'The Crown' series finale makes Will and Kate's romance boring: review

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The people’s princess is gone from “The Crown,” and it shows. 

The epic, generation-spanning royal-family Netflix drama “The Crown” is over, with its final six episodes (now streaming) covering Queen Elizabeth (Imelda Staunton) fretting about losing ground to Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair (Bertie Carvel) in the court of public opinion; the high school and college days of Prince William (Ed McVey) and his budding romance with Kate Middleton (Meg Bellamy); Prince Charles’ (Dominic West) wedding to Camilla Parker Bowles (Olivia Williams); and Prince Harry’s (Luther Ford) party-boy era – yes, including his Nazi costume scandal. 

After the first part of Season 6 covered the death of Princess Diana (Elizabeth Debicki), it’s no surprise that art imitates life: The other royals don’t cast as long of a shadow in the public imagination as Diana, and their on-screen presence reflects that downgrade. 

Viewers who find William and Middleton bland will feel vindicated, because their TV counterparts are mostly colorless. The actors make a fine effort, but they don’t have much to work with. 

There’s a lack of specificity to “The Crown’s” take on William, like he’s a generic “poor rich boy” stock character. A lot of screen time is spent on him wandering around looking melancholy, and getting petulant about being in the spotlight — “I hate it, all the screaming and shouting and attention,” he complains. 

Cue the world’s smallest violin. The characters on other family dramas such as “Succession” or “Yellowstone” would eat him for breakfast. 

William’s biggest problem is being rich and famous, and incorrectly thinking that his crush doesn’t like him back. Whether or not he’s based on a real figure, that doesn’t make for a compelling character to watch — especially compared to his relatives in earlier seasons, who dealt with politics, deaths and dramatic divorces.

Maybe in an effort to show that the family still has regular issues, there’s a scene where William reads the grades he got in school. When the list comes to William’s “history of art” class, Harry scoffs, “History of fart.” Ladies and gentlemen, Emmy-winning writing. 

Nevertheless, it’s not all a wash. The acting is as strong as ever, it’s nice to see Claire Foy and Olivia Colman in brief cameos (as the queen chats with her younger selves) and Princess Margaret’s (Lesley Manville) death is appropriately poignant. 

And, there’s some juicy moments.

Mohamed Al-Fayed (Salim Daw) briefly surfaces to sow conspiracy theories that the royal family killed Diana and his son.

Viewers who also watch the “Game of Thrones” spinoff “House of the Dragon” will get a kick out of seeing Eve Best (who plays Rhaenys Targaryen) as Carole Middleton, Kate’s mother, who schemes to throw her daughter at William. 

Kate’s infamous transparent-dress catwalk moment is re-created, and there’s some teenage angst — which feels out of place on “The Crown” — when it seems like she may not share William’s feelings. But these moments lack tension, since we know that’s obviously untrue. 

The icy Elizabeth gets some softer moments as she advises William, “Don’t lose faith” during his romantic woes.

Whatever you think of the real adult Harry, young Harry on “The Crown” is the only royal having any fun. 

For instance, Harry gives William flavored condoms in front of the royal family, calls him a “swot” at a press conference, and later calls him a “frigid weirdo” and tells him to, “sire some illegitimate bastards and alter the lines of succession.” 

Creator Peter Morgan has previously stated that he won’t follow the royal family into the Meghan Markle era, because he has a “20 year rule,” as it would feel too “journalistic” to write about events that happened closer to the present day. 

But as “The Crown” ends with a whimper, rather than a bang, it shows that perhaps he should push that rule back another decade or two. He struggles to mine interest from William — maybe because his real counterpart hasn’t had enough time to do much that would make for good TV drama. Or, perhaps Morgan is simply too timid to risk ruffling William’s feathers, when the real man is barely middle-aged.

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