'The Crown' review: Series ends on a respectful note

WHAT IT'S ABOUT Soon after the death of Princess Diana in 1997, Prince William (Ed McVey) and his father, Prince Charles (Dominic West), are at a bitter impasse, just as Queen Elizabeth (Imelda Staunton) has a new prime minister, Tony Blair (Bertie Carvel), whom she is slightly in awe of. Blair — as well as Elizabeth's grandsons William and Harry (Luther Ford) — are looking to the future, but the queen not so much. In fact, she's looking to the past, or one night in particular, at the end of World War II. Her beloved sister, Margaret (Lesley Manville), puckishly likes to remind her of the occasion. Meanwhile, William's love life begins to come into focus at St. Andrew's, where he meets Kate Middleton (Meg Bellamy).

The remaining six episodes of the 6th and final season drop Thursday; this review is based on the first five (the 10th episode was not available).

MY SAY Early on in this final wrap, while briefly under the spell of her charismatic prime minister, the queen asks him for a list of ways she might pull the monarchy into the 20th, soon to be 21st, century. His suggestions are reasonable, each with the life expectancy of a snowball in hell: Why not, he muses, lose some of those court roles that date back to the 15th century, like keeper of the swans?

Queen Elizabeth II's upper lip stiffens, along with her resolve. She'll do nothing of the sort. Poor clueless Tony has no idea what she's thinking, but then who ever really does? She then slowly closes the drapes, so to speak, on meddling prime ministers and madding crowds, and gets back to business-as-usual. Swan Man stays. Tony will soon be gone. Tradition rules.

 If this were “Friends,” that particular episode might be called “The One about the Queen's Herb Strewer” (Yes, there is a royal strewer of herbs.) It's amusing but also reveals exactly what “The Crown'' and viewers are up against in this six-part sprint to the finish line. With Diana gone, there's no place to go but sideways — to the affairs of court, William's love life, and finally Charles and Camilla's 2005 nuptials. (Well that's something to look forward to, am I right?)

The drama of Diana and Charles sucked up all the oxygen the last two and a half seasons, and now there's plenty of oxygen to go around. A pity — it was vastly more entertaining the other way around.

We should have seen this deeply respectful, marginally dull wrap coming, and probably would have had we bothered to give it much thought. Princess Diana inspired a pair of memorable performances (Emma Corrin, Elizabeth Debicki), yet given the magnitude of the actors who played her (including Olivia Colman and Staunton) the queen herself never truly inspired quite the same.

That was the whole idea because in the judgment of “The Crown,” the monarchy is forever — not some oxygen sponge or TV soap opera or amusement for the masses (even if it often and undeniably is). Those drapes do need to be drawn on occasion. Di threatened to consume “The Crown” so “The Crown” needed to remind viewers, or perhaps itself, who this entire series was about from the beginning.

Her name was Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor, and she died Sept. 8, 2022. “The spell we cast,” her fictional counterpart here explains, “is our immutability. Tradition is our strength, and respect for our forebears.”

Respect for the queen must be paid too and respect will be. No doubt she herself would have savored this gentle coda.

BOTTOM LINE I, for one, will miss this treasure — even this, at times, dutifully dull wrap — and already do.