Ray Richmond: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle tell their side of the story in Netflix Emmy contender
“Harry & Meghan” has been Netflix’s most-viewed documentary premiere ever, and it had better be. The scuttlebutt is that The Reluctant Royals were paid in the neighborhood of $100 million to open up their lives and hearts to a camera crew led by director Liz Garbus, and for its money the streamer was able to wangle six parts out of it (two volumes of three apiece, doncha know). It also served up more storylines than you can shake a stick at, perhaps two sticks. It’s a love story! It’s a tragedy! It’s a bitchfest! It’s a family saga! It’s a finger-pointing rage-a-thon! It’s a gleeful revenge-o-rama! It’s an ax-grinding spectacular! (And now it’s an Emmy contender in the Documentary Series category.) Rarely do you find so many ideas and explanations and accusations and excuses and settings of the record straight in the space of a single series of programs. And I think I speak for millions of others when I declare that I am now officially an expert on every right and wronged aspect of the lives of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
Wait, is Harry still a prince despite his best efforts to shed the Royal Family cloak? Evidently. He and his wife remain the Duke and Duchess of Sussex but are no longer addressed as His/Her Royal Highness. (Like I said, I’m an expert now.) Let me also just say that after watching this entire six-parter, I’m not without empathy and compassion for these two, their gargantuan payday and gorgeous Montecito estate notwithstanding. They’ve been through hell dealing with the boundless pettiness of the monarchy, and I have to admit that both Harry and Meghan come across as entirely genuine and likeable. It’s just that there must have been a monumental amount of soul-selling here in return for relinquishing their much-ballyhooed privacy. Having your entire existence splayed across a monitor for roughly six hours isn’t the kind of disappearing act we’re accustomed to.
I’m not here to vilify this beautiful pair of young-ish people, but I feel like the poking of some gentle fun is more than justified. I mean, I know we’re being asked to identify somehow with their hardship, but that’s challenging when you see the gorgeous views from their backyard and understand that they don’t even need to pick up a phone to call Oprah. I don’t doubt that they have their own struggles, but they aren’t the same ones the majority of the population faces. They have certainly endured hideous treatment from their extended family, and ceaseless attacks and harassment in the tabloid press and over social media. But surely a percentage of that is of their own doing, because in the absence of real employment their job is now brand buffing and image control. As a longtime observer of entertainment culture, however, I’m still of the mind that being ignored is significantly worse than being savaged.
Have they experienced shabby treatment? Undoubtedly. Are the royals a racist enterprise? Well, they are the literal embodiment of white privilege. The idea that they would reject a mixed-race in-law as a pariah isn’t terribly far-fetched. In fact, it’s completely near-fetched. What pours forth like Dom Perignon from every hour of “Harry & Meghan” is the shock of the dissipation of their fairy tale. Harry, despite his veneer of world-weariness and quiet cool, seems on some level to have thought himself immune because he’s Diana’s kid. Meghan was so caught up in the ravishing romance of it all that she appears to have thought she’d ride that wave clear through to happily ever after. When the bubble burst and they found out they were somehow the villains, they freaked, and evidently the advice they got was that they needed to get their own side of things on the record, stat.
The early episodes of this tell-all extravaganza are charming for their gleeful rehash of Harry and Meghan’s meeting and whirlwind courtship. It grows darker when discussing how the tabs and paparazzi destroyed Diana and how determined they both were that this would never happen to them, even though that process continues forth. They both maintain here that things began to head off the rails for them when they were such a hit during their tour of Australia while Meghan was pregnant with son Archie. She was chastised for the same things her sister-in-law Kate was praised for, and much of that is ascribed to racism in “Harry & Meghan.” She was left incredulous, and Harry outraged.
On the other hand, it’s like, welcome to the real world, kids. As the centerpiece of their grievance tour, this doc series feels like pretty thin gruel. That doesn’t mean it won’t land a big fat Emmy nomination next year (it will qualify for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series if Netflix submits it, and of course it will), but it still amounts to two people living in a fishbowl whose lives are filled with wealth, pampering, servants, cooks and the kind of life most could merely dream about. Does it also include press and Joe and Jane Twitter taking potshots at them? Absolutely. But that’s the price of admission. If you don’t want to play that game, you don’t have to cry a river to Oprah or land a lucrative book deal (as Harry did). Privacy can be yours, but only if you agree to stop wanting it both ways.
No matter how you may slice it, the Duke and Duchess appear to be doing everything in their power to stay IN the spotlight. The royal heritage they so disdain is at the same time their only real calling card. But they’ve also already parlayed this into a forthcoming new Netflix interviews docuseries, albeit about other people.
On some level, it gets back to the fact that Harry (mocked as “the spare”) has the luxury of never having any future claim to the throne. That is for his older brother William, from whom he is now purportedly estranged. His purpose, thus, is to expose the cracks in the House of Windsor and ride the public’s ongoing fascination with all things Royal Family to the bank. For people who seem so desperate to wash their hands of that particular responsibility, they can’t seem to do a whole lot without talking about them. The irony is that they only get to air their resentment and outrage because of their fame, yet it’s that very fame they apparently most abhor.
But if we leave out the shameless opportunism and incessant whining and utter narcissism part, “Harry & Meghan” is a reasonably entertaining way to waste a full quarter of a single day of your time on earth. It’s inspiring that Meghan and Harry have such a healthy collection of friends who will stick up for them and confirm their victimization, and I can understand why the couple felt compelled to be part of such a grand slam against their heritage. Televised tantrums and takedowns are rarely this elaborate and juicy, and you’ve got to commend the let’s-just-torch-the-entire-institution passion driving the narrative. If you’re gonna make a break for it, do it loud and do it proud. No one will be able to accuse these two of soft-peddling their animosity.
I also admire the way that they’ve so effectively turned their bitterness into profit. Don’t get mad. Get rich. And if it can help demolish a bloated and outdated institution in the process, all the better.
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