Gold Stick

I've watched the latter seasons of The Crown a few times now. I love how atmospheric it all feels and this season was probably my favourite in terms of the content and the cinematography. I do however think I might be in a minority - particularly considering her recent golden globe nod - in my feelings about Gillian Anderson as Thatcher. My despise for Thatcher did not diminish my almost masochistic desire to sympathise with, relate to and yes, even perhaps like her character in The Crown. When I found out she was to be portrayed by Anderson I assumed that desire would be met and I would leave these ten episodes feeling the self-hatred of having grown to know the human side of such an infamous woman. Instead I rather feel like I watched a characature of a famous name, whose voice was so profoundly affected that it was impossible to take her seriously as a real, feeling and breathing woman. For me, Anderson's performance did little to represent Thatcher as a real, complex person - instead, Thatcher becomes neither likeable nor dislikeable but rather, stiff and forgettable - while the writers seemed eager to play into stereotypes about women in power, trying to 'humanise' her as a mother and wife, to show her vulnerability, instead of exploring the most interesting part of Thatcher's personality - that she was more austere, more rational and arguably more cut throat than her male conservative peers. The chasm between the intent of the writers in portraying Thatcher and that of Anderson means this formidable, divisive character in history becomes an incongruous and unrealistic characature whose motives and personality are no clearer by the end of the series than at the start.