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!

They're both spoilt petulant children, and extreme entitlement in both of them ... I expect Meghan is taking a step back because she knows it's crap tv, and scratch the surface and you'll see extreme entitlement, nastiness, cruelty, so
She'll have that shield of 🤷🏻‍♀️

@Vespanest

Ths showrunner talks at length about Meghans involvement and vision for the project. It was her idea to focus on the ‘community’ that watches the polo.

See interviews with Variety, People and the NYPost. Meghan is mentioned frequently

So it’s fair that she is criticised too for producing a boring, vacuous and sexist programme.

Follow up piece in the MailOnline by Jessica Green, following Jane Fryer's one star review that pp linked earlier.

'Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's Netflix series Polo is panned by critics who all have the same complaint about 'boring' series'

www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-14180857/Prince-Harry-Meghan-Markles-Netflix-series-Polo-panned-critics-complaint-boring-series.html

And here's Joel Keller writing in Decider.com's 'Stream of Skip it?' review section:

'SKIP IT. Polo is a mostly boring look at a sport that very few people outside of elite circles have any particular interest in.'

In the adjacent poll, 95% of people agree with 'skip it'.

https://decider.com/2024/12/10/polo-netflix-review/

It's appearing under my "Recently Added" section on Netflix, but not in any emails, notifications, and you have to scroll right to see it in Recently Added.

That's a major blocker to frictionless viewing.

My toddler son will usually put some shows on - because he's got hold of the remote and is just pressing the select button again and again. You want your programme to be easy enough for a baby to put on!

10.ponies (even if acquired for free) need a lot of feed, land, vets bills (even if no major illnesses or injuries). Then a £6k truck.

That may be a 'shoestring' compared to the serious polo players. But it is very far away from a 'shoestring' for most people! It's way out of reach.

Just watched this as have played Polo in the long distant past. I kept waiting for an episode on the horses!!. There would be no game without them. At least 6-10 each player per game, and they were hardly mentioned.

Louis was just interested in winning at any cost and I felt he would mis treat the horses to achieve his aim.

No. mention of the history of the game and it's origins.

Totally pointless show and very disappointing, hopefully not a true reflection of all Polo players/games.

@Sunblessed "CurlewKate
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!

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

I would rather eat wasps than read the book- but does he really recount all the appalling things Meghan is supposed to have said and done? Rather an own goal, surely?

@AzurePanda You and your family sound like nice people. Many people choose to spend their disposable income on things rather than animals and pets. I'm glad those horses had happy later years.

I would rather eat wasps than read the book- but does he really recount all the appalling things Meghan is supposed to have said and done? Rather an own goal, surely?

Yes, indeed, @CurlewKate - the combined personal revelations in the Oprah interview, the Netflix multi-part series, Spare, and many other recorded interviews, give a great deal of detail from the mouths and pens of Harry and Meghan themselves, and it could be argued that the resulting granular picture does them no favours.

And so many people who know that W is a lazy do-nothing and C leaves everything to the nannies.9

Perhaps, in the light of recent history, NF decided not to enforce that clause ( or actually gave them extra money NOT to do ant interviews).

Do we know how it’s been received in the US and other countries yet?

Haven’t seen a US review yet but the NYPost is reporting that it’s had dismal reviews

https://nypost.com/2024/12/11/entertainment/prince-harrys-boring-netflix-polo-doc-slammed-by-critics/

@Rhaidimiddim "And so many people who know that W is a lazy do-nothing and C leaves everything to the nannies"

Indeed! Experts all.

I think Decider might be American though?

Their view was skip it

https://decider.com/2024/12/10/polo-netflix-review/

The Times have their review out. Another 2/5

https://www.thetimes.com/culture/tv-radio/article/polo-review-prince-harry-has-made-a-tv-show-only-he-would-watch-g5slr5h8q

https://archive.ph/1qfcI

Well we could have told you that DM!

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-14181869/amp/Prince-Harry-Meghan-Markles-80million-Netflix-deal-rocks-scathing-Polo-reviews-brand-expert-warns.html

I've not read it, either, except for excerpts in other publications and media.

And he does mention M saying and doing stuff (including one of her emails, to Catherine) that he seems to think show OK behaviour, but readers are thinking WTAF.

That was a power play I suspect, she wanted to show William and Kate they were of no importance to her and that she had no respect for their position, she showed exactly who she was very early to W&K.

Yes I agree.

It definitely was.

You can imagine what they’d say if the opposite was true, that Kate and William turned up casual to dinner when she went to a lot of effort and was trying to make a good impression and put on her Sunday best. It would be stated that she didn’t understand why they did that, she thought a dinner party and meeting for the first time meant everyone put in a little effort and she was hurt by their perceived lack of effort and care. She felt it was a sign about how they felt about her and M&H relationship etc etc

It was just about making w&c look bad. It didn’t matter how they dressed that night, they would have spun it to their own ends

And even more people don't have that level.of disposable income!

My issue is not with the poster's financial choices, it is with their description of that being a 'shoestring'.

I grew up in a rural area, so was able to ride quite a lot, quite cheaply. Lots of friends had a pony or two, because grazing was cheap. They had native pony types (not pure bred) and hardy cobs, that lived out all year with a rug in winter, and some hay and a handful of hard feed.

That is very different from 10 polo ponies, not only in the number of horses, but also needing far more shelter and feeding than tough little native ponies. I don't know anyone from my childhood who would have been able to afford 10 ponies/horses.

It's just so boring!

If netflix can make the tour de france interesting and binge worthy, this should have been a walk in the park.

What went wrong??

Yup