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!

Meghan always comes across to me as socially awkward. She never seems to know where to stand or what to do in situation where the focus isn't on her.

Reading all these reviews, it struck me that the polo scene in Pretty Woman was probably a better advert for the sport than this whole series!

Documentaries about the super rich can be fantastic if they lean into the ludicrousness of it all and have the ability to find some human moments amongst it all - the documentary The Queen of Versailles is a great example. I think they made a mistake centring it around the players, it should have been about the women who put up with these idiot men.

agreed. I have made his point a few times. She doesn't seem to.understand the rules and often behaves abd dresses inappropriately as a result.

Thank you for highlighting these awful photos.
They should always follow Harry.
I'm very 'horsey' but won't watch this in the same way I won't watch racing.

1.5/10, worst score yet from The Review geek :

The trouble is, the show does absolutely nothing to endear you to the characters, players or the sport itself, making it feel like a hollow shadow of a TV show, carved out by someone with only a passing knowledge of entertainment rather than actually experiencing it themselves.
*
Most of the time though, the straight-shooting style feels like a parody spoof documentary, like you’re just waiting for David Walliams and Matt Lucas to rock up as a dysfunctional father/son duo to join the ranks. Alas they do not, but that doesn’t make Polo any less of a joke.

I do think if they had remained longer in the RF and taken up the late Queens offer of being guided by Sophie Meghan could have learned a lot about how to present herself and appear less awkward. I think Harry has a lot to answer for, he should have given her much more guidance.

Have there been any positive reviews/ comments about Polo either on here or elsewhere ?

Absolutely. Harry seems to have given Meghan nothing except a sense of grievance.

I imagine myself in her position and I think I'd have been even more awkward and at sea because I don't even have the advantage of having been in a public facing role prior to marriage.

Meghan was offered advice which she ignored . She was offered support which she declined .
The late Queen took Meghan to an event in the very early days . Meghan was advised to wear a hat . She didn’t. There is footage of HM’s aide advising Meghan not to walk in front of The Queen . Guess what ? She strode ahead !

Thats very true but I think he screwed her over from the get go. It was him that told her she needn’t curtesy to Camilla on first meeting when she did so for Charles. It was him that told her she needn’t curtesy to William either. She didn’t know any better and he was using her as a weapon.

It set in motion the opinion that she was rude, which probably meant they took a step back from her, which she then viewed as unwelcoming, which in turn made her behaviour and Harry’s paranoia worse, until it spiralled and they wouldn’t listen to anybody and take good advice like using Sophie as a guide. Which I think would have done her the world of good.

Presumably Harry was going on what his previous girlfriends did . Perhaps they didn’t curtsey etc. I don’t think it was anything to do with Harry’s lack of guidance. I think her personality is just arrogant and superior anyway and she think she knows best in every situation. She clearly thought having to the curtsy to the Queen was ridiculous and said so on public tv, so with that attitude there was no help for her. Being a ‘Cali girl’ was clearly something she was proud of and still is. She was totally unfit to be a member of the RF from the start.

The fact that she greeted William and Kate in their first meeting in ripped jeans and bare feet says quite a lot.

Yes this.

I am horsey. Used to be a showjumper until I had a fall that broke alot of bones and my confidence.

I have no time at all for racing and none for polo.

I think Harry's fear of losing Meghan and his desire to puff himself up meant he was never honest with her that she was marrying into a rigid, hierarchical institution and she wouldn't be changing the world, she'd be shaking hands with charity workers and opening new hospital wings. More than anyone, he set her up to fail.

People magazine will probably sing the praises, scobie might pop up to air an opinion (though he's gone v quiet these days). I don't think anyone else can be positive because there is simply nothing to be positive about.

I really wanted to enjoy it. I didn't like Harry and Megan slamming the royals in their netflix show previously. But at least it was a compelling watch. I was interested in what they had to say, and wanted to watch it. This pile of rubbish however, is just soooo boring and really made me feel so angry at the sexism, mysoginy, gluttony, cruelty and arrogance on display. I intended to watch at least all of the first episode, but got to about 20 minutes and switched it off. I was wasting my life and it was annoying me! So so dull!!!

The series show runner, Milos Balac is in People magazine saying the series was Meghan's idea due to her love of "tailgating" (assume that's some polo thing) and desire to bring Polo to the masses; and that they were extremely hands on with the production, including having a hand in providing notes for the editing process.

I'm always amazed at how much detail d knowledge people have about the inner workings of the royal family-down to who said what to who when! There must be so many courtiers mumsnetting in their spare time!

Two of my children played “country polo” for some years and actually got pretty good. We had 10 polo ponies but they were either free or we paid a couple of hundred pounds for them. They were all ex high goal ponies and when they got to about 16 they were no longer fast enough so we used to take them on.

All our tack was either free or bought for peanuts too and our ponies were unshod. Our polo truck was bought for £6k and was brilliant. So you can definitely do it on a shoestring and an awful lot of people do in the country.

But there is so much cruelty in the sport it’s horrific, I’ve seen some terrible things and it was lovely to give so many older ponies a kind and loving home. It’s also the case that once you get seriously good, unless you have a patron who is willing to fund you it becomes ruinously expensive .

I’m completely amazed Harry and Meghan wanted to be so publicly associated with it.

She’s had plenty of experience of the world and was a woman who had enough nous to see what she was getting into if she had more than half a brain. She was so desperate for money and fame she was have sold her soul to the Devil.

No need to moonlight as a courtier when Harry puts all this info in his book 😊

I'm surprised that it wasn't in the NF contract that H &M had to publicity interviews for it

really made me feel so angry at the sexism, mysoginy, gluttony, cruelty and arrogance on display. I intended to watch at least all of the first episode, but got to about 20 minutes and switched it off. I was wasting my life and it was annoying me!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gp555xy5ro

I wonder if this was deliberate - 'rage-baiting' is a communications technique to increase either engagement or 'noise' around an initiative to increase profile?

I think NF have form for this as H&M made it clear that they were not happy with everything in the original NF docuseries - there were subtle send ups through out. Many people watched to laugh / cringe at them. I am not sure that may came away and thought wow what a wholesome inspiring couple - thank goodnss they are here to change the world?

Similarly the highly experienced ghost write and PRH knew exactly what they were doing. Maybe even OW?

I think as ever this is an own goal - maybe H&M started to see for the first time the sexism, mysoginy, gluttony, cruelty and arrogance in their sport and chose not to sail too close to that toxicity for their own brand in public - although I presume that they will continue to live like this behind closed doors.

I don't really think this is the time and place for Meghan criticism when this is Harry who often is shielded from the belief that Meghan is the driving force when really he's just a man child with an ability to not see the bigger picture or listen to advice

But she has put her name to it and a previous poster quoted someone saying it was her idea !