In the latest and final season of Netflix’s “The Crown,” the first four episodes of which dropped Thursday (the last four are due for release Dec. 16), creator Peter Morgan and his fellow writers have created something memorable: an appallingly racist show. As a so-called historical show, it takes the wrong lessons from history by relying on the same tropes upon which empires are justified and built.
Creator Peter Morgan and his fellow writers have created something memorable: an appallingly racist show.
Mohamed al Fayed (the famed Egyptian businessman who owned Harrods) and his son Dodi (who was dating Diana when they were killed in a 1997 car crash), are portrayed as manipulative, coercive, and sometimes perverse misogynists who are completely devoid of moral compasses and are instead driven by their desire to climb socially. Gaining the acceptance of powerful white people and living a Western lifestyle appears to be their ultimate goal, and the characters (and the writers) fetishize and glorify whiteness in the process.
In contrast, the royal family — particularly Charles — is painted as deeply human, with complex emotional realities. Charles is portrayed as the noble hero and lasting love interest in Diana’s life, which is a curious artistic choice given that he was widely chastised by the British public for his cruelty toward her when she was alive. For example, one of the reasons he reportedly married Diana was she was presumed to be a virgin. He swiftly discarded her for Camilla Parker Bowles, with whom he continued his pre-existing romantic relationship.
After decades of journalists, academics, pundits and the public calling out the royal family’s often cruel treatment of Diana and pointing out how that cruelty contributed to the unraveling of her life, “The Crown’s” final season rewrites history, showing the royal family as loving and steady, who have her best interests at heart even though they are trapped by the confines of the…
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