“Harry & Meghan” on Netflix: what to remember from the first three episodes

“Many royals, especially men, may be tempted to marry someone who fits the mold rather than someone who is meant for you.

It's the difference between making decisions with your head or your heart.

My mother has always made choices of the heart and I am my mother's son.

Prince Harry's statement, in the first part of the documentary series "Harry & Meghan", three episodes of which were posted on Netflix on Thursday, December 8, is one of the only spades sent to his loved ones.

It remains quite vague and conditional.

He delivers another more direct allusion a little later by evoking the media harassment suffered by his partner, Meghan Markle: “It seemed like a rite of passage.

The wives of the other men in the family had been there so they didn't see how it was a problem that she was going through it too.

“Apart from that, it is mainly the media that are strongly criticized by the couple.

This documentary series does not yet have the devastating potential that the interview of the couple conducted by Oprah Winfrey and broadcast on March 7, 2021 had. Before the first images, a text announces that this series is the direct version of Harry and Meghan, containing unpublished personal archives.

It is also specified that all the interviews were completed in August 2022, before the death of Queen Elizabeth II, therefore, which occurred on September 8.

If Harry and Meghan want above all to tell their love story, they add that their story goes far beyond that.

But these are their memories of their first contacts – on Instagram!

— then of their first meeting in July 2016 which affect in the first place.

He was late and embarrassed, but their connection was immediate.

Will follow a second dinner then a week in Botswana and a few months of secret relationship, before the revelation of this one in the press in October 2016.

The documentary is punctuated with photos and personal videos of these moments as a couple or as a family.

She calls him "H", and him "M" or "Meg".

In particular, we discover their son Archie marveling at the beauty of California, or completely ignoring his father's enthusiasm for hummingbirds.

Many close friends also testify.

Among them, we can recognize the actress Abigail Spencer (“Mad Men”, “Suits”), or the tennis player Serena Williams.

“If Meg wasn't with me, her dad would still be her dad”

Harry's youth, his relationship with his mother Diana, her death in 1997, his difficult adolescence exposed in the press, are highlighted in the first episode.

Meghan's childhood, the separation of her parents, her acting career, the racist attacks she suffered in the United Kingdom are at the heart of the second part.

With always in red wire the harassment of the media against them.

As the wedding approached in 2018, it was Meghan Markle's family, in particular her half-sister, who increased the attacks on her, and her father's dealings with the tabloids, which took up space in the third opus.

A brief but powerful moment comes when Harry admits to taking responsibility for the fact that Meghan doesn't really have a father anymore: "If Meg wasn't with me, her father would still be her father.

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Beyond the interviews facing the camera, the political context and the royal family are always recalled in the background.

The figure of Diana obviously, but also the colonial past of the United Kingdom, the particularly exacerbated debates on immigration at the time of the Brexit campaign, as well as the contractual relationship that exists between royalty and the British media.

Meghan admits her initial ignorance of all these codes and how quickly reality caught up with her.

Harry, on the other hand, insists that he wants to protect his family above all else.

Nothing really new under the sun in this first burst of episodes.

In any case, nothing shattering.

However, the story ends the day before the royal wedding, so the most chaotic is yet to come, with the couple's decision to leave their royal duties at the start of 2020 and their move across the Atlantic.

The British crown will have to hold its breath for another week, until the three remaining installments go online on Thursday, December 15.

Editor's note:

3/5

"Harry & Meghan", documentary series by Liz Garbus (2022).

Episodes 1 to 3/6 of 56, 55 and 60 minutes each.