In defense of ‘The Crown’s’ final season

Welcome to Screen Gab, the newsletter for everyone willing to set their reservations about “The Crown” aside in return for one more tour of Buckingham Palace.

As Screen Gab editor Matt Brennan writes in this week’s Catch Up, Netflix’s decades-spanning drama about the British royal family may have come down in the world — according to Metacritic, its sixth and final season is the worst-reviewed of the bunch — but its final batch of episodes, which premiered Thursday, still has an occasional glimmer of the series’ halcyon days.

Plus, Screen Gab No. 111 features two more Netflix recommendations for your weekend, plus filmmaker Shawn Bannon stops by to discuss his muckraking new documentary, “The Smell of Money.”

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Acclaimed TV writer David Milch, whose credits include “Hill Street Blues,” “NYPD Blue” and “Deadwood.”

(Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times)

David Milch has Alzheimer’s disease. He also has a new screenplay: Despite the “heartbreaking” advance of his dementia, the legendary writer behind “Deadwood” and “NYPD Blue” is still working — with help from his wife and a longtime friend.

Will Sarah Rafferty reprise her ‘Suits’ role? For now, she’s savoring ‘My Life With the Walter Boys’: The actor spoke about the resurgence of “Suits,” and how her role in the adaptation of Ali Novak’s coming-of-age novel “My Life With the Walter Boys” lets her embrace motherhood.

Barbra Streisand to receive 2024 SAG Life Achievement Award: Barbra Streisand has won just about every award known to humanity, making her one of eight women to EGOT. Next year she’ll own a SAG honor as well.

In drama and comedy, in roles big and small, Andre Braugher commanded the screen: Andre Braugher, who died Monday at age 61, was the gravitational center in drama series like “Homicide: Life on the Street,” and his presence was no different in series like “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” which showed his impeccable comedic timing.

Turn on

Recommendations from the film and TV experts at The Times

R. Madhavan as Rati Pandey in “The Railway Men.”

(Zahir Abbas Khan / Netflix)

“The Railway Men: The Untold Story of Bhopal 1984” (Netflix)

In December 1984 a toxic gas leak at a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India killed thousands overnight and sickened thousands more; the product of corporate cost-cutting, managerial negligence and human error, it’s consider the worst industrial accident in history. The superbly wrought, fact-inspired “The Railway Men: The Untold Story of Bhopal 1984” portrays the slow-then-fast buildup to the uncontainable failure in excruciating detail, but the heart of the story, which creates a tapestry of characters to care for (and some not to), centers on the Bhopal junction station, where heroic railway workers struggled to save lives, some at the cost of their own. With Kay Kay Menon as the proper station master throwing protocol out the window, and Babil Khan as a trainee locomotive driver. Thrilling, horrifying, moving. —Robert Lloyd

A scene from the Netflix series “Single’s Inferno.”

(Netflix)

”Single’s Inferno” (Netflix)

Sunsets are now annoyingly early and Southern California temperatures are relatively chillier, so I’m basking in the heat of my favorite Korean-language dating series, “Single’s Inferno.” Beautifully shot and all-too-easy to binge, the show gathers a group of gorgeous singletons on a deserted island, where they must not only complete physical challenges, but also effectively flirt without revealing their ages or careers. The goal is to match up and escape to Paradise, a luxury resort where they stay overnight, enjoy a hot meal and can speak much more freely. (It’s amazing how quickly chemistry can dissipate once this happens.) Its third season turns up the competition with the reveal of — gasp! — a second island, complete with another set of singletons. Consider me seated with a tropical blended cocktail. —Ashley Lee

Catch up

Everything you need to know about the film or TV series everyone’s talking about

Luther Ford as Prince Harry and Ed McVey as Prince William in “The Crown.”

(Netflix)

The prevailing wisdom, at least as measured by Metacritic, would seem to hold that “The Crown” began to lose its way when Princess Diana entered the picture — or, perhaps more precisely, when Elizabeth II left it. If Netflix’s most successful venture into the realm of “prestige TV” no longer demands a browser tab open to the Windsor family tree, or deserves plaudits for its inspired casting, its sixth and final season, which concluded Thursday, still mustered its share of creative inspiration.

Part I, which dropped last month, broke with tradition to spend four episodes on just eight weeks in the summer of 1997 — and before tripping at the finish line with an unfortunate rehash of creator Peter Morgan’s “The Queen,” it wove a rivetingly detailed portrait of Diana and Dodi Al-Fayed’s last days. By contrast, Part II, now streaming, might best be described as a throwback. Forget the hand-wringing over teenage Harry (Luther Ford), drinking gin from the hotel minibar, or the saga of William’s (Ed McVey) relationship with Kate Middleton (Meg Bellamy): As in the early seasons, the highlights are Elizabeth’s high-strung sparring with a popular prime minister (this time around, Bertie Carvel’s Tony Blair) and the always-entertaining Margaret (Lesley Manville), raging against the dying of the light as she once did social convention.

Of course, it should be no surprise that this most royalist of series proved, in the end, more comfortable with custom than change — or that “The Crown” understood its subject’s core appeal, and by extension its own, to the last, even as it increasingly strayed from it. “Monarchy isn’t rational,” Elizabeth explains, “or democratic or logical or fair.” Even a true blue republican couldn’t disagree with that. —Matt Brennan

Guest spot

A weekly chat with actors, writers, directors and more about what they’re working on — and what they’re watching

Elsie Herring with her dog Midnight in “The Smell of Money.”

(Shawn Bannon)

Warning: Shawn Bannon’s new film may have you scrapping your traditional Christmas dinner. That’s because the title of “The Smell of Money” (VOD, multiple platforms) refers not only to the greed of corporate hog farming, which threatens North Carolinian Elsie Herring’s family home, but also to the literal stench its waste produces. On the other hand, if the muckraking documentary has you reaching for the tofurkey this holiday season, it will almost certainly be a source of inspiration to watch Herring and her tight-knit community stand up to Big Pork. Bannon stopped by Screen Gab his own inspirations in making the film, the celebrity backing it’s attracted and what he’s watching. —Matt Brennan

What have you watched recently that you are recommending to everyone you know?

I saw the new doc “Butterfly in the Sky” starring LeVar Burton about “Reading Rainbow” at the Sidewalk Film Festival and I absolutely loved it! I keep telling all of my friends about it and I really hope it comes out soon. I also watched “Past Lives” [VOD, multiple platforms] recently with a group of friends and we were all just sitting there sobbing at the end for who knows how long. Truly a remarkable film.

What is your go-to “comfort watch,” the movie or TV show you go back to again and again?

Recently I’ve been watching the “Depeche Mode 101” doc [Fubo TV, Paramount+] over and over again. It’s just cool. 16mm, the way it was shot. And the music, of course, is so good. The recent restoration is fantastic, just beautiful. It’s a nice break for me because I tend to work on more intense content. Then I’ll throw on “2001: A Space Odyssey” [Max, Tubi] and zone out.

In its depiction of Herring’s fight against pork producer Smithfield Foods — and, by extension, a political and economic system that allows disposal of hazardous and malodorous pig waste near human settlement — “The Smell of Money” brings to mind everything from “Harlan County, U.S.A.” to “Roger & Me” to “Gasland.” What was your documentary touchstone/inspiration in making the film?

To even mention “Harlan County, U.S.A” [Max, Criterion Channel] next to “The Smell of Money” gives me chills. It’s positively one of the best documentaries ever made and I guarantee you I watched it countless times during the editing process. And “Roger & Me” [Max] and “Gasland” are absolutely amazing. I watch a lot of movies, but I was watching everything from “The Devil We Know” [VOD, multiple platforms] to “Lessons of Darkness” [Kanopy] and “Crumb” [Mubi]. I was fortunate enough to discuss “The Smell of Money” with Terry Zwigoff in the middle of editing and hearing his experiences kept me sane. “The Smell of Money” was a very challenging and heartbreaking film to work on.

You’ve had a number of prominent celebrities, including Kate and Rooney Mara, Joaquin Phoenix, Joan Jett and others, come out in support of the film. Describe your biggest “pinch me” moment so far.

I’ve worked with Kate, Rooney and Joaquin for a while now, and a few months ago I had to go film a video with Joaquin. I showed up with my camera at his sister Rain’s house and he was wearing his pajamas. I was laughing internally as it was 1 p.m. or so and we didn’t have a lot of time to film. Joaquin mentioned he didn’t bring other clothes with him so we just figured out how to shoot the video in his pajamas. It was that moment, for some reason, that led me to ask him to host our Los Angeles theatrical premiere of “The Smell of Money” in October, which luckily all worked out. I’m very thankful to him and Rooney.