‘A once fine drama abdicates with a miserable whimper’: Inside the VERY mixed reviews for The Crown series six part two – as ‘middling’ final episodes are released on Netflix

The final five episodes of The Crown have finally arrived on Netflix – to very mixed reviews.

Series six, part two, dropped on the streaming giant on Thursday, December 14, bringing the infamous show about the British Royal Family to an end.

The episodes explore William and Harry's grief following Diana's death, the final years of Princess Margaret's life, as well as William and Kate's first romance while studying at St Andrews University.

The first half of the season received a lot of controversy for its depiction of Princess Diana's death in Paris in 1996, but the second half has generated much more mixed reactions.

Reviewers particularly praised the scenes with Princess Margaret (Lesley Manville), seeing her role as a way to hark back to the more historical elements of the earlier seasons.

But the introduction of Kate (Meg Bellamy) and William (Ed McVey) into St Andrews received a lukewarm reception from viewers, especially in its portrayal of Carole Middleton's desperate attempts to make a match for her daughter.

The independentKatie Rosseinsky gave the show only two stars and was among those who saw the ending as far removed from its successful beginning.

She wrote, “When it comes to The Crown and What If?, the biggest question is this: What if this juggernaut of a show hadn't wasted its once-golden potential?

“As the final six episodes arrive on Netflix, bringing a half-century saga to a close, Morgan's drama is haunted by the ghost of faded glory.”

The largely scathing review added that some of William and Harry's lines appear to have been written by an 'AI bot', and while praising The Queen's (Imelda Staunton) final scenes, she added that they were 'not enough and arrived too late.

Anita Singh from The Telegraph agreed, arguing that a “once beautiful drama dispenses with a wretched whimper.”

Singh said: “Farewell then to The Crown (Netflix), a show that started as a sublime period drama – interesting history, fantastic dresses, a luminous Claire Foy – and ends as a Hallmark Channel movie in which the Queen has a nightmare. Tony and Cherie Blair are crowned at Westminster Abbey with the new anthem Things Can Only Get Better, and William and Kate's dreamy first kiss is interrupted by a royal protection officer announcing the Queen Mother's death.'

The times seemed more positive, offering three stars, calling it a “mediocre ending to a royal epic,” adding that it was “pretty boring” and felt like it “ran out of power like a Duracell ad.”

However, it added that the series seemed to gain some of its own in episode eight with Princess Margaret's scenes, “recapturing the excellence of the early series with a stunning performance from Lesley Manville”.

The Evening standard' Melanie McDonagh gives The Crown four stars, but this seems generous compared to the content of the review in which she mainly labels it as 'fine'.

She added: “If you liked the previous series of The Crown, chances are you'll like this one too. And if this sounds like faint praise, this is the best I can do.”

The me And Radio times however, were much more complementary to the new season, giving it four stars each.

The i's Francesca Steele called it a “near-perfect ending against all odds”: “If you missed what you used to think about The crown – that elegant, strangely nostalgic (even for things you don't remember) exploration of changing national identity – good news. It's back!

'After 54 episodes and 143 awards since its premiere in 2017, and with six episodes to go after a sloppy first part of the last series, creator Peter Morgan has gone back to basics. It's a pleasure.'

While James Hibbs of Radio Times sees Ed McVey as the main success of the last series.

Hibbs writes: 'It may not be the series at its best, but this final batch of episodes manages to bring things back to basics.”

The sixth part two of the Crown series is now streaming on Netflix.