Comment on Harry & Meghan Documentary

by Nanda Pethiyagoda

BBC and CNN kept mentioning the fact that the documentary on this royal and his spouse would be aired soon and when I went to Netflix on Thursday (Dec. 8) afternoon there appeared the series. So I naturally watched all three episodes and await the following three which will be aired next Thursday, though not too enthusiastically, I must admit.The first three episodes of the documentary was directed by Liz Garbus and produced in conjunction with the production company of Prince Harry and Meghan.

Format

The episodes are centered on interviews with the Sussexes and film sections of the present and past. Comments are recorded from friends of the two, authors of books on the British royalty and Meghan’s agent during her film career. I must say they were not top of the lot; hardly known.

Much is made of the press and paparazzi who Meghan was as apprehensive as Diana was. It looks to me that she had a love/ hate relationship or attitude to photographers. We know Diana courted publicity and even arranged for photographers to be present when she was on a charity act, but also thought them a menace in her life. Ditto with the new entrant to the House of Windsor. Meghan, having been a Hollywood actor for a short while, surely loves publicity, but she says she was alarmed by the paparazzi attention she received soon after the fact of her dating Prince Harry leaked. She should surely have expected wide attention.

Three episodes

Episode 1 deals mostly with Harry and his growing up – shown in flashbacks, most seen earlier. He says Meghan is like his mother Diana: warm and concerned about people. He added he tried to keep his family together especially after what happened to his mother. The episode shows him as a baby and as a growing child. Scenes with Diana; then in Eton; as a pilot and soldier; and in Africa on humanitarian service. Moves to his meeting Meghan, her visit to Botswana. He is very much his mother. Not much mention of Prince Charles who by all reports was a caring father to the two sons after Diana’s death.

Episode 2 moves to Meghan where Meghan is the main person interviewed. Her mother speaks and also friends, including Serena Williams. Filming of the series Suits in which she starred are included. A telling comment (which to me backfires on her): “However good I was, however much I tried, they were going to destroy me.” We wonder who ‘they’ were; the press, her step family or the royal family? She attempts being ingénue: Do I really have to curtsy to the queen? What is a walkabout?

The third episode moves to the days before the wedding at Windsor. What transpires with her father being accused of selling photographs of her, and her elder stepsister Samantha (daughter of Markle with his former wife), giving salacious interviews about Meghan to the American press, and Meghhan befriending Samantha’s daughter and finding her the sister she always wanted. Very often newspaper production and sales are shown; also the public gathering to see the wedding procession.

Critique

I must admit here that I am no admirer of either Diana or Meghan. In fact I am prejudiced and just as I pitied Charles as the more injured, I feel sympathy for Harry. He was affected most by Diana’s death or so it appears to be by his reckoning. Meghan took him over. To me it looks as if she made all the moves to discredit royal family members as being racist to her, and finally moving out of the family, royal duties and Britain, sorely disappointing and even angering the aging Queen.

Meghan appears to me to be manipulative, revengeful and though having so many privileges and wealth, wanting more money and publicity. It looks very much as if she calls the shots and Harry follows her. Judging by what they do/did, they emerge as self centered and invariably faulting others. Otherwise how explain even this documentary which to me is somewhat parallel to Diana’s shocking BBC Panorama interview with journalist Martin Bashir aired on November 20, 1995 where she says Prince Charles will not, and should not, be king.

My comment on the first three episodes is that it is nothing much; so far no new revelations; and a bit of a yawn. To me it backfires on Meghan and poor Harry as her follower. I seem to have got it right.A New York Times summary of critiques by Lorne Manly on December 8, says that critics on both sides of the Atlantic gave negative reviews of the first three episodes.

In Britain, Piers Morgan in The Sun comments: “Who are the world’s biggest victims? The Meghan and Harry pair of incredibly rich, stupendously privileged, horribly entitled narcissists.” The Guardian’s Lucy Mangan says “So sickening I almost brought up my breakfast.” The comment in the Independent summarizes the documentary as “self aggrandizing and wildly entertaining.” The Financial Times: “The first three episodes are a let down.”

These compare unfavourably with Diana’s Panorama interview and more recent Prince Andrew’s Newsnight interview and even H&M’s interview with Oprah Winfrey which were explosive. An American newspaper comment: “Three hours into Netflix doc series and still no tell all truths from the darkest corner of the House of Windsor. Nothing has been said about The Firm.”

I suppose the revelations about racism from certain members of the Royal Family will be revealed in the next episodes; which racism and suffering caused seem to me to be more fabrications of Meghan’s fertile, self suffering mind. How could she forget her being accepted by the entire family; the fact Prince Charles led her up the final section of the church aisle after her mother walked her in for her wedding and the split she seemed to have provoked between the two royal brothers?