"The Crown" (season 4)

So I have binged almost every evening - treated myself with two episodes nightly with some Sangrilla that made me feel totally compassionate for Queen Elizabeth II and usually after few glasses I perfectly knew what she went trough and how she felt - on the other hand, four seasons is four seasons and I started to feel slightly saturated with the whole thing - even found myself skipping some scenes because it just went on and on. Every season had its highlights but this is the first time I noticed a certain padding just to make the episode longer. 

At this point I got so used to Olivia Colman that I almost completely forgot Claire Foy (who comes as a flashback in one scene) - Colman does wonders with what is basically a very ungrateful characterisation of a stoic and dutiful middle-aged woman who hardly ever shows her opinions or emotions. Her perfect match is Gillian Anderson in a role of the first UK's female prime minister and when these two lock the horns, its a white-hot duel and a highlight of the whole season. Both ladies are strong willed and fight in a silk gloves, bouncing and dancing around each other - you get the impression that Elizabeth never met someone as Thatcher. They are just perfect. The rest of the cast pales in comparison to them - everyone has a scene or two, an episode where focus is on them but honestly I didn't really care for anybody else. Both Josh O'Connor and Emma Corrin as ill-matched Charles and Diana eventually become tiresome - as Elizabeth herself once said, they are both spoiled, immature and endlessly complaining unnecessarily. I guess this will be a focus of the future season but I kind of dislike them both and have no patience for such whinny, entitled aristocrats who are so busy with navel-gazing that they expect the whole world must be focused on them. While media loves to portrait Diana as a victim, I do think that despite her youth, she got what she wanted - Charles was never a dashing prince and obviously his main attraction was in his social position - once things soured, both found themselves bad-tempered and demanding attention, where in fact two mature, confident people would just turn the blind eye and keep their private life secluded. Another link in the chain is somehow obscured role of Camilla Parker Bowles who was in fact very important in all of this and how she managed to be adulteress all awhile married to her husband and dating Charles. At this point the family suddenly doesn't look so nice anymore, you get the impression they are Mafia in their own way. Now I need a break.