How Critics Reviewed Season Six of 'The Crown'

The Crown's sixth and final season debuted its first four episodes on Thursday, dividing critics in the process.

The hit royal drama, that first aired in 2016, charts the life and reign of Queen Elizabeth II, and the first instalment of the highly anticipated sixth season covers the turbulent final weeks and death of Princess Diana, played by Elizabeth Debicki.

The controversial subject matter of Diana's death earned the show a wave of pre-release criticism after it was revealed that the princess would be depicted in one episode as a ghost. This device has been used by other royal entertainment projects, though The Crown's creator, Peter Morgan, has stated that he viewed the appearances as more projections than spiritual apparitions.

As the first four episodes were released on Netflix on Thursday, so the first wave of reviews were published—with varying degrees of praise and criticism.

The British media appears particularly divided, with The Guardian newspaper giving the show just one star.

"So bad it's basically an out-of-body experience," Lucy Mangan wrote for the paper, describing it as "plummeting into the abyss" of "soapy nonsense."

A BBC critic, Caryn James, gave the episodes just two stars, writing that there is "clumsiness" throughout as heavy contrasts and "winking" metaphors are frequently included in the "predictable" closing seasons.

The Independent newspaper also gave two stars, with critic Nick Hilton writing that the show "routinely privileges gossip over emotional resonance," lamenting the made-up conversations between Diana's ghost and the characters of Queen Elizabeth II (Imelda Staunton) and Prince Charles (Dominic West) as "a device of incredible convenience, where subtlety would've been a more interesting choice."

Another two-star review was given by the Daily Telegraph, whose arts and entertainment editor Anita Singh also wrote of the "clumsy" way the historic subject matter covered in the episodes had been handled.

"The Crown completes its demolition job on the late queen's character," she wrote, describing Elizabeth in this part of the season as "little more than a hairdo: no interior life, no personality, no intelligence."

A thread in common between critics is the praise for the majority of the show's main cast, in particular Debicki's Diana.

Carol Midgley for The Times described Debicki's performance as "outstanding," giving the episodes a four-star review.

"The empathy with which she portrays the last eight weeks of Diana's life and the likeness to Diana is extraordinary," she said, before conceding that "while some 'imaginings'" such as Diana's ghostly apparitions are "gauche," most of the performances in the show "are excellent."

Praise for the show has also been echoed in the States, with Variety saying it has reclaimed its "glittering throne." Critic, Aramide Tinubu praised Debicki's "effervescent" grace as Diana, and championed Morgan's humanizing portrayal of the princess' love story with Dodi Fayed, played by Khalid Abdalla.

"With this devastating first section of its final chapter, Netflix's crown jewel bids farewell to an icon, and retakes its throne," Tinubu wrote.

The true test of the show's popularity will be reflected in the viewers rankings on sites such as Rotten Tomatoes, while initial social media activity has shown a general interest to see how the subject matter covered in the season, which is familiar to many old enough to have lived through it, will be shown on screen.

The Crown Season 6 Part 1 is available to stream on Netflix now.

James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek's royal reporter, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.

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