The Crown (TV Series) Misadventure (2017) User Reviews

Marriage troubles and a global crisis kick the season off splendidly.

[TouchTheGarlicProduction · 8/10 · 8 December 2017]

In the first episode of The Crown season 2, Elizabeth has two major problems to contend with; her husband Phillip, and the Suez Canal crisis. More specifically, she has to deal with Phillip's possible adultery and her Prime Minister's response to the Suez Canal crisis. This dual plot not only makes for an exciting way to open the season, but also highlights Elizabeth's growth as a character. By throwing her into hot water straight away, the show demonstrates how much she has changed since the start of the first season.

I personally found Margaret to be pretty irritating throughout the first season, largely due to the fact that she served mainly as a foil for Elizabeth, with little logic or consideration for the consequences of her actions. And though it's probably a little early to judge given that she only has one scene in this episode, I think I'm going to enjoy her a lot more this season. The new Margaret is bitter, sarcastic, and full of quips. I probably still won't sympathize with her, but at least she will be fun to watch.

On the whole, this is an elegant way to open the second season of The Crown. It balances the various stories very well, setting up a number of threads for the season to follow and ultimately tying them all back to Elizabeth.

Unfortunate events

[TheLittleSongbird · 9/10 · 16 March 2021]

Much of 'The Crown's' Season 1 was excellent. Although "Gelignite" and "Gloriana" disappointed somewhat for similar reasons to each other (though they were still not bad at all, far from it), "Smoke and Mirrors", "Scientia Potentia Est" and "Assasins" in particular were exceptional. So expectations for Season 2 of one of the year's gems when 'The Crown' first began were very high. Expectations that on the most part were lived up to and the best episodes being up to the same level as the best of the first season.

While not one of the best episodes of Season 2 or 'The Crown' at its very best, "Misadventure" still manages to be a great start for the second season, with plenty of what makes 'The Crown' so good as a series more than evident. It deals with two major subplots and, while one is to me more interesting than the other, they both are very well written and intriguing, handled well structurally for an episode that could easily have been disjointed and show a lot of character growth for Elizabeth.

Occasionally, the pace is a little on the too deliberate side, especially in the Phillip subplot. Otherwise, "Misadventure" is an absolute winner.

Visually, "Misadventure" as ever for 'The Crown' couldn't be any more classy and sumptuous. The photography and production and costume design are evocative and a sight to behold. The music for me wasn't too intrusive or low-key and was beautiful scoring on its own. The main theme is not easy to forget.

Can't say anything bad about the writing either, which is intelligent and intrigues. The subtle but also tight tension of the dialogue in the Suez crisis subplot stands out and the Phillip subplot's writing avoids being soapy. The story on the most part is incredibly compelling, the better of the two subplot is the one detailing the Suez crisis. Tighter paced and had more tension and intrigue. But both are handled beautifully on the whole and tie very well together, there is never too much of a disconnect from each other.

All the characters are written with no problem, Elizabeth is written with a lot of nuanced complexity. Margaret's screen time is brief but she was a lot more bearable than she was in Season 1, not near as much of a sense that the series going too far on making her unlikeable. The acting is superb all round, particularly the subtly powerful turn of Claire Foy.

Summing up, great beginning to Season 2. 9/10

The Suez Crisis

[Hitchcoc · 9/10 · 8 December 2017]

While a bit slow at times, this sets the foundation for Season 2. We have two major plot elements here. The first is the boredom and disdain of Phillip and his indiscretions leading to stress on the marriage. Elizabeth talks about the things that happen to him as being forced by the Crown. That is, once she became Queen, she has actually lost power in her personal life. Elizabeth makes a discovery that devastates her. Meanwhile, Phillip is off on a long junket. The second element involves the Suez Canal blockaded by Nasser of Egypt, putting a stranglehold on the oil supplies of the Mideast. This forces England to entertain the possibility of a military intervention. Anthony Eden is Prime Minister and has no real solutions because the United Nations will not enter into things and this leaves them at the Mercy of the Arab world. Of course, the British Empire as they knew it was beginning to implode. I was in elementary school when Elizabeth was crowned and when the Suez Canal crisis led the news every night.

The Queen's Agony: Troubles with Philip and the Suez Crisis

[lavatch · 8/10 · 15 September 2019]

The opening episode of the second season of "The Crown" juggles two narrative strands. As arguably the greatest political and military blunder in postwar English history, the Suez Crisis of 1956 is depicted as the pet project of Prime Minister Anthony Eden, seeking to emerge out of the shadow of Churchill. A parallel narrative strand is the personal crisis experienced simultaneously in the marriage of Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh.

One of the most moving moments of the episode was the pain registered by Elizabeth when she discovers a memento of the ballet star Galina Ulanova, with whom Philip has presumably been having an affair. He has been enabled by his personal secretary and pimp named Mike, who shamelessly neglects his own family to see that the royal consort is well serviced. Elizabeth attends a performance of Giselle at the Royal Ballet and refuses to meet Ulanova backstage.

But the best scene in the program is the personal meeting between Eden and Elizabeth in which she extracts the truth from Sir Anthony. His public posturing for a peace settlement is belied by a secret meeting outside of Paris that has resulted in the Sèvres Protocol, uniting France, Israel, and England in an alliance against Nasser. Britain is now preparing for an impending air strike and invasion of Egypt.

The Queen's resolve in the matter, however, ends when she gives her support to the Prime Minister for what will become the Suez fiasco. The meeting with Eden and the Queen reveals both the strengths and limitations of her role in a constitutional monarchy. She could have insisted the Eden follow tradition in receiving the authorization of Parliament for war. Instead, she takes the easier way out by giving her blessing to the will of the prime minister.

Is Elizabeth being equally equivocal in her marriage? In an early scene in the program, which is set in Setúbal Harbour, Lisbon, Elizabeth tells Philip that divorce is not an option; they must find a way to make their marriage work. But the effort that it will take to rein in Philip may lead to untold suffering for the Queen.

Exciting and Thrilling

[marcok-56717 · 23 April 2020]

Great introduction to a new season, it explores and shows details of the crisis with Egypt.

Show of Conspired Conflict and Family Problems

[edwinlingson · 9/10 · 20 December 2017]

A nice starter for season 2, showing challenges of Queen in balancing both the role of a sovereign and a wife, The episode shows the 5 months of Queens dilemma in taking decisions as a a Queen and wife. As a Sovereign has to keep peace with outside world requires a lot of challenge and support. The Episode is a interesting one and it makes us to watch the next episode as soon as the first is over. That much is thw Question which the episode makes.

Let us go back to history and know the cause of Tripartite aggression

[DrAhmed95 · 7/10 · 20 January 2018]

A war waged by England, France and Israel against Egypt in 1956. The roots of the Suez crisis began to emerge after the signing of the evacuation agreement in 1954 . Nasser's relations with Western countries first appeared in good shape with the approval of the World Bank, with the support of the United States and Britain, to grant Egypt a loan to finance the dam project, which Nasser aspired to achieve an agricultural and industrial boom in the country. During that period, the border skirmishes continued intermittently between the Arab states and Israel since the 1948 war. Nasser openly declared his hostility to Israel, which encouraged the latter to move to strengthen its military arsenal by concluding an arms deal with France. Nasser decided to ask for arms from the United States and Britain, His request, he went to the Soviet Union request and agreed. Britain and the United States decided to punish Nasser for that step by setting up the "Umega Secret Campaign" imed at distorting its image in front of the world, imposing sanctions on Egypt with a ban on military aid, and curtailing the financing of the dam, whose funding was later canceled. Abdel Nasser saw the nationalization of the Suez Canal as his only opportunity to obtain the necessary funding for the construction of the High Dam. On 26 July 1956, he announced the decision to nationalize the Suez Canal Company. With the success of Egypt in managing the channel in contrast to what was planned and promoted by the countries of the West, coupled with the failure of diplomatic pressure on Egypt France had set up a plan to use military force against Egypt in agreement with Britain and Israel, called the Sievers Protocol, hoping to achieve their interests from that blow. At the British level, the aim was to get rid of Nasser, who threatened British influence with the evacuation and his alliance with the Soviets and nationalization of the Canal. To avenge Abdel Nasser, who supported the revolution of Algeria and the nations of the channel which was under French administration, while Israel found its chance to destroy the Egyptian forces in Sinai, which was a clear threat to them On October 29, 1956, Israeli forces landed deep into the Sinai and headed to the canal to convince the world that the Suez Canal was threatened. On October 30, Britain and France issued a warning calling for a cessation of hostilities between the two sides and demanding that Egypt and Israel withdraw 10 km from the Suez Canal and accept occupation Egypt and France, in order to protect the channel navigation, otherwise their forces intervened to do so by force, Egypt announced its refusal to occupy the Canal territory. On the following day, on October 31, the two countries attacked Egypt and began their air raids on Cairo and the Canal and Alexandria areas. Due to the dispersion of the Egyptian forces between the Sinai front and the Canal Front, Nasser issued orders to withdraw the Egyptian forces from Sinai to the west of the canal. The Anglo-French invasion of Egypt began from Port Said, which was hit by aircraft and naval forces in preparation for parachuting.

Misadventure

[bobcobb301 · 6/10 · 8 December 2017]

I found the first season of this show to be quite overrated, so I am sure that contributed a bit to my past reviews and this review today, but this is just not worthy of all the hype it gets. It was dragging at times and the acting of Matt Smith and Claire Foy as the royals is not up to past performances we have seen.

It is enjoyable and focusing on conflict in the Suez Canal is something you rarely see on TV, but it is not that great a show.

Is My Husband Cheating On Me?

[vivianla · 11 November 2020]

Elizabeth and Phillip discuss their marriage. There are lots of rumours that they are not getting along, which to an extent is true. Elizabeth dislikes his complaining and Phillip dislikes being told what to do with all these lists. Elizabeth says for other couples the exit they take - Phillip then mentions divorce - Elizabeth then says divorce is not an option for them.

Elizabeth wears her beautiful "battle" dress with the blue sash and Phillip wears a suit with matching accessories. At the event where lots of people are gathered, Phillip spots his wife's zipper unzipped. He orders everyone to turn around then he kisses his wife on the neck and zips up the dress.

Elizabeth wakes up in bed to find Phillip not next to her - he is working out. He insists on doing starfishes before going back to bed but Elizabeth says he can do it in bed. The assistants come in with breakfast and assistance but the couple orders them out, giggling.

A woman whose husband works for the duke drives to the jet with his family, promising to call on his daughter's birthday. His wife is unhappy that this job takes up most of his focus. He will miss his daughter's birthday, their anniversary...she looks upset. Phillip and the husband talk about how marriage is hard.

The husband does not call on his daughter's birthday leaving his wife very upset. Elizabeth calls Margaret and she wakes up despite it already being 11:30 am. Margaret asks about Phillip but Elizabeth hesitates to answer because she has not heard from him at all. Margaret mentions the man he is travelling with is known to set up men with actresses and - Elizabeth finishes off with - and ballerinas.

Elizabeth is talked with a handsome older man that their spouses that they married are wild spirits - it cannot be controlled. His own wife cheated on him with a number of other ppl but he chose to stay because if he leaves...he would be a lonely and miserable man. This leaves Elizabeth teary-eyed. The man and Elizabeth talk about a ballerina who she is going to watch perform. The same ballerina she found the picture of in Phillip's suitcase.

Elizabeth sits up high on the sidelines. The man behind her watches with his binoculars. The ballerina wears a beautiful outfit with see-through cap sleeves. Elizabeth watches her with brewing jealousy and anger. The ballerina looks at her with a bit of caution. She does not wish to meet the ballerina after being asked if she would like to.

The typewriter types by itself - it is a message informing one of the queen's advisors of an emergency with the Suez Canal.

The man with the moustache goes to see Elizabeth who wears a beautiful dark grey dress with a collar that resembles a hoodie. The man wants to go to war. She says the sovereign always agrees with the president.

We see British has started the war with bombs. Men sprawl out with tanks and jump out of helicopters.