The Crown (TV Series) Margaretology (2019) User Reviews

Margaretology

[bobcobb301 · 8/10 · 1 January 2020]

If this episode was any indication Princess Margaret should be great this season. This was fun and funny and at times maybe felt different than The Crown of the past and yet refreshing at the same time.

They managed to make LBJ exciting, which is no small feat.

Margaret!

[Calicodreamin · 8/10 · 24 November 2020]

Love Helena Bonham Carter as Margaret, she picked up the role so seamlessly and really captured her spirit.

Party Girl

[Hitchcoc · 8/10 · 29 June 2020]

Princess Margaret again is able to exhibit her boorish behavior. She manages to be outrageous because she has no ultimate responsibilities. Still, her portrayal is interesting. The scene at dinner with LBJ is quite funny and utterly tasteless. John Kennedy is barely in his grave. Only Avis is OK at number two.

There's something about Margaret...

[andrewjerome · 10/10 · 19 November 2019]

You can guarantee that every episode of this show with Princess Margaret as a centrepiece will be worthwhile viewing. This episode provides a combination of laughter, sibling rivalry and empathy as it further explores the complicated relationship between the two royal sisters. This show may not always be historically accurate but it is certainly compelling and entertaining.

Best

[vintagegeek · 10/10 · 25 March 2021]

Absolutely the best episodes in the whole series. Helena Bonham-Carter was superb. The other players were at their best in angst.

Fabulous series

[virgorat-66441 · 10/10 · 30 November 2019]

Stunning and unforgettable series which gives us an insight into the Crown but why oh why did they cast HBC as Margaret!!!! I love HBC but She's no Princess Margaret.

Great series.

[office-71571 · 9/10 · 26 November 2019]

Love it. I also agree that wrong casting for the role of Margaret.

Well

[bevo-13678 · 10/10 · 20 November 2020]

Great episode despite the obvious errors regarding the incorrect models of telephones for that period

Coming to America

[TheLittleSongbird · 7/10 · 16 November 2021]

Margaret was a bit up and down for me as a character. Was not always crazy about her in Season 1, where the writers to me seemed to take it too far making her difficult to like or warm to and her main subplot was not very interesting. She grew massively in development in Season 2, where she became more mature and vulnerable in situations that were a lot easier to relate to. Margaret-centric episodes also vary, none terrible and none show high points.

Season 3's "Margaretology" is not one of the best Margaret-centric episodes, but for a different reason to before. Actually think that it is one of the weaker ones and also one of the lesser episodes of Season 3. It is an improvement actually over the season opener "Olding", which had a lot of good but also two major miscasts (one still a problem here) bringing it down, but Season 3, which actually did get better, had not settled yet with "Margaretology". Just to say though that it is not a bad episode, a lot is very good here, just disappointing compared to the exceptionally high standard of Seasons 1 and 2.

To me, Helena Bonham Carter still doesn't work as Margaret and still feels miscast. She just comes over as too mature in age, too modern and it was like Margaret's character development in Season 2 hadn't really happened as she is pretty out of her depth in this situation and doesn't come over as a real character, also have found it difficult shaking off her oddball roles typecasting she took on since 'Sweeney Todd'.

Not all the writing works, the dinner scene for example was not in good taste and was for 'The Crown' uncharacteristically childish. Some of the pace is a little too over-deliberate.

However, the production values are superb. The production and costume design are both classy and sumptuous, but it's the atmospheric and stylish photography that stands out in this regard. The music is not overbearing or low key. There is a lot of thought provoking scripting and intrigue and enough of the story compels with some nice subtle tension.

Jason Watkins and Ben Daniels are still very good, perfect in fact, casting, and while Clancy Brown's sounded odd on paper he did actually succeed in making Johnson interesting (which can't have been easy). The character chemistry connects more.

Concluding, didn't bowl me over but a small step in the right direction. 7/10.

Margaret

[bmmmamaw · 7/10 · 20 April 2021]

I feel that Helena Bonham Carter isn't the best fit in the role of Margaret. I find her brown eyes and general appearance distracting.

What happened to them?

[luleini-57554 · 5/10 · 23 November 2020]

I finished the second season having characters that loomed young and similar, then jump into them completely different looking and incredibly old... at least get the eye color right... Maragarette went from having big blue eyes to brown... I guess things do change with age...

A short observation about "The Crown: Season 3, episode 2"

[javajan-58456 · 6/10 · 25 November 2019]

Well done as usual. Yet, Margaret was miscast. In an earlier episode, JFK was miscast. Helena Bonham Carter is nothing like Margaret was, and it shows. Jan Nylander

Everything but the casting

[jonathan-747-46162 · 7/10 · 2 October 2020]

I just don't understand why they insist on making such massive blunders in such an excellently well-made series.

Inasmuch as I am a devoted fan of the magnificent Helena Bonham Carter, and inasmuch as she plays the part with all her (considerable) might... she's miscast. I'm sorry. And in this episode, it shows.

Vanessa Kirby from the first two series was fantastic in the role, and it's inconcieveable why they suddenly changed the cast. Just think about what she could have done with this episode!

The script is, as always, outstanding; so are the sets (although, why has the White House suddenly been flung out into the middle of a field in Kansas?), the direction, the photography.

But who on Earth was in charge of casting? Stevie Wonder?

I'm happy for the subtitles that give you an indication of who'se speaking; I would have been lost otherwise, not knowing who is supposed to be who. I mean, come on, Harold Wilson without a pipe! LBJ looking only vaguely like LBJ (almost as bad as the casting of JFK; that was a near criminal offence), Queen Elizabeth looking more like an elderly Margaret, the Duke of Edinburgh sounding like his son and looking like his grandson... I could go on for ages but you get the picture. (And the previous two series had similar blunders - whose great idea was it to cast the role of the robustly built Scot Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother with a diminuitive mousy actress??)

It's such a shame, really, because it ruins what could otherwise have been near perfection. And the legendary HBC certainly deserves better.

Where are the children?

[blakemonkey · 5/10 · 26 April 2021]

This season of the Crown is somewhat lacking, especially in "family" time. Why aren't the children included? I'm just not enjoying this season as much as I did with S1 and S2.

Princess Margaret - Just Not Believable.

[crumpytv · 5/10 · 29 November 2020]

This episode was all about Princess Margaret. The storyline was interesting but I could just not get away from the the fact that Helena Bonham Carter is way too old to be playing Princess Margaret at this point in her life, although the princess's stature was more in line than the first two series. The close ups in particular were ill advised and just underlined the disparity in age (nearly 20 years). In the first episode, Harold Wilson's dialogue during his first meeting with the Queen seemed abrasive and borderline disrespectful. I seriously doubt the authenticity. His interaction with the Queen was much more mellow during this episode.

Turned this episode off, but wait!

[live-and-let-live · 3/10 · 14 December 2019]

The next episode will knock your sox off! As to this one - Margaret is miscast, and miscostumed, and misacted. Thank you, carry on.

The cast is a lack of respect to the viewers

[violevalery · 2/10 · 26 September 2022]

Though I was determined not to continue watching the series after episode 1 of Season 3 for the awful change of all the actors I gave the series a second chance but things kept going downhill. I still cannot understand why in they year 2019 the producers couldn't just keep the same actors and make them look older with makeup effects. The problem with the cast is that the protagonists don't look remotely alike the people they are performing and they look so much older than the age they are supposed to be in this episode. It's a lack of respect to the viewer to have us watch these people who look as if they were in their fifties while they are supposed to be in their late 30s. Not only that but the characters have now also changed their personalities: Elizabeth and Philip in seasons 1 and 2 were flawed but loveable. In season 3 they have ceased to be lovable and start showing some bad manners or condescendence towards servants. The same happens with Margaret: in the previous seasons she was flawed but sensitive; in this season she starts being cynical. And it's impossible to like these characters. I've never been so disappointed of a series.

Helena Bonham Carter is HORRIBLE

[TheFearmakers · 1/10 · 17 November 2022]

Oh my god, how awful, god awful, Helena Bonham Carter is as Princess Margaret... She alone ruins the entire continuation of the series...

She looks NOTHING like the character we have gotten to know with the lovely original actress, who as viewers we grew with and got to know, but not enough and now we could get to know her even better, but now with Carter, seeming like she's in a Tennessee Williams play, it's just not the same show, not one bit...

Flabby, short and wrinkled instead of tall and lithe, she seems to be doing some kind of imitation of the Princess who the first two seasons fleshed-out through dialogue and story-line... but Carter sustains it with over-acting, trying to steal the show but she's simply ruining it...

Her relationship with the photographer husband is now dull as dishwater, no nuance, nothing revealing, nothing sexy or, for lack of a better term, progressive... they're just like watching two complete jerks stuck together in purgatory...

Helena Bonham Carter has turned The Crown into Dynasty... and we do NOT need a Joan Collins.