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16th November 2023
11:04am GMT
The final season of The Crown has been slammed by critics for its decision to use Princess Diana's ghost in some scenes following her death.
The sixth and final installment of the hugely popular Netflix show follows the Royal family through the years 1997-2005.
The first four episodes of the final season landed on Netflix on Thursday (November 16). These episodes cover the relationship between Princess Diana (Elizabeth Debicki) and Dodi Fayed (Khalid Abdalla) and their deaths in a 1997 car crash in Paris.
But the episodes have been panned by critics, with the series coming in for particular criticism for its decision to include a 'ghost Diana' in scenes.
Debicki appears as Diana in scenes after her death in the show. One of the scenes sees her appear in scenes involving Prince Charles (Dominic West), and she also appears at Balmoral to give advice to the Queen.
Singling out "Princess Diana's bizarre ghost", Anita Singh of the Telegraph said it came across as "desperation" from show creator Peter Morgan.
In a two-star review, she criticised the show for using her ghost on "the plane home from Paris to comfort a distraught Prince of Wales, and on the sofa at Balmoral to give the Queen some friendly PR advice."
In a one star review, the Guardian labelled the series "Diana-obsessed" and "the very definition of bad writing".
"Beyond all its formal failures, late-period Crown is also impossibly hamstrung by being set well within living memory. Even if there were anything to engage with, the memories and consequent questions that crowd into the viewer's mind at every stage would make it impossible," wrote Lucy Mangan.
"It started teetering in season three, lost its balance entirely over the next two and is now plummeting into the abyss."
She did defend the "brilliant performances from the entire cast."
Even in a positive four-star review, the Times said the use of Diana's ghost "wasn't the show's finest hour" and was "self-defeating in an otherwise powerful and moving opening four-episode suite".
Part two of the series will be released in December 14. These six episodes will look at Prince Charles’ wedding with Camilla Parker Bowles (Olivia Williams), while also focusing on Charles’ sons, William (Ed McVey) and Harry (Luther Ford).
The decision to split the final season into two parts is a familiar move from Netflix, with the streamer having also done this with the most recent seasons of shows such as Stranger Things, You and The Witcher.
Over the course of its five seasons, The Crown has been one of Netflix’s most viewed and most critically acclaimed series, having won 21 Emmy Awards, including best drama series for its fourth season.
But it has also attracted criticism from some who believe too many people believe it is completely based in fact.
Morgan has previously defended the fact that a lot of scenes are fabricated by writers, despite being about real world people, pointing out that the show is very much a drama series.
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