For the Sussexes, Facts are Flexible and they are Flawless
It opens to solemn, Downton Abbey like music (copying The Crown would have been too obvious) contrasts of private images and public scenes, and the promise of “A Netflix Documentary Series” elegantly unfurls across the credit screen.
But minutes in, it becomes clear. This is not a documentary. Not remotely.
This Netflix series on the Sussexes feels like three hours trapped with the worst dinner party hosts in the world. That couple who can’t stop talking about themselves and insist on showing you every photo they’ve ever taken, until you find an opening to leave, thankful that you got out before they displayed, “this was us in the loo this morning, just something about the light in there…”
What could perhaps have been a film length documentary in the right hands — that is, a serious producer and a couple who didn’t interfere — is essentially a long-winded vanity project. Two people allowed to tell the latest version of an old story, where all evidence to the contrary and previous public accounts are completely, and conveniently, ignored.
Three episodes, one hour each, were released for “Volume One” and, God help us all, another three episodes of Volume Two are coming.
At the end of Volume One, I wasn’t really sure what I had just seen, or, more importantly, why.
It is, in essence, a massive invasion of their own privacy.
Intimate photos, copies of their text messages, screenshots of their FaceTime chats, are all displayed for the audience. (how fortunate they happened to have all that handy…)
Meghan has recorded everything, even to the point of pulling out her phone AS HARRY IS PROPOSING to either photograph or film it, as we see video first, and then a blurry still of Harry on bended knee.
Not since Narcissus has someone been so eager to dwell on their own reflection, nor so eager to share the most intimate, personal moments of their lives to a global audience.
Meghan once said, “just because I show you one photo doesn’t give you the right to see all my photos.” Clearly it does, because it now feels as if there’s nothing left on your camera roll to see.
They claim “a friend” told them to keep video diaries starting in 2020, as this was an important event. Friends generally recommend you take notes or keep a journal, it’s more likely an agent — or the couple themselves — realised behind the scenes footage would bring them a fortune one day.
But backstories and facts are flexible on Sussex TV. For a series that was clearly designed with a Royal fan in mind, scheduled immediately after The Crown, the viewer they really need is someone who doesn’t know their Sussexes from their Wessexes. Even a casual royal watcher will instantly notice “their truth” has changed… again.
How they met, how they got engaged, their first official interview with the BBC (the BBC has already disputed their new version) meeting the Queen, going on royal engagements, the list goes on and on of Sussex stories being told again… just differently.
Which makes you wonder, if they can’t keep their small stories straight, why would anyone believe their bigger accusations?
Do the Sussexes keep telling different versions of their story, hoping they’ll eventually convince people of their side? It almost seems as if they’re intent on using this media coverage as a personal focus group, to see which version of the “Sussex truth” lands best.
It’s also a bizarre performance from Meghan herself, in a role we’ve seen her play before, but that really hits high gear in this series. She insists on projecting this strange, “Aw shucks” wide eyed innocent persona, who just fell out of some small village into the big city.
In reality, Meghan was a wealthy career woman, established a significant online presence and publication, cooperated with a small but established clothing line, not to mention a woman with a first marriage and several serious relationships behind her.
Claiming she was in a panic over fixing her clothing before going on a Royal walkabout is a new tale, that sounds more like a sentence from a book about Lady Diana Spencer. (If the heavy Diana footage doesn’t convince you, Harry reminds us constantly that his wife is just like his mother.) It certainly doesn’t mesh with a woman who has hair and make-up people on speed dial, and never saw a red carpet she didn’t like.
Meghan also has a degree in international studies from a prestigious American university. Yet she acts as if she just discovered the UK a few years ago, and her information about this “small” quaint country comes exclusively from Dickens, Disney, and of course, Diana.
The scene where she re-enacts her first curtsey to the late Queen is disturbing, not just for her caricature, but for the clear WHAT HAVE I DONE grimace that flashes ever so briefly across Harry’s face.
The doe eyed innocence is played so fiercely here, that it smacks of ignorance and condescension, and you’re half expecting to hear the director yell, “Cut! Take it down a notch Megs!”
By episodes two and three the director and producer may have also realised this couple can’t cut a full series by themselves, so suddenly you’re watching what’s an attempt at historic documentary, where The Commonwealth is just “Empire 2.0 with better PR” — which will come as news to, well, just about everyone. And seems bizarre commentary in a series about a woman who had The Commonwealth flowers sewn into her wedding veil…
Turns out ALL facts are flexible here.
Harry also clumsily tries to explain the British Royal Rota and Royal correspondents, they’re either PR people secretly hired to do his family’s bidding, or vicious liars out to get them, perhaps he’ll come to a conclusion by Volume Two. (The more he speaks, the more troubling it is to realise just how little Harry knows…)
Harry also finally addresses part of his own problematic past, the time he wore a Nazi swastika to a party. It’s a quick reference and apology, the photo isn’t shown, and phew, we’re back to flawless hero and heroine in no time!
It’s all different, but the same.
I’m struggling to understand why the Sussexes even made this. Yes, I know, money. But like politics, it’s important for public figures to hold the middle ground audience, and this certainly won’t help.
Arguments can be made that Harry’s life is worth a serious examination, but Meghan has been on the world stage for about 5 minutes in comparison. Harry and Meghan as a couple, simply do not have the weight to carry this. They don’t have the body of work or substance. And they’re fixated on one, small chapter of their lives, which happened three years ago.
I think I get my answer in a brief clip, when Meghan meets one of her former schoolteachers. The teacher shows her an old book inscription from an 11-year-old Meghan, that basically reads, ‘When I’m rich and famous I’m going to tell everyone about you and this school!’
And really, that tells you what you need to know. Meghan has sought out fame like a heat seeking missile her entire life, and now that she has your attention, will never, EVER, give it up.
Harry, however, always craved privacy, it was a cornerstone of his public persona and a key point made in any interview. For Brits who watched him from the day he was born, this Prince seems unrecognisable.
I’m reminded of a comment Harry made a few years ago, when someone mentioned Royal children to him. “My children won’t grow up like that!” he reportedly responded.
Today he’s decided he’ll feature them on a reality show to make a fortune. The world-famous Wales children now seem like hermits in comparison.
As photos and images of their son Archie flash across the screen, Meghan says, “We’ve been really conscious of protecting our kids as best as we can” — ‘but then Netflix offered us a boatload of money!’ she may as well have added. Harry tells us, “I think consent is a big piece of this.”
His son isn’t old enough to consent, but that doesn’t matter. Because the one thing we do know by now?
Facts are flexible here.