Television: The Crown, "Marionettes" & "Vergangenheit"

This season thus far seems to have less flow than the first. For example, in the episode "Marionettes," Elizabeth must deal with Lord Altrincham, who points out that she's not very good at things like speaking to the common people. He antagonizes Elizabeth, and rather than get the usual bucking up from the press, the papers eat up the feud with a spoon—it's good for business, after all.

In the end, Altrincham's "constructive" criticism proves correct in many ways, and he offers a number of opportunities to improve/modernize the monarchy.

And then the episode ends and we all move on apparently. That's where the flow thing comes in. There's the Altrincham episode and then he's gone. (On the plus side: corgis!)

Look, maybe that's how it really happened, too. He was a flare that burned out. But it feels really random that he introduced an entirely new normal to the monarchy and then is never heard from again or even mentioned.

"Vergangenheit" instead moves on to a bit of a PR crisis when historians find old Nazi files that tie the Duke of Windsor to Hitler's regime. At about the same time, said Duke of Windsor returns to England via his niece's sufferance to poke about in hopes of landing a diplomatic position. Life in France has begun to bore him, and he says he wants to serve his country, but it's intimated that perhaps he just misses hanging out with the high and mighty. There's a lifestyle he wishes to lead, and to do so he must have the means, namely connections and a bit of money and freedom to move around. He comes very close to getting it, too, with three possibilities on the table, when Elizabeth is forced to tell him no. The historians are given permission to publish their findings, and any hope the Duke of Windsor might have had are irreparably dashed.

There's a subplot in this episode involving the reverend Billy Graham. Elizabeth invites him to Buckingham Palace and, after discovering the truth about her uncle, asks the reverend about the nature of forgiveness. Not having been alive back then, it's difficult for me to wrap my brain around the idea that Graham was such a draw and influence, but those were different times, and hey, I grew up in the American South—I remember when Jimmy Swaggart and Robert Tilton were big deals. So I guess this was kind of the same thing?

Both these episodes were some of the best thus far in the season. Though very contained (again, that issue with flow), they were interesting. I didn't feel the need to play games on my phone like during the Margaret episode. That has to be worth something in this day and age.