The Iron Lady and The Crown

 Have been greatly enjoying the Crown on Netflix, but I do have one tiny nitpick - I'm a bit disappointed that their portrayal of Margaret Thatcher is once again bordering and often crossing over into cartoon territory. I say again because the first time was that dreadful Meryl Streep movie that failed spectacularly at showing what was so amazing about the Iron Lady.

Gillian Anderson does an amazing job disappearing into the character - so bravo to her - but I can't help but feel a bit deflated as the show often falls back on leftist myths about Thatcher to boost it's own progressive outlook.

I was happy with the first episode featuring Thatcher, it expertly showed exactly what was great about the prime minister with a wonderful portrayal of her famously disastrous visit at Balmoral. I loved how the episode had us sympathizing with Maggie and portrayed the Royal family as they can be, infuriatingly elitist.

But this last episode we watched, which went into great detail about the nutcase who broke into the queen's bedroom and made a great effort to portray him as sympathetic because he was mad at the politics of Thatcher, just very disappointing.

I'm not saying there isn't an argument to be made for a balanced and fair portrayal of what Thatcher's policies did to the country - but this was all pandering to the left. I doubt very much the queen in real life would find such a sympathetic portrayal of a nutcase (yes, when you break into Buckingham Palace you are screwy in the head) acceptable.

I still love the show, but it's at it's best when it recognizes that the Royals and the government and Great Britian as a whole are complicated - that it's not just a matter of a war mongering heartless conservative at Downing Street, but there's actually a lot more going on than the simple, Berkeley-tinged historical revisionism. Margaret Thatcher was a remarkable and entirely formidable woman, who brought her country back from the abyss of socialism and much like Reagan re-instilled a pride of country and exceptionalism. She deserves much better than the Crown gave her in episode 5.