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.
  1. Episode 10 Sleep, Dearie Sleep
    The Crown Series-Finale Recap: The Party’s Over The Crown ends holding firm to its adoration of Queen Elizabeth.
  2. Episode 9 Hope Street
    The Crown Recap: Dracula Royal Family William continues to be torn between leading a (somewhat) normal life and his familial duties.
  3. Episode 8 Ritz
    The Crown Recap: Good-bye, You Elizabeth isn’t ready to let Margaret go yet, but she knows she must.
  4. Episode 7 Alma Mater
    The Crown Recap: Stalking When William met Kate.
  5. Episode 6 Ruritania
    The Crown Recap: Popularity Contest Tony Blair is mean girling Queen Elizabeth into considering getting more in touch with regular people.
  6. Episode 5 Willsmania
    The Crown Recap: Royal Angst It’s somehow dull to watch Prince William get thrust into the spotlight and turn into a teenage heartthrob in the most challenging moment of his life.
  7. Episode 4 Aftermath
    The Crown Recap: Ta-Da! In the aftermath of tragedy, Charles and Elizabeth work through their reactions with a little help from Ghost Diana.
  8. Episode 3 Dis-Moi Oui
    The Crown Recap: Living in the Madness We arrive at the inevitable, an incredibly tense episode detailing Diana’s last 24 hours in excruciatingly claustrophobic detail.
  9. Episode 2 Two Photographs
    The Crown Recap: Oh, That Girl The most anti-Diana episode of the season so far paints the adrift princess as the personification of scandal and poor judgment.
  10. Episode 1 Persona Non Grata
    The Crown Season-Premiere Recap: Cruel Summer Our favorite royal soap has reached the beginning of the end. Cue “Tubthumping.”

More on The Crown

  1. gold rush
    Who’s Our 2024 Emmy Villain?You can blame Zaslav all you want for HBO’s decline, but he still doesn’t get the No. 1 spot.
    By Joe Reid
  2. tv review
    The Crown Keeps Its DistanceWith the tragedy of Diana, Peter Morgan plays it safe to the very end.
    By Jackson McHenry
  3. buffering
    The 8 Biggest Takeaways From Netflix’s Latest Ratings DumpNo one watched your favorite prestige movie, but everyone ate up One Piece.
    By Josef Adalian and Eric Vilas-Boas
  4. gold rush
    Succession
    Who Will Succeed Succession as Emmys Darling?When a TV show that has dominated the ballot for years ends, the subsequent ceremony presents a scramble to fill the blank spaces.
    By Joe Reid
  5. mug shots
    Manhunt Knows What to Do With Tobias Menzies’s FaceNever has a hair-and-makeup team so perfectly framed an actor’s most compelling asset.
    By Nicholas Quah
  6. 2023 emmys in 2024
    The Bear Isn’t Catching Any Emmys for ‘Fishes’ Just YetThe Television Academy is still on season one.
    By Jason P. Frank
  7. heavy lies the crown
    Imelda Staunton Was Playing Queen Elizabeth When Queen Elizabeth DiedThe actress’s scheduled 10 days off just so happened to coincide with the country’s 10 days of mourning.
    By Tom Smyth
  8. endings
    The Crown Says the Quiet Parts Out LoudPeter Morgan’s final word on Elizabeth’s reign hits with all the subtlety of a two-by-four to the face.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  9. chat room
    Meg Bellamy on Kate and Carole Middleton’s Weird Crown Dynamic“I don’t think she has as much power on Kate as people might think.”
    By Devon Ivie
  10. 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
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