The Crown: Season 4

Since the season is largely divided between Thatcher and Diana, you have some terrific Thatcher episodes and some really shaky Diana episodes, and unlike Season 2, which has been the show’s strongest thus far, there’s no major arc that ties everything together.

The encounters between the two women [The Queen and Margaret Thatcher] are a running theme, and make for delicious viewing. But the real star of this fourth season is, inevitably, Diana. ... It all makes for a riveting soap opera. And, against all this, Mrs Thatcher is almost light relief.

Complemented with razor-sharp performances and furnished with the most luxurious set design that Netflix money can buy, “The Crown” has successfully sold itself as one of TV’s most serious dramas. The fourth season, in all its shameless glory, may be its most successful yet even as it puts that prestigious perception to bed.

Together, Thatcher and Diana give The Crown an energy and a sense of direction it lacked in the third season, and a feeling of verve the show has arguably never approached before. In the writing and in the performances, there is this sense that everyone involved has finally gotten to the good stuff, and they’re all pleased as punch about it.

The fourth season is the first in which the domestic tensions among the royals is anywhere near as interesting as the British history that unfolds outside the palace gates. Creator Peter Morgan and his writers remain impressive in their ability to condense national events into dramatically compelling crises-of-the-week and flesh out real-life personages through just a few scenes.

Season 4 largely succeeds because of the way Diana (Emma Corrin) and Thatcher (Gillian Anderson) are integrated into the cast and stories, and how creator Peter Morgan is able to use both characters as broader symbols for the monarchy's continual crash into modernity. It also doesn't hurt that Corrin and Anderson are both excellently suited for their roles.

It’s a season of next-level performances, really. Anderson’s turn as Thatcher is so viscerally physical. ... She is transformed.

Beyond reveling in the tawdry candy-colored tale of Charles and Di, Morgan’s writing on the show routinely explores notions of classicism, privilege, sexism, and racism. But this time around, the undercurrents surface in a way that is timely, incisive, and, ultimately, more pointed and hopeful.

Yes, there is the odd historical inaccuracy, but it is in my view Peter Morgan's best series yet and, overall, five-star television.

Anchored by Margaret Thatcher and Charles and Di’s doomed marriage, the fourth season of Netflix’s royals drama may be its best yet.