An expensive, lavish drama

The Show: The Crown, Season 1, Episode 5 The Moment: The ballet scene

In their elegant rooms, Queen Elizabeth (Claire Foy) and Prince Philip (Matt Smith) are dressing for a formal evening out. She asks him to be chairman of her coronation committee. “I want to make a public declaration of my trust in you,” she says. He’s reluctant; he doesn’t want to appear unmanly. “There’s no need to matronize me,” he replies.

The conversation continues in a limousine. “What would it entail?” Philip asks.

“You’d inspire everyone,” Elizabeth says. “Lead them.”

The limo pulls up at a theatre. Throngs crowd the limo, taking photos.

Inside the theatre, a full audience in luxe evening attire watches a ballerina dance onstage. Philip and Elizabeth converse in their box. “Total control or nothing at all,” he says. “Those are my terms.”

“All right,” Elizabeth responds. “But don’t go mad.”

Talk about going mad! This moment, a domestic power negotiation, could have played out over, I don’t know, a breakfast table. Instead, it’s split into three scenes, each more fabulously expensive than the last.

It’s one thing to spring for a crowd of extras in overcoats to surround a limo. But to dress an entire audience in finery and have a tutu-clad ballerina performing onstage? It’s pure lavishness. But it’s not a waste, because it serves a function: whether we’re consciously aware of it or not, it adds to our understanding of the luxurious lives of the leads.

You wonder why TV is so great these days? The answer: Money. The Crown streams on Netflix. Johanna Schneller is a media connoisseur who zeroes in on pop-culture moments. She usually appears Monday through Thursday.