The big nothing burger

[theemptinessmachine]

Rumours are swirling that Netflix are unhappy with the Polo documentary. It's not something I would watch but who knows whether it will tank or not due to limited interest .

Unless Luke and Red Alderton are in it along with Ricky France-Lynch, what’s the point.

I didn't know Netflix had done a recent docuseries on athletics. I have just downloaded it to watch tomorrow, thanks Serenster

You are very welcome, IAmATorturedPoet. It’s very focussed on the American athletes, as you’d expect, but the second series will include Julien Alfred and Letsile Tobago….

A documentary needs some tension to hook the viewers in. Will Nacho and his rich mates win the Cup over some other rich guys? will not keep the viewers engaged.
I would watch it if it explored the lives of the grooms and actual workers in contrast to the players, looked at the treatment of the horses and showed the deep closeness between Nacho and Harry.

You can't really compare a behind the scene footage of F1 with Polo. With many of the driver with millions of follower, Lewis over 30 million and Nacho 600k, it's just a different beast. Polo would need to offer something edgy, scandalous or funny to capture a new audience or Harry gossiping about his family to attract and keep viewers.

I completely take your point, as you say though, the difference is that F1 and athletics already have very large established fan bases (& even bigger casual fan bases) due to pretty high media coverage, big well known personalities and (reasonably) easy to access regular TV coverage.

Polo has none of that.

I quite enjoy watching show jumping, every four years at the Olympics. But polo, I have no idea of the rules and it always looks like a lot of horses riding randomly around. I have never seen anything about it, unless you count pictures in the tabloids of "celebrities at the polo" or "royals playing polo". I think it's far too niche to gain a large viewership, unless they go the scandal and intrigue route, which again will only work if it included players we have heard of: Harry and ummm ...?

We are a hockey playing family and love watching games, but it doesn't seem to really translate to TV very well. I would imagine Polo is similar as it can be difficult to see what is going on.

F1 drivers like Lewis Hamilton and Checo Perez have massive followings and Lewis' move to Ferrari had absolutely boosted their coffers. Drive to survive helped F1 break into the American market which purists aren't entirely happy about. It would depend if the Polo bods want the sport to make more money or keep it to themselves.

I don't think Netflix would do a behind the scenes anyway, because it could put off future high profile signees.

That wouldn't apply to other streamers though...

Alot of things don't get a second series on netflix. Even drive to survive is now drmaaticised too much, some of the fw drivers have spoke ojt about this. Whilst the behind the scenes are nice e they have to exaggerate things to make it look dramatic and turned off slot of fw fans, ot now attracts new people to the sport if anything.

So unless there is drama in the polo series than no it unlikley to get renewed. Drama sells unfortunately

I'll bet she's in it more than anyone else!!
I'll bet Harry isn't in it because he's not that good at polo, he plays ok, but that's about it. I'm surprised, considering his scrapes with animal cruelty Netflix would back this

My guess is, with that legendary blend of royal stupidity and arrogance, he thinks having his name on it as producer or whatever will make it interesting in itself (despite no doubt all the actual work being done by someone else), and he has completely missed the point that the only interest in him is as a character in the royal soap opera.

Well you never know - Disney are releasing a new TV version of Jilly Cooper’s Rivels - if it’s popular and they do Polo as a sequel then there may be some interest in seeing behind the scenes of the real polo world. I’m not sure Rupert is sexy enough in this cast though.

Oh, I knew that Rivals was being made into a series, but hadn’t seen the trailer. Given the 80s are now officially vintage, leaning into the period excess looks like it will work better than I’d been expecting!

I didnt know about this! I read the books aged 13, borrowed them from my Grandmother 😆
It's looks quite fun, took me a while to recognise Aidan Turner.
Rupert is definitely not handsome enough! Should have gone for someone like Ed Speelers.
I love that they've embraced the 80s setting. So many things like this get ruined by bringing the story into the modern day.

I get major sleazy vibes from him.

Interesting that someone said on another post that he isn't actually a very high ranking polo player. I went down a bit of a rabbit hole and he's nowhere to be seen. I guess at 47 he's probably over the hill. His relatively high profile probably has more to do with his looks and his 'friendship' with Harry than his status as a player.

Polo sounds dull and I can't see it getting a big audience.

www.worldpolotour.com/?sec=1

Nacho Figueras has previously had a pretty high profile, as he modelled in addition to being a professional polo player. Here he is in a Ralph Lauren campaign for example - but I am guess that’s 10 years old now, at least? I would hate to be doing him a disservice, but I wonder if he is the Anna Kornikova of the polo world - attracting an outsize amount of attention not commensurate with his talent. Which is not to say that Anna Kournikova had no talent - far from it! Just she was never one of the WTA players in contention in grand slams etc.

It could be an interesting series if they expand the coverage to look at polo outside of the traditional rich person's game.

There's an annual polo season near me and it's nothing like Harry's polo experience. The polo field is sand/dirt not grass and it has a big fence all around it. Everyone turns up with blankets and food as though it's a football tailgate - there are food trucks selling burgers. Huge floodlights and the games start early evening and finish well after dark.

They also have someone commentating on the matches with a big PA system. Until last year it was a real character who was hilarious - I used to go just to listen to him. It was like Terry Wogan at Eurovision. He'd make it clear he didn't have a clue what was going on half the time. "Wow - they're really riding fast now - Woah! that was close! Look at her go!"

Some American universities have started creating teams - selling it as 'hockey on a horse'.

Or show how they start the kids really young in Argentina - little six and seven-year-olds competing.