Harry & Meghan – final three episodes of six episode documentary

by Nanda Pethiyagoda

The final three episodes of the six episodes of Meghan’s and Harry’s string of complaints in interviews were released by Netflix on Thursday December 15, one week after the release of the first three. As I mentioned in my comment on the first three parts, the series was directed by Liz Garbus and produced in conjunction with the production company of Prince Harry and Meghan.

I give my comment plain and simple by letting you know I watched the last three episodes with complete lack of enthusiasm; which is a judgment on the so called documentary. Thursday Dec. 15 came and went and I watched the first of the final three episodes only on the Saturday. I was turned off by Episode four but willed myself to watch the remaining two episodes. This in very sharp contrast to how I watched the series of The Crown – the mostly true and part fictionalized life of Queen Elizabeth from her engagement to Prince Philip through family travails and British history up until 2000.

I watched many episodes at one and the same sitting and once Part 3 was over, waited ever so impatiently for the next two parts released more than a year later. Watching Harry & Meghan was desultory, unenthusiastic, punctuated by several yawns. I even asked myself what I was doing and switched over to watching movies like absorbingly interesting Letters from Mother Teresa.

Content of three episodes

Episode 4 starts with their wedding; the squabble with father Markle and his not attending the wedding. This had Meghan walk up the aisle alone to be conducted the last section by Prince Charles. The birth of Archie came next and the couple’s break in traditions by not consenting to the usual royal photoshoot of the new parents leaving hospital with their new born.

Travels to Australia, South Africa and New York are documented where receptions were rapturous. Meghan accompanies the Queen on an official trip and both show pleasure. Meghan has the grace to say her grandma-in-law made her feel comfortable with gestures such as sharing a warm knee-covering while they rode a car. However, comments of the two are often ridiculous. Meghan says about her wedding: “I don’t know how I was so calm” and about crowds: “Look at all these people” – the pretend ingénue. About Harry looking at her as she comes to him at the altar: “He seems to say, ’look what I got!’”

Harry comments adversely right through. He even brings in the words jealousy and envy, ascribing them to Prince William in reference to the couple’s increasing popularity.

Then come the tiffs and Meghan doing a Diana act of feeling depressed, lonely, and suicidal. She says she thought “All this will stop if I’m not here” I sniffed with disdain when her mother makes much of it. Meghan schemed to get Harry to all appearances so she should have known what she was coming in for. Harry expresses mea culpa: “I did not do enough for her. I could not protect her” about “What the family was doing to her.” “What she needed was more than I could give her.” This comes across as so phony since Meghan is definitely a tough cookie.

Again the emphasizing of the similarity between Diana and Meghan by Harry. My comment here is: they won’t even allow Diana to lie quiet.

Episode 5 shows a deterioration in the solidarity of the Royal Family aka the Firm; the distancing of te two brothers and H&M moving temporarily to Vancouver and contemplating a break with the Royal Family. They felt insecure and Harry mentions their security, paid for by the British Govt, was withdrawn. Subsequently it was mentioned by the royal household that this was not true.

Episode 6 – the last – has Meghan stressed over her father and a letter of hers to him being sold to the press. The stress is so great she suffers a miscarriage. The paparazzi hound them so they move to a friend’s home in Los Angeles. Then they move to their own palatial place in California; are happy; give a no holds barred interview to Oprah Winfrey (which I read somewhere Oprah later said she regretted); Prince Philip dies and Harry goes for the funeral, Meghan not accompanying him as she is pregnant; the birth of Lillibet Diana. The British justifiably faulted them for this naming as the couple had not asked for, nor got permission from the Queen to use her ‘pet’ name. Meghan wins a case against the royal household.

The series ends on the emphasis of their undying, deep love with an appropriate song sung while Harry drives to the city centre. Finally Meghan reads out a statement she made just before she got married – a fairy tale of a young woman meeting a man in 2016 and the two loving each other so strong that nothing else mattered. Another love song accompanies them as they walk to the beach closely clinging to each other.

It was a good ending. However, I wondered how their lives would continue. Would Meghan be ever satisfied; would she get her stressed despondency off and on; would Harry miss Britain, his friends and even brother and father?

The series on the whole was carefully planned to show similarity of Meghan to Diana. Meghan could win an Oscar since she acts right through. The so called documentary is a continuous wail of complaint of a self centered woman and a man who just follows her. He loves her deeply and never refers to her by name but as ‘my wife’. The complaints – loud and clear as enunciated by H&M are against the media and Mr Markle. The complaints against the Royal Family, more especially against Prince Charles, Prince William and Katherine, are voiced by friends and commentators. However, many grouses are implied by the two themselves. Not one complaint about the Queen, who most definitely would have not been amused by their antics and going against tradition. Meghan, the real director of the series, knew that complaints against the Queen would be disastrous at this moment in time.

It is said that much of the rancour of Meghan, echoed by dutiful Harry, was because of her being dubbed a ‘biracial American actress’. What else for goodness sake is she or was she? She was received by the royals; allowed to conduct an all black wedding; much else and she faults them. Not an iota of gratitude shown. I also heard the title of Prince was not bestowed on Archie by the Queen. How could it be, when the couple said they would not undertake any royal duties and broke away to live elsewhere.

Much of the six episodes were scenes and incidents captured on film earlier. The ‘documentary’ was supposed to gain sympathy and of course fame and money for H&M. I for one am certain it has backfired.My final comment is that the entire so called documentary was a Big Bad Bore. A foreign critic went to the extent of saying she regretted the hours she wasted watching the series. I end with a lament: Poor Harry! He knows not what he does. To break away from family is ultimately regrettable.