The Crown – Season Four – Episode 7 – The Hereditary Principle
Plot: Grappling with mental health issues, Margaret seeks help and discovers an appalling secret about estranged relatives of the royal family.
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: The Hereditary Principle starts as we see Princess Margaret (Helena Bonham Carter) sees her latest relationship fall apart and to make matters worse for Margaret she learns she is no longer able to represent the royal family now Prince Edward has hit the age of 21, with Queen Elizabeth II (Olivia Colman) needing to break the painful truth that Margaret can’t be involved anymore. Princess Margaret does struggle to cope with the newest blow, which will see her returning to therapy, learning about the truth about members of their own family being kept a secret.
Thoughts on The Crown – Season Four – Episode 7 – The Hereditary Principle
Thoughts – The Hereditary Principle will become the first Princess Margaret episode of the season where we see how she struggles with idea of losing her position of power in the family and learning the shocking truth that people had swept under the carpet for years, a secret that would make them look more untouchable instead of more human. Helena Bonham Carter does shine in this episode, that spotlights how difficult understand mental illness and differences in appearance would have been at one time, now they need to show how secrets shouldn’t be kept away from the people. This does end up feeling like the weakest episode of the season so far, with little going on within the main characters.
Final Thoughts –The Hereditary Principle is one of the weakest episodes to date, we do get a strong performance from Helena Bonham Carter, but not enough focus on any of the Royal Family. 2/5
