POLO

[Sunblessed]

Ha! They really are trying their damndest to make out they’ve not made a trashy reality show!!

https://variety.com/2024/tv/global/prince-harry-meghan-polo-netflix-series-rich-famous-stereotypes-1236243547/

POLO is now on NF. I don’t know if I’m brave enough to watch though!

Even 'the cooking show' is disparate and fragmented in nature because it is supposedly not just about 'cooking' but also 'gardening' and 'friendship' - I think thats what I recall from somewhere earlier this year. How will that all tie together? Has this format been done before?

How many episodes were filmed and are they to dovetail with her online shop ARO?

Thats a lot of complex logistics and strategic marketing to develop, co-ordinate, deliver, fine-tune and execute to get enough pots and pans flying off the shelf consistently to make a profit.

Do we know if there are any investors in this retail venture - or are H&M or Archewell shouldering the start-up costs? I wonder how much that would be?

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall did the food, gardening, community/friendship series way back. He developed his brand and credibitily in his chosen community, and with the viewing public, over a period of years.

Yes good spot - but that was from something he built organically and authetically.

I understand that the cooking show was filmed in the summer in someone elses house.

I supposed the nearest US show I've seen to the cooking-friendship-gardening theme is watching Ina Garten on her programme Barefoot Contessa on Food Network. She uses a studio-barn at her own home and gardens in the Hamptons, and her husband Jeffrey who makes regular 'back home from the city' guest appearances is clearly her best friend. (They've been married for 56 years!)

They are both wealthy and accomplished in their fields - both have business/economics degrees and understand money, and she and Jeffrey have both in the past acted as White House advisors in budget policy/commerce. Ina Garten is also a successful author and food store owner, and knows the meaning of hard graft and long days. What she has is built on her own hard work and intelligence. And she does it all with a twinkle in her eye.

They seem to have plenty of friends and interests such as travel, and they have a watchable 'couple vibe' going on. In fact Jeffrey enhances the show for me with his humble persona and daft questions, because there's only so much wealth and 'good olive oil from the Hamptons deli' I can take.

Ree Drummond (Pioneer Woman) has also built up a food & cooking empire - blog, tv show, family appearances, store(s), clothing line, B&B hotel, tours - based at her studio-lodge at the Drummond ranch in Oklahoma and in local town Pawhuska. Again, she's sharp and a hard worker. She has a quite a self-deprecating sense of humour which definitely helps to sell the brand, and her husband Ladd (another grafter) is an asset in the scenes he's in. Ree Drummond also has plenty of friends and interests, and loads of Oklahoma relatives on both sides who she seems to genuinely love feeding.

Whether Meghan and Harry can duplicate these programmes and businesses for the US market (presumably their main market?), I really don't know. Can they reproduce a version of the successful elements of the above shows - a strong, likeable couple / family; the main cook being a generous 'feeder'; liberally sprinkled twinkling eyes / self-deprecating humor; hard work, talent and focus?

If they use a different formula for the US, will it work?

Agreed.

Jeffrey is so much like my very beloved great uncle that my dad gets a tear in his eye every time he watches Ina.

Both Ina and Jeffrey are incredibly accomplished but don't show boat about their achievements. They just seem to crack on. I don't think MM has the experience, the personality or the gravitas to be in that league.

If the cooking show is in someone else's house then I think it will be more like Magnolia Table with Joanna somebody. I find her characterless and humourless, but she has had several series so someone must like it.

Not seen Magnolia Table - but I love Joanna Gaines! She has grafted for decades from the ground up with her husband Chip by flipping properties in Texas and then they eventally started to film their work and their TV show was 'Fixer-Upper' which ran for many series and was based on a lot of thrifting, recycling etc. Again something organic, original and authentic.

Joanna is humourless and driven(with a 'freakish attention to detail') but that is part of the charm with Chip who is the class clown always pulling stunts trying to make her laugh .... it was filmed around their own farm with their 4 children (think she has had a 5th recently).

Yes, I do agree that Joanna Gaines is a real grafter, too, with many genuine strings to her bow and didn't she strike a successful deal with Target? (Although that mad Antioch Church stuff may have damaged that?) Her husband (Chip) appears regularly on her Food Network show wearing his 'regular guy' toolbelt.

Again, there's a studio involved but it's on their own property, the family are involved, she seems to be a feeder of baked goods, and it's all quite relatable though quirky, with a genuine, evidenced backstory of graft. That seems to be the successful formula in the US - mom and pop teams working hard to achieve a great lifestyle focused on family values, home and the dining table.

But that's Food Network. Maybe Netflix and M&H want to break the formula. However, the evidence of Polo is that they are unprepared for that level of creativity and commitment.

Meghan can make toast apparently.

Meghan Markle makes her own version of toast in chic pyjamas for breakfast

Why is the toast wearing chic pyjamas🤔<misses point completely>

Bree did picture books and an early reader series based on her late basset hound, Charlie. It is clear from her posts about her pets that she and her family genuinely love animals.

I saw that clip and agreed with whoever described the woman interviewing her as 'being in a hostage video'.

Interviewer: 'So what are your feelings about pyjama dressing?'

Meghan: 'I love it ... it sort of speaks to that California relaxed feeling I've grown up with, just taken up to a really chic level. So the idea of like a silk pyjama blouse, even with your monogram on the side, right, with like great jeans, or that with a blazer, the whole look I think. If you can pull it off then no-one's going to say that you actually look like you you should still be in bed.'

Then they clink their toast together and say 'Cheers'.

Hasn't Selena Gomez and at least a few other actors already done the cooking and friendship thing? What's Meghan going to add to the table other than a big bowl full of word salad?

Yes, Selena Gomez is allegedly billionaire-level successful with this show and the cosmetic line. She's also a very popular actor and singer. And I think that's the issue for Meghan - other people's successes with cooking shows are coming to them of top of years of graft, talent, and demonstrable careers.

That final season of Suits in 2015 and the re-runs just aren't cutting it for Meghan any more. It's ancient history. And her husband isn't bringing much to the table now either.

thenightsky

Meghan can make toast apparently.

Can she, though?
The interviewer does all the toast making, Meghan just spreads her grandmother's apple butter on it.
Naturally she's "tweaked" and "modernised" the recipe but doesn't tell us how.
And her chic pyjamas don't hold a candle to Nigella's dressing gown, imo.

Why do I think the monogram might involve an abbreviation of "Sussex" ? Poss with a coronet, like aged aristocrats had embroidered on their knickers in the 19th C?

If this is the shape of things to come...

Looks like a day outfit to me unless polo (arf) necked pyjamas have become a thing.

And was she the star of 'Suits' as asserted?

I thought her most memorable moment after limited screen minutes was deemed to be that classy shelf moment but I found it unwatchable so happy to be corrected by those with more patience than me 🙂

With your monogram on the side? Seriously??

Why do I think the monogram might involve an abbreviation of "Sussex"

I must have a really filthy mind

I see the captain of England Polo a former friends of Harry has described Polo as " very weird" and is baffled by it. He comments that it all seems to be about Tim and Timmy Duta.

I wonder if most of the players didn't want anything to do with it for fear of looking bad. Like the chap with the pregnant wife who says 'fucking' every other word and flies to Argentina twice a week.

I've said it several times before, but Meghan has missed a huge opportunity with her IG page. She should have been regularly posting clips of her cooking etc to start building a reputation.

(In all honesty it may already have been too late, but it would have been something).

She should have been establishing her credentials as being interested in food and cooking. The Tig had sort of done that - it showed her keen on eating out, restaurants, wine, socialising. Her IG should have been backing that up with photos/clips of her cooking/entertaining etc.

It would have seemed a bit rushed and strained (Jennifer Garner did this organically over several years) but it would at least have established her as some kind of "home cook".

Her IG launch and then utter silence will never not be a source of endless WTF????? to me

@MrsFinkelstein thats exactly what Gwyneth Paltrow does. She does it from her own home though, and from her beautiful kitchen, it's not curated, it's very natural, no make up, hairstyling or props. Her recent post is promoting her friends cookbook and she is cooking a recipe from it.

I'm surprised Harry and Meghan were not at this event the other day considering the recent launch of Polo.

www.townandcountrymag.com/society/tradition/a63242158/st-regis-aspen-world-snow-polo-championship-2024/