Just going over The Crown with you: thank god Winston Churchill was still Winston Churchill

It went quite wrong for me and The Crown. I had already made my friend excited because season three was almost here. I kept the schedule clear, ordered takeout, and flopped on the couch. It turned out I was completely wrong about the date. It was the seventeenth of November, not the seventh, well, that makes for ten long days, I can tell you. One big disappointment with my glass of wine and bowl on my lap. But yesterday was the day, a new cast, a new era, and a fresh season. Let me go through it with you, pay attention: a little spoiler alert about the first three episodes (yes, I immediately dove in).

1. Thank goodness Winston Churchill is still just Winston Churchill
That they call him the greatest Britain, and then that kiss from the Queen on his forehead. Such a great man still coming across grand while on a sickbed, how impressive is that. Winston was still the same Winston as in the previous season.

2. The characters are well cast 
While Claire Foy was still my undisputed Elizabeth in the first two seasons, I believe I am already pro-Olivia Colman now. People don’t like change, the creators must have been afraid of that too, but it works, she works. The new season opens with a fresh face on the stamp that is just a bit older, we see how the entire court revolves around that aging and Olivia (the Queen, that is) names it and accepts it. She is just a human too.

3. Tobias Menzies is just Prince Philip, right?
Now I am more of the Charles-and-sons generation and I am not so up to date on Philip's life and how he aged, but that Tobias Menzies. I think Queen Elizabeth, if she secretly looks in (I would), gets a lot of flashbacks to her husband from the past. By the way, I find him already milder and more on her side than he ever was. What about you?

4. And I love Helena Bonham Carter
That woman should actually receive an Oscar for everything she does and touches. I already found her brilliant in all the Harry Potters and now also in the first three episodes of The Crown. I think no one can portray the torn Margaret as phenomenally as she can. With a flowing bathrobe, a cigarette in the holder, and always a bit tipsy, because she is not made to live in someone’s shadow.

5. Aberfan is the disaster the Queen will always regret
Honestly: I didn’t know about the existence of this disaster, but what sorrow the UK must have had. For all those 144 people, for all those 116 little children, who had diligently rehearsed the song the night before and were buried under stone. This must have been the moment in history when the role of the royals changed forever and Lilibet knew that she sometimes had to be a mother and not just someone’s queen.

6. I want more
More Elizabeth, more generations, and more seasons.