 The Crown Season 5 is here, and it's time for them to cover the 1990s, one of the most turbulent decades for the royal family, a time period we've been waiting for really since the show premiered back in 2016. A whole new decade means an all-new cast betraying a whole new set of historical events. I'm Matt Rogers and join me today as we talk all things The Crown Season 5. Now I'm bringing you all the latest news and updates for The Crown and delivering it straight to your subscription feed, so to stay up to date and support the channel be sure to hit that like button, subscribe, and ring that bell to not miss a single thing. Now this review will contain spoilers, and although I'll steer away from major plot points if you're not familiar with royal history and yet to watch the entire season, this is your warning. But let's start with the costumes, sets, and music, all perfectly appropriate as always. Every two seasons they really have a way of making you feel like you're in a familiar place with a familiar soundtrack, although you're surrounded by new faces. These actors led by the one and only Emelda Staunton, taking the reins from Olivia Coleman. Now I haven't previously seen a truly emotional side of Staunton's performances, maybe that's just me just not watching enough of her filmography, but she really has a great way of staying quiet and strong, but betraying internal emotional turmoil at the same time, which we saw in multiple scenes whilst she took verbal abuse from almost all immediate members of her family. Now Staunton presented as a tougher monarch to what we've seen in previous seasons, but with a lighter sense of humour, especially than Coleman's Queen Elizabeth who was seen as quite serious, but that of course is also heavily reliant on the writing rather than just the actress playing her. I don't know if Staunton was my favourite portrayal of the Queen in The Crown, but I'm going to be doing another video on that topic. Although there were few, her scenes with Diana were captivating, which brings me to Elizabeth DeBicchi as Diana, who was extremely charming and had great chemistry with her scene partners like her phone calls with William and the sports spectating with Muhammad Al-Fayed. Even if she was a bit inappropriate gushing over the doctor whilst her acupuncturist stressed over her husband's surgery. But the voice, the accent, the mannerisms and most of all the look was an uncanny performance of Diana. Kristen Stewart was good, but this was on another level. Jonathan Price, who added to a great lineup of the Philips have had in earlier seasons, a powerful and stern presence in every one of his scenes, the best of which when he stood up for the Queen against her mother, a red glimpse at their true partnership. Leslie Manville as Margaret had some powerful scenes, her monologue on Peter Townsend to the Queen was heart-wrenching. Dominic West, although not looking as much like Charles as I'd like, really fell into the character nicely, and the voice work he did was a huge credit to him. An honourable mention goes to Johnny Lee Miller as Prime Minister John Major, Olivia Williams as Camilla and a bigger than I expected role from Sin and West as Prince William. Interestingly, West is actually the real life son of his on-screen father, Dominic West. I'm really pleased we have this well-rounded and strong cast to navigate us through to the end of the series. I especially love how they introduce a new cast in this show. They don't just start as if nothing has changed, but instead have a nice little aside to ease us in. In season three, it was the portrait profile being changed to a more senior image, with the Queen giving us a kind of meta quote saying. Nothing one can do about it. One just has to get on with it. And here we were treated to the original Queen, Elizabeth Claire Foy, to christen the ship that we see and melt a staunton on, with a smooth transition from a young monarch to a more experienced Queen at her regular medical checkup. Claire Foy was one of a few cameos we got this season of the season one and two cast, also including Vanessa Kirby as young Princess Margaret, amongst others. But where are the cameos from the seasons three and four cast? Yes, it probably would have been unnecessary to do a time jump just a few years back. But I really hope Olivia Coleman makes one last appearance before the series comes to a close. One criticism I did have for this season is they spent a lot of time on things they could or should have spent less on and vice versa. The Fireeds, for example, almost got an entire episode just for their origin story, which I think could have been wrapped up in just a few scenes. Creator Peter Morgan did say that stretching what was supposed to be the final season into two seasons would allow them to flesh out this time period into more detail. But I don't think that all of the episode's run times were entirely well spent. The Diana interview and the Anna Saribous episode were really well done, though. It felt like all these breakups and scandals were relentless and it gave such a dread filled overwhelming atmosphere, which is exactly what this time period needed. I just need to say that that Russian massacre scene was by far the most brutal scene we've seen in this entire series and came as a complete shock considering the show's usual tone. As expected, there were some controversial choices in dialogue, including Charles's enthusiasm for the Queen to abdicate and his attack on her parenting and way of ruling. But like I've said in previous videos, this is only based on true events and we can't take what these characters say as fact, as in some cases, it may be far from it. Regardless, I really enjoyed the conflict of most of the family wanting a modern monarchy, but none of them really able to agree on what that actually means. An understanding that modernizing comes with major downsides as well, separations and divorces, for example. An interesting point was raised in the Queen's conversation with Andrew about his divorce, that the royal family loves a unique character to join them to break the mold of the system, but then that same system inevitably turns on them in the end. There was also a great and subtle reference between Diana and Charles's first meeting and their first meeting after the divorce where she peeks through at him before revealing herself. One thing that did surprise me is that they covered the tap phone calls in such detail. The calls with Charles and Camilla were uncomfortable, but as we know, not untrue. In this case, we actually do have real life examples they pulled from directly. The same goes for the recordings and interviews with Diana. This is really the first season where we had so much media to pull from. Of course, the dramatic context surrounding them will always be up for debate though. It was good that they kept the character's screen time balance too. I thought that going in it was going to be a Diana season, not that that's a bad thing, but we really got a bit of everyone sprinkled throughout. And I think that's the best way to handle the last couple of seasons. And with a cliffhanger like that, I need the final seasons soon. All in all, this season had its slow moments, but as a whole, I feel it's one of the most solemn yet powerful seasons so far. But what did you think? What was your favorite moment? What was your least favorite moment? I'd love to hear what you think, so let me know. I'll be down there in the comments. But if you haven't already, be sure to subscribe for weekly videos covering your favorite movies and TV shows. If you subscribe during this video, then welcome aboard. And if you had a good time hanging out, then spank that like button. This is Matt Rogers, and that is all.