Harry and Meghan Netflix documentary

[barkley]

I believe that H&M have now fallen into some weird in-between category like Harry's Great Grandfather, Edward VIII....who abdicated to be with Wallis Simpson.

i agree. i think though that the monarchy learned a great deal from that situation. reportedly near the end of her life the late queen was bombarded with calls from harry begging for money to which she told him to speak to his father. charles reportedly refused the calls saying 'i'm not a bank'. edward and wallis were financially supported by first the late queen's father, then the queen. when edward died the late queen still provided for wallis. this was 'repaid' with by horrifically embarrassing to the monarchy and royal family in general behaviors by edward and wallis (the reports of them socializing with hitler are disturbing to say the least). i think the current seniors had this in the back of their minds and have responded to h&m accordingly.

i think charles and the other seniors are doing right to simply carry on with their lives and duties, not comment/feed into this and (apparently according to reports) not privately fund h&m. h&m claimed this is the life they want, they knew what the consequences would be when it was explained that they couldn't tweak centuries of job duties to suit them selves (no do the job/no get the money). if they wish to stand on their own they need to stop banking on their FORMER status. move on, shows over-get a job, get a life.

 

[AndreaA]

i agree. i think though that the monarchy learned a great deal from that situation. reportedly near the end of her life the late queen was bombarded with calls from harry begging for money to which she told him to speak to his father. charles reportedly refused the calls saying 'i'm not a bank'. edward and wallis were financially supported by first the late queen's father, then the queen. when edward died the late queen still provided for wallis. this was 'repaid' with by horrifically embarrassing to the monarchy and royal family in general behaviors by edward and wallis (the reports of them socializing with hitler are disturbing to say the least). i think the current seniors had this in the back of their minds and have responded to h&m accordingly.

i think charles and the other seniors are doing right to simply carry on with their lives and duties, not comment/feed into this and (apparently according to reports) not privately fund h&m. h&m claimed this is the life they want, they knew what the consequences would be when it was explained that they couldn't tweak centuries of job duties to suit them selves (no do the job/no get the money). if they wish to stand on their own they need to stop banking on their FORMER status. move on, shows over-get a job, get a life.

Agreed. I also know that Queen Elizabeth reportedly detested Edward and blamed his abdication for her own father’s premature death. She never thought she’d be queen and never wanted to be queen, but once she was, she understood that it was a lifetime commitment and wouldn’t have dreamed of shirking it as H&M have done while apparently still wanting to be included in some things. You don’t get to have it both ways.

 

[Skywalker]

Okay so it seems like the same old story then. Not a documentary but just a further way for their PR staff to earn their keep.

Ultimately I think Harry is spellbound and not very bright. I think he did feel some very real emotions about his life, his place in the family and his mom. Unfortunately he met an opportunist who knew how to capitalize on that.

I wish they would just stop talking anything about the royal family, but they can't, because it is the only thing that gives them relevance. Sad.

 

[mamamia2005]

A bit late to the party, had a busy weekend!

So, my thoughts as a Brit:

The interview they were shown in the first episode from a year or so before they met, where M was asked Prince William or Prince Harry, she went all giggly and claimed to not be able to choose. Thought she didn't know who Prince Harry was?! Not to mention, Prince William had already been married a few years by then - maybe that little question sowed a seed with Meghan?

When Meghan was showing I think baby Archie a photo of Grandma - Princess Diana. If they hate the media that much, why have a framed photo that was on the cover of a magazine up on the wall. Would it not be better to have one of Diana in the back garden in her jeans that was taken by a member of the family personally?

Regarding the curtsey. I think the problem was in the delivery of the remark. It did come across to me that she was taking the pee of the tradition of the curtsey. If she had said I tried my best but it didn't come out quite as planned, and it was something I worked on ( without the demonstration) I think it would have been much better.

I do feel for them regarding the press, and can totally understand the concern Harry has for his family after what happened with Diana. The press are pretty ruthless here in the UK, but Kate and William seem to have managed to come to and understanding with them.

 

[dvcgirl67]

A bit late to the party, had a busy weekend!

So, my thoughts as a Brit:

The interview they were shown in the first episode from a year or so before they met, where M was asked Prince William or Prince Harry, she went all giggly and claimed to not be able to choose. Thought she didn't know who Prince Harry was?! Not to mention, Prince William had already been married a few years by then - maybe that little question sowed a seed with Meghan?

When Meghan was showing I think baby Archie a photo of Grandma - Princess Diana. If they hate the media that much, why have a framed photo that was on the cover of a magazine up on the wall. Would it not be better to have one of Diana in the back garden in her jeans that was taken by a member of the family personally?

Regarding the curtsey. I think the problem was in the delivery of the remark. It did come across to me that she was taking the pee of the tradition of the curtsey. If she had said I tried my best but it didn't come out quite as planned, and it was something I worked on ( without the demonstration) I think it would have been much better.

I do feel for them regarding the press, and can totally understand the concern Harry has for his family after what happened with Diana. The press are pretty ruthless here in the UK, but Kate and William seem to have managed to come to and understanding with them.

Interesting to hear your thoughts as a Brit. I guess one of their main messages is that they tried to communicate to the Royal Family that the racist element was new...and dangerous. And I get that, but it's not exactly like the Royals can protect them from that. That's just the world we live in....and the press is awful. It's a difficult situation overall for them. They're two adults and they seem to want to be "Royals" here....but we only idolize big movie stars and the Uber-wealthy. They don't fit into either of those categories. They're a couple of millennials with somewhere between 50-100 million in the bank living in Montecito, CA. That's not all that uncommon for that part of the world. But it is enough money that it's not exactly easy to feel sorry for them. A "boo hoo....whoa is me" story won't work for them. They haven't produced anything yet that will ensure future "content deals". I just see them kind of fading into a semi-famous, charity-circuit kind of obscurity.

 

[kyton]

Harry's Great Grandfather, Edward VIII....who abdicated to be with Wallis Simpson

Edward wasn’t Harry’s Great Grandfather - he was the late Queen’s uncle. She never forgave him for abdicating as her father’s and subsequently her lives were forever altered. This is the reason why she never gave up the throne even whilst getting on in age.

 

[mousefan73]

My last thoughts on this for now until next week.
1. I wonder if they’re lumping online commentary and Trolls on social media or comment sections of official media together with “the press”. In this day and age people can be ruthless on Twitter and other boards or forums or commentary sections. But moving to the US is not going to solve this problem. Royal family can’t control this at all.

2. I’m curious what role they will have at the coronation or if any at all. Of course some British media is commentary right now that they shouldn’t even come or that “officials” don’t want them there. It was pretty obvious even after the Oprah interview and such they were welcomed back for the queens services.

3. The first three episodes were kind of a dud if anyone was looking for a spectacular new information or a forced response from Prince William and family. My gut feeling is the last three episodes are going to get more critical of the royal family because then it addresses them leaving. And then we all know about the love story and I can’t see them continuing the whole we are so in love fighting against racism together for three more episodes

 

[dvcgirl67]

Edward wasn’t Harry’s Great Grandfather - he was the late Queen’s uncle. She never forgave him for abdicating as her father’s and subsequently her lives were forever altered. This is the reason why she never gave up the throne even whilst getting on in age.

Right....Great Uncle, my bad.

 

[HopperFan]

Having said all of that, I believe that H&M have now fallen into some weird in-between category like Harry's Great Grandfather, Edward VIII....who abdicated to be with Wallis Simpson. Harry is now a kind of pseudo-Royal who married Meghan who is a sort of pseudo-celebrity. And frankly, in the world they inhabit....where you need to shine brightly to command attention (and earn dollars), they came off to be a couple of incredibly boring people. I already knew about the courtship and the Botswana trip...etc. Their friends didn't really add any context to the story. H&M seem to want us to believe that they are insanely happy in their new circumstance, but three episodes in....I wasn't buying that. They said it themselves early on...."how did we end up here?"

The Royals don't have to be very interesting people. They stay behind the walls of their gilded cage and keep enough of a distance to have a mystique about them....and remain interesting to us. Then they go from house to castle to house....and hunt, fish, etc.

I think this is something they sorely did not account for. They were wanted in many circles, at many events and in many cliques because they were ROYALs in the full capacity. Now that they barely have titles they are of no use to most of these people. They aren't going to bring in the big bucks, or give them access to global people. As you say they are just rich boring people cut off from what made them stand out.

Harry grew up in a life that he was in high demand because of the Royal family, not because of him. They are in for a rude awakening.

H&M are now just run-of-the-mill celebrities who made over one hundred million dollars.....when they were still "working royals". Now that they aren't, it's just odd to me that they are doing events around the U.S. as if they are...if that makes sense. There's a scene in one of the episodes where they show up at McGuire's AF Base. It's less than an hour from my house and I never heard a thing about that visit. I don't know if the press even covered it. And I was left thinking that it was kind of weird...and sad in a way.

So WHY is a basically private citizen of another country visiting our military bases? And he isn't her plus one because honestly I don't think most ever heard of her until she became Harry's girlfriend. And even if they are working royals, how do they fit in to our military? Bizarre, even more so that they were allowed on base.

Desperation to remain relevant.

 

[dvcgirl67]

I think this is something they sorely did not account for. They were wanted in many circles, at many events and in many cliques because they were ROYALs in the full capacity. Now that they barely have titles they are of no use to most of these people. They aren't going to bring in the big bucks, or give them access to global people. As you say they are just rich boring people cut off from what made them stand out.

Harry grew up in a life that he was in high demand because of the Royal family, not because of him. They are in for a rude awakening.


So WHY is a basically private citizen of another country visiting our military bases? And he isn't her plus one because honestly I don't think most ever heard of her until she became Harry's girlfriend. And even if they are working royals, how do they fit in to our military? Bizarre, even more so that they were allowed on base.

Desperation to remain relevant.

Exactly....because they're now essentially "over-sharing"......they are quickly running out of the currency that Netflix and Spotify essentially thought that they were getting.....a glimpse behind those gilded cage walls....to the handsome prince and his beautiful American princess. The Disney movie so to speak. Now....they've given up the goods, and the royal gossip "pipeline" is essentially shut down. They're out.

Another thing that struck me was when they were being driven around the NYC area in 2021. They're in the back seat and they both have this mildly terrified look in their eyes as if they're being followed by a fleet of paparazzi.....when it was one guy....on a scooter, and I didn't even see him in the shot. It reminded me of when Princess Diana passed away. And Madonna made a "statement" about how awful her life was as well in dealing with the paparazzi. Shortly after that Elton John commented that Madonna had absolutely no clue how bad it was for Dianna. Yes, Madonna was a "star", but in comparison....Dianna was a complete Universe. It's not even close.

I think the military base visits has to be Harry's idea as that is what he did a lot of that the U.K. It's comfortable to him. He did serve bravely in his military for ten years, which says a lot about his character. But here...it's one thing if he and his wife were visiting *from* the UK and stopped at a military base during a U.S. tour. With him actually living here....it kind of doesn't make sense.

 

[Ms Bibbidi]

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[HopperFan]

The Invictus Games I suppose.

I would assume that is a reasoning but the Games are for wounded, injured and sick. I don't know that spending time on our active bases is the best location to interact with those who might participate. And if they are taking press with them on to the bases to film, maybe not a good idea in today's world.

 

[Karin1984]

My last thoughts on this for now until next week.
1. I wonder if they’re lumping online commentary and Trolls on social media or comment sections of official media together with “the press”. In this day and age people can be ruthless on Twitter and other boards or forums or commentary sections. But moving to the US is not going to solve this problem. Royal family can’t control this at all.

2. I’m curious what role they will have at the coronation or if any at all. Of course some British media is commentary right now that they shouldn’t even come or that “officials” don’t want them there. It was pretty obvious even after the Oprah interview and such they were welcomed back for the queens services.

3. The first three episodes were kind of a dud if anyone was looking for a spectacular new information or a forced response from Prince William and family. My gut feeling is the last three episodes are going to get more critical of the royal family because then it addresses them leaving. And then we all know about the love story and I can’t see them continuing the whole we are so in love fighting against racism together for three more episodes

1. Yesterday I went to the social media pages of the different news sources who had reviews or articles about them. It really depends on how the news source writes about them, how the people reply there. There are some where there are people who love H&M and go all 'Leave Britney alone!'-mode.
I think Variety is the most interesting of all. A few months ago they had this beautiful photoshoot and interview with Meghan, and now it's 'You're boring AF'. I guess she has a very good PR person who was able to arrange the shoot. But not that good to be on their side.

2. It all depends next week and on the book. If Charles gets cancelled in the book as well and/or attacks on Camilla or Kate... Then they are doomed. If the book is as boring as the documentary then they might have a chance. Because then it's just some issues among themselves to solve.

3. We have the wedding, the birth of the two children, Megxit and probably Prince Phillip's funeral to go through. I am going to assume the first two topics will be one full episode at least.

I hope for them that there is something about 'what are we going to do next', something about the future in the last episode. Otherwise it's really going to be pointless.

And what about Netflix, everyone is watching, everyone is talking about it. But they also say 'Netflix you are an idiot paying 100 million dollar for this.'.

 

[Karin1984]

I would assume that is a reasoning but the Games are for wounded, injured and sick. I don't know that spending time on our active bases is the best location to interact with those who might participate. And if they are taking press with them on to the bases to film, maybe not a good idea in today's world.

What I can find, in 2021 they went to have lunch at the base with military people and spouses to talk about the challenges. So, he was there as an expert.

In 2022 at Pearl Harbor he was there for a private visit, getting a tour etc. But he was there with a photgrapher and the story was released on the Archewell website for Veteran's day and wearing a poppy for the UK. That is a bit of a clash, but stranger when they staged some sort of salute for him.


I wonder what Harry would do if Veteran's day in the US and Remembrance day in the UK would be on different dates. He's lucky they are, he can do something military related for the 11th.

 

[mousefan73]

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And what about Netflix, everyone is watching, everyone is talking about it. But they also say 'Netflix you are an idiot paying 100 million dollar for this.'.

Are you sure the hundred million was just for this 6 episode documentary? For some reason I have in my head there’s more content to come. Something about specifically on the Invictus games, children’s programming, environmental etc. I’m not sure anymore.
I mean if they paid 100 million just for this Then somebody is making a poop load of money because I can’t see production cost being anywhere near this

 

[Karin1984]

Are you sure the hundred million was just for this 6 episode documentary? For some reason I have in my head there’s more content to come. Something about specifically on the Invictus games, children’s programming, environmental etc. I’m not sure anymore.
I mean if they paid 100 million just for this Then somebody is making a poop load of money because I can’t see production cost being anywhere near this

You are right, it is for everything they are going to create. And the amount does include the cost of making a production. But besides this and Invictus, nothing is planned yet. Meghan's project got cancelled and there are no other projects announced yet.

But you do hear rumours, that Netflix is not happy about the false advertising in the trailers. People working at Netflix in the 'green' department aren't happy that the trailer took away from the Earthshot project. And just the high maintenance H&M are (if all the rumours about making changes etc. are true), I can imagine Netflix says "take the losses and run away from these two."

 

[dvcgirl67]

You are right, it is for everything they are going to create. And the amount does include the cost of making a production. But besides this and Invictus, nothing is planned yet. Meghan's project got cancelled and there are no other projects announced yet.

But you do hear rumours, that Netflix is not happy about the false advertising in the trailers. People working at Netflix in the 'green' department aren't happy that the trailer took away from the Earthshot project. And just the high maintenance H&M are (if all the rumours about making changes etc. are true), I can imagine Netflix says "take the losses and run away from these two."

Yes, I read it's a five year deal with Netflix that they signed in 2020. The children's content that they created has already been shelved, so this is it so far. The Spotify podcast is dropping in the ratings by the week. Netflix has a few more years to get what they can out of these two I suppose, but seems like it's a loser of a deal for them. I can't imagine any big deals down the road either. What they've released so far is a highly controlled, very guarded series that comes off as a filtered instagram feed. Overall I'm left thinking that they are going to need a lot more money than they have to fund their lifestyle for the next 40+ years or so. They seem to want it all....the ultimate level of privacy and security/protection, without the mega-bank account that is required to pay for it. They've both said that they see themselves as dedicating their lives to public service. Great....but do they know what actual public servants get paid? It's relatively easy to be a public servant with the Billions that the Royal Family has backing you up. Otherwise....pretty tough.

 

[mom2rtk]

Wouldn’t Harry have gotten a sizable inheritance from The Queen? Just how much do they need?

 

[snappy]

Wouldn’t Harry have gotten a sizable inheritance from The Queen? Just how much do they need?

Not to mention his Mom.

 

[Ms Bibbidi]

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