Harry and Meghan Review: Netflix Docuseries Is Certainly Destined to Become A Guilty Pleasure For Many
Cast: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex; Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex
Creator: Liz Garbus
Streaming Platform: Netflix
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 2/5 (two stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
The Crown Season 5 has just had time to come out, and the British royal family is making people talk about themselves again on Netflix: the first 3 episodes of Harry and Meghan, a docuseries that proposes to explore the relationship between the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and shed light on the many rumors that have surrounded their married life. From the very first – and secret – elopement in Botswana to their renewed happiness as a couple away from London, passing through the memories that Harry jealously keeps of Lady Diana, our review of Harry and Meghan wants to analyze this new addition on Netflix purely from an entertainment point of view, beyond the alleged scoops and revelations that should arise from it.
Harry and Meghan Review: The Story
The show, directed by two-time Oscar nominee Liz Garbus wants to do justice to the voice of those directly involved, who tell us how the concept so commonplace and substantially positive such as dating (the beginning of a romantic relationship) becomes a double-edged sword if one half of the couple is of a royal dynasty. From the first secret meetings to the official announcement, Harry and Meghan – together with friends and some relatives – remember, above all, how their engagement automatically meant an invasion of privacy for anyone who was even minimally involved. “I was persecuted,” Meghan’s mother says very frankly. On the other hand, Harry claims to have wondered since he was a child – witnessing the pain of his mother, continuously overwhelmed by paparazzi requests – who would have ever wanted to agree to all this, come to terms with the distortion of his image and throw it to the masses. Each episode alternates footage taken from Harry and Meghan’s archives.
H and M – as Harry and Megan love to call themselves – retrace the fundamental stages of their love story, with a self-reflective look at their past and their respective backgrounds, in family and social contexts that are complete opposites. Harry digs into the painful memory of a childhood in which he only partially enjoyed his mother’s presence, certainly fundamental in the chaos of media attention to which he has been subjected since he was a child. On the contrary, Meghan grew up cultivating a bond of complicity with her mother that is still recognizable today; she took the fundamental steps of adolescence in a luxuriant environment of female figures to inspire and which led her – not surprisingly – to “interpret” two important and onerous roles such as that of the lawyer in Rachel Zane in Suits– TV series in which he starred for years – and that of the wife of Prince Harry of England, Duchess of Sussex.
Harry and Meghan Review: And analysis
The glamorous documentary patina of Harry and Meghan is immediately perceptible even if, paradoxically, the most talked about product of the moment aims to tell us the story of a couple “like all the others” when, concretely speaking, it is absolutely out of the ordinary. More than an open-hearted confession, to try to deliver their truth to the public, this documentary follows the “Oprah-style” living room religious austerity, to quote the much-discussed interview with the Dukes of Sussex before the documentary – and which already he had revealed a good part of the juicier gossip to us.
Not only that: the documentary is the result of the multi-program agreement stipulated between the streaming giant Netflix and the royal couple, worth “only” 100 million dollars. The great love story that united (or divided) Great Britain and the United States shows us the emotion that the couple has never been able to express, but it certainly does so by entering the Netflix catalog of similar productions: well-crafted breaks between revelations, carefully selected archival material (there is also unedited footage), testimonies from friends and relatives by way of confessional.
This docuseries allows the now overgrown Harry to look back on the mistakes of the past – the notorious Nazi costume scandal, which he calls one of his greatest “mistakes” and “sources of “shame”, but also to reflect on how the spirit of his mother Diana is brought up by his current wife Meghan, with whom he shares a kind soul. There is also room for funny interludes: Meghan recalls that she was terrified of having to bow down in front of Queen Elizabeth II and not knowing what to do – Harry of how he had arrived all out of breath and panicked on their first date.
Much of the docuseries is then devoted to the opinions of royal experts such as the couple’s former spokesman James Holt, writer Kehinde Andrews and journalist Afua Hirsch, who illustrate the relationship between the royal family and the media. Nothing that you didn’t already know, so it is an ultimately redundant addition, especially for the type of audience that Harry and Meghan want to target (clearly, enthusiasts or at least connoisseurs of the events of the British royal family). For now, no bombs have been dropped against the Royal Family, but we must wait for the next three episodes of Harry and Meghan to be able to fully read the intention. However, we can already sum up in some way: even if narratively there won’t be great revelations concerning what has already been publicly declared, Harry and Meghan can become a perfect guilty pleasure of the pre-Christmas period.
The sound frames the fragments of self-incension with a poignant transport: everything, in this sympathetic operation, appears forced, in tone. Where has the British understatement gone? And above all what is their problem? It soon turns out that the point of the claim is that members of the British royal family are accepted only to the extent that they portray a welcome image: their privileges are paid for at the price of taking away many freedoms. Oh yeah. We fall off the chair, and we would like to protest: “Meghan and Harry, tell us something new, something we don’t know, please“. The dukes of Sussex, blatantly rich and in love, don’t have to apologize for that, God forbid.
Harry and Meghan Review: The Last Words
While not revealing who knows what hidden secrets, the Netflix docuseries are certainly destined to become a guilty pleasure for many: the love story between Harry and Meghan, despite the scoops and rumors, is told excitingly. Perhaps, out of the focus of attention, they would find peace. Or even just a new identity, finally emancipated from the emblazoned insignia of his family, free from having to be imposed on the royals. Isn’t giving up being the puppets and icons of the Royal House all they ask for? Let’s please them. Anonymity can only do them good.
