Harry & Meghan #1 on Netflix Top 10 TV Programmes in the UK

[tatala]

Harry and Meghan's show is number 1 on Netflix in the UK and US. Did you watch it people of Mumsnet?

I think people in Britain don't hate them but are fed up of the narrative that this country is racist, when the vast majority of us are not. Or the focus on empire, as if Britain was the only nation to have one or to have been involved in the slave trade. It's not as if America is Utopian in that regard, yet the inference is that America has offered them freedom from the awfulness that is life in the UK

It's a bit galling, when they are happy to keep and use the titles and monetise their association with this awful, outdated system that they had to flee from!

The RF and Britain was so horrible, giving them a lovely home and a big state wedding and titles and status. How very dare the RF/Britain expect them to do anything in return!

Yes, our press can be awful, but foreign press isn't better!

I'd like to hear the perspective of all the staff who have worked with them in the UK. Or what really happened about the wedding tiara - did H really say that what M wants, M gets? And what happened with Kate that resulted in one of them crying.

Kate and William got married abroad? Where? And when? I don't remember this!

How have people bought into this? Their program is as edited as the Kardashian's! In fact the Kardashian's have more credibility compared to this trash documentary full of sad music and heavily edited content specifically chosen by them!

Apologies, I meant they got engaged abroad so I don’t see why Harry and Meghan couldn’t too.

I do find the tiara story problematic. How on earth would M know what tiaras the Queen had in her cupboard? Is there a catalogue? I can imagine H saying what she wants she gets though.

I think I read that M was given a list of tiaras to pick from but she wanted another one that she knew about? Does that ring any bells?

But H and M are benefiting from that legacy by keeping the titles and making money from Netflix off the back of it. That's the annoying bit. It's perfectly okay to say they disapprove of monarchy on account of its history and to remove themselves completely from it. Not okay to criticise, while reaping the benefits.
Did either of them say they didn't want Frogmore cottage? I think they still use it while here. Or that they don't want the titles? Wasn't there some concern from them about their children's 'right' to be called Prince and Princess? There's been no public statement saying they don't want title for them.
I think that segment in the documentary about the UK/RF association with the slave trade will bite them on the arse - no one likes a hypocrite.

To add, Britain wasn't the only country to engage in the slave trade. Spain, Portugal, France etc all did too. But it's Britain that constantly gets a kicking for it, even though Britain abolished it before America did. Yes, Britain could have been better and certainty compensating slave owners was wrong, but we have to remember that those were different times when these decisions were taken, with different morals. This country is better now. The documentary implied that Britain was still stuck in the 1700s attitudinally and America is a paradise by comparison.

And yet H and M are still willing to utilise Britain for their own gain.

Either be in or be out.

At the beginning of this year, Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, and Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex (the ‘Plaintiffs’), announced their intention to reside, at least part-time, in North America, in an attempt to escape the incessant UK tabloid fabrications.”

Taken from Harry and Meghan's legal submission in the privacy lawsuit they launched against members of the media.

No, I haven't watched it and I do have Netflix.

I feel like I've 'seen' the important parts through articles and YT videos analysing it though. Just CBA to sit through the whole thing.

@ImAvingOops The UK government was still paying back slave owners up till 2015 so not quite different decisions, different times. The government took out a huge loan (something like 5% of GDP at the time) to compensate slave owners and us British tax payers were paying it back for 180 years. So even 7 years ago, we were effectively paying for the slave trade. Think that is terrible - and I that didn’t know that before I watched.

Yes, we were also still paying back lend lease to the Americans until fairly recently, for helping to rid the world of Nazis. It's not right and ought to have been challenged, but these decisions weren't taken by the likes of you and I. It's just the rich looking after the rich, same as they always have!
It doesn't change the fact that H and M are making money from their association with a family and system they are criticising. Give back the title voluntarily, go back to to acting, rejoin the army and I'll have some respect for their integrity.
Keep bitching on Netflix or to Oprah and I'll just think they are almighty hypocrites!

@ImAvingOops have you seen the series? There is not a lot of bitching about members of the royal family at all, very few revelations in fact. There is a lot of criticism of the press and their “right of access” to the royal family - - particularly how the press treat women joining the royal family - which actually I agree with when you think about how the tabloids treat women in general.

It was surprisingly thought provoking at times - particularly around the history of the commonwealth - and they had some really good historians/commentators on that and also what the royal family symbolises.

Agree that Harry & Meghan need to go and do something else with their lives and just move on - for everyone’s sake. I don’t think the press will let them go that easily though.

I have seen all three episodes. I do agree that the press is problematic - particularly in hunting down everyone who ever met MM and trying to bribe them to sell stories. This really ought to be curtailed. But the British press isn't any worse than the paparazzi abroad. There are limitations on the British press which don't exist abroad. And ultimately it was MM own father who sold stories. I just found their narrative was that Britain is terrible and America is a haven.

I also agree that there are legitimate questions to be asked about what the RF stands for. But for me, I don't think they can criticise in any way while monetising their association with it. They are biting the hand which continues to feed them.

True @ImAvingOops about the monetising their association, and it makes me wonder if they are getting the advice they really need. I don’t think so unfortunately, think they are being told what they want to hear by their advisors (who are probably themselves profiting from this).

In fact I wonder if there will be any new revelations or if Oprah was it - because I think that the royal family, though insular and out-dated, did welcome Meghan but just didn’t handle it well at all. I have a little bit of sympathy for her there, she probably got all the etiquette wrong all the time and if the Crown is anything to believed, no one steps in and helps.

There were loads of articles in the press when Meghan first joined the family about all the help and support Meghan was being offered. And the palace have come out and reiterated that she was given guidance and access to a plethora of experts who she could have asked for help but she only asked two people. One was a wardrobe advisor of some kind. This stuff about being left on her own is just rubbish.

I can't see her being left on her own - they have communications teams and wardrobe advisors and staff for everything. Why wouldn't they have assistants to teach whatever she needed to know? Also Harry should have done this - if he threw her in at the deep end and offered no help then it would be on him, more than the palace surely?

I did watch it but found it really dull.

This is a comment very akin to 'not all men'.

Just sayin'.

"In other TV news, “Harry & Meghan,” which premiered Dec. 8, is the streamer’s biggest documentary series debut. Volume I of the highly anticipated and in-depth docuseries debuted on the Netflix Top 10 with 81.55 million hours viewed, the highest of any documentary title in a premiere week. From Oscar-nominated director Liz Garbus, “Harry & Meghan” is the No. 2 English TV series globally (behind only “Wednesday”), appearing in the Top 10 TV list in 85 countries, including in the top spot in the U.K.

More than 28 million households have seen the first three episodes in the four days since the show’s release, per Netflix. Volume II is set for release this Thursday, Dec. 15."

www.thewrap.com/wednesday-netflix-1-billion-hours-viewed/

A lot of people must have watched it multiple times from that data because 81.55 million hours/28 million households is 2.9 hours but we know from other data that there was a fairly big drop off in people who watched part one but didn't watch part two or three

They come across as victims but smug

It's hard to sympathise with their plight when you see them on a private plane with their dogs! Fleeing to california to spend covid lock down in a mansion with pool and private beach where they could run free!

And M is all teary recounting the awful details. It's still too raw for most normal people too Megs

Awful for them.

I watched the first part but didn't bother with the second. I wonder how many other people did the same. I wouldn't ,bother with the book either as surely it's all been said.

My overall take is that I like them both , never had any strong feeling about Meghan anyway as I always felt it was plain old sexism and racism that she got singled out so much. I feel for Harry as he would have been so much happier to be from an ordinary family, being in the Royal Family is a guilded cage.

I think the programme itself felt incredibly naff and contrived with soft focus conveniently filmed footage of their courtship. It also felt like they had to exaggerate or ramp up elements as basically there wasn't much to say..ie, William shouting at Harry. Who cares? Family arguments happen all the time..

Yes I think they had reason to complain. But I think they are tone deaf doing so in their huge Californian mansion. It was a bit 'my diamond shoes are too tight'.

Agree autumnisclose, thought there would be more gripping drama. For me, it didn’t live up to the sensationalised hype. Quite dull, cheesy, and cringe. And disappointing on the salacious gossip front too. William argued with his brother over leaving, big deal. Harry doesn’t seem to have enough self awareness to realise that maybe he also played a role in the family fall-out. Arguments don’t tend to happen in a vacuum. And he made himself look terrible, not the royal family, for not getting his own wife up to speed. Why on earth didn’t he think to brief her properly? Is his learned helplessness so entrenched he truly believes that it was on his brother and sister in law to take ownership 😂

Annoying how they didn’t read that text from William - prob wasn’t that deep anyway, prob just said he was disappointed in him and to stop exploiting their mum

However, it looks like their reality series is already having an impact in the real world:

www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/12/17/rishi-sunak-take-netflix-amid-harry-meghan-accuracy-row/

It’s behinds paywall