The documentary series on Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, has been Netflix’s most successful documentary launch.
Netflix said that “Harry & Meghan” garnered 81.55 million viewing hours in its first four days of release. This is the “most viewed hours of any documentary series in a launch week,” according to a press release highlighting the top streaming shows for the week ending December 11.
The first three episodes of the much-anticipated six-episode series were published on December 8, with the last three installments being released at a later date.
Insight into the show
Daniel Leal/ AFP/ Getty Images | Harry & Meghan was the second-most watched English-language series on Netflix globally between 5 and 11 December
Liz Garbus directs the first three episodes, which portray the narrative of their relationship, Harry’s proposal, Meghan’s first adjustment to life as a royal, and her experience of being imprisoned by the family’s general inability to confront criticism are recounted once again. In addition to her father’s treachery, we learn about her strong bond with Samantha Markle’s kid, whom she dislikes.
This final piece is new and was cleverly employed to deflect criticism from the Markle family, but everything else has already been expressed. And it was uttered in a setting where an astute interviewer may have pushed the couple further than they meant. Meghan questions the camera at the beginning of the series, “Doesn't it make more sense to hear our tale from us?”
The unspoken response is, “Yes, but perhaps filtered through the sensibility of a journalist or broadcaster who is ready to go beyond the familiar.” As with the most recent, excruciatingly dull season of “The Crown,” there appears to be a narrative impasse, an inability or unwillingness to find something new to say.
A family and business ‘in direct conflict.’
Lauren Sarner/ Entertainment | From their courtship to their exit from royal life, Harry and Meghan share their complex journey in their own words in this docuseries
The highly anticipated Netflix documentary is the Sussexes’ most recent effort to recover the narrative surrounding their expulsion from the royal family. It describes the deteriorating ties between Harry, his brother William, and their father, King Charles III. And it highlights the notion that the royals frequently sought to marginalize and isolate the pair by planting unfavorable media coverage so that they would not eclipse more senior royals in popularity.
“My father told me, ‘My son, you cannot take on the media. “The media will always be the media,” remarked Prince Harry, characterizing the palace’s relationship with press organizations as a “dirty game.”
Sean Coughlan/ Reuters | Harry & Meghan is an unprecedented six-part documentary series
Harry and Meghan’s historic and contentious decision in early 2020 to resign as working royals and leave the United Kingdom marked the end of the royal institution’s relationship with the couple, who were once hailed as the modernizing force the monarchy needed. Before the divorce was formalized, Harry says he contacted Queen Elizabeth II and arranged to meet her with Meghan.
The pair criticized the Queen’s advisers but praised the late queen, who passed away in September at 96, just after production for the series was completed. Their documentary and Harry’s forthcoming biography focus on the strained relationship between the prince and his father, King Charles.
