'Harry & Meghan' review: More self-indulgence, less tell-all

Harry & Meghan

English (Docuseries/Netflix)

Directors: Liz Garbus, Erica Sashin

Rating: 3/5

By the end of two volumes and six episodes, ‘Harry & Meghan’ feels like a modern-day fairytale. A prince meets a commoner albeit a celeb on Instagram. They go pubbing and camping on dates. After marriage, they fight against paparazzi, trolls, scheming ‘comms teams’ at the royal palace, and racism that runs to the top. Tired, they fly across an ocean for their happily something after.

That’s not what I came looking for in this Netflix docuseries on Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, also produced by them. I had seen this last March, when in an interview with Oprah Winfrey, the couple blew the lid on their hush-hush romance, ‘planted’ attacks by the British media, royal concerns about their unborn child’s colour as Meghan is half black, half white, denial of help when Meghan was battling suicidal thoughts and Harry’s urgency to protect his family like his mother Diana.

So till the third episode, the series feels like a stretched-out rehash of the Oprah interview and unrelenting tabloid news on them. I wanted it to be an expose of what and who all drove them to leave the British royal life when their union was hailed as an opportunity for racial healing and generational change in the Commonwealth nations they reign over.

The rest of the series isn’t a tell-all either but does point to events leading to their departure, and if these are true (the royal family has maintained their famous ‘silence’ on allegations), many were petty, not kingdom-destroying ploys. One was, however, disturbing. Of the 1,14,000 anti-Meghan tweets, 70 per cent came from just 83 accounts, a troll-tracking firm found. One wished Meghan should die. I am a mother. They want me to die. For what? — It is impossible not to tear up with Meghan as she makes sense of the tweet on camera. It instantly humanises the series that so far looked self-indulgent. Yes, despite its misses, some moments shine: Harry owns up it was his idea to step away from the royal family, putting an end (we hope) to the ‘home-breaker’ tag hurled at Meghan, and showing an evolved side to his ‘wild child’ side; US media mogul Tyler Perry’s unconditional gesture to provide them with a home and security in California during transition makes you choke; Meghan wins a long-drawn case of privacy invasion against a British tabloid.

Wonder if Harry’s upcoming memoir will finally be an expose.