But it still supports various elements nicely, adding a depth to elements that benefit from the subwoofer's attention. All told, you won't complain. The Crown's lossless track pairs with its video presentation wonderfully.

The Crown: The Complete Fifth Season Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• War of the Waleses (HD, 10 minutes) - Charles and Princess Di are front and center in this half history, half production featurette that homes in on the challenges of realizing such recent, debated events in a TV series.

• A Royal Transformation (HD, 7 minutes) - Enter the new blood as a new cast of royals join The Crown. Here the actors describe all the efforts made to reflect and resemble their real-life counterparts.

• Script To Screen (HD, 7 minutes) - A look at the research that goes into each season of the show.

The Crown: The Complete Fifth Season Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The 4-disc Blu-ray release of The Crown: The Complete Fifth Season could benefit from more special features but its video presentation is a near-perfect upgrade from its Netflix streaming counterpart, its lossless DTS-HD Master Audio track delivers, and the series itself finally arrives at the royal drama and in-fighting the show's fans have been hungry for. This one is easy to recommend.