Latest / The Front / Critics hate Meghan Markle’s TV show. Why does Netflix want Season 2?

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Critics hate Meghan Markle’s TV show. Why does Netflix want Season 2? · The Front

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  Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
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  Speaker 1: It's Monday, March nine, twenty twenty five. We're looking at
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  Speaker 1: a federal election in May. That means we'll be having
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  Speaker 1: a budget on March twenty five and it'll be the
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  Speaker 1: government's attempt to pitch the economy as a success story.
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  Speaker 1: Lower unemployment and falling inflation will be the Albanzy government's
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  Speaker 1: pitch to voters, and its hopes were bolstered on the
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  Speaker 1: weekend by an emphatic West Australian state election win by
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  Speaker 1: Labor Premier Roger Cook. It wasn't the catastrophe experts were predicting,
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  Speaker 1: but ex tropical Cyclone Alfred is still making his presence
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  Speaker 1: felt in southern Queensland and northern New South Wales with
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  Speaker 1: widespread flooding. For the latest on that fast moving situation,
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  Speaker 1: check out our live coverage at Beaustralian dot com. Dou
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  Speaker 1: did we all misunderstand? Megan Markel is the Royal Family's
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  Speaker 1: wide life, reviled exile actually a sweet and genuine homemaker.
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  Speaker 1: The critics have shredded her TV show, but Netflix has
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  Speaker 1: renewed it for a second season. So what's going on?
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  Speaker 1: I speak to someone who's been covering the Duchess of
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  Speaker 1: Sussex close up for close on a decade to find
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  Speaker 1: out what's true and what's a very pretty reality TV confection.
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  Speaker 2: After this, Once you have access or a voice that
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  Speaker 2: people are willing to listen to, with that comes a
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  Speaker 2: lot of responsibility which I take seriously. And this and
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  Speaker 2: so as we can see what's happening in the online space,
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  Speaker 2: we know that there's a lot of work to be
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  Speaker 2: done there and we're just happy to be able to
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  Speaker 2: be a part of Well, you've changed for good.
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  Speaker 1: Who would have thought we'd end up here?
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  Speaker 3: We could do a little dollup of yogurt as our cloud's.
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  Speaker 2: Flower sprinkles if we must, a cooking show and the
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  Speaker 2: Pursuit of joy Lovers and the details.
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  Speaker 4: I think it took thirty seconds of watching it and
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  Speaker 4: I just thought, oh no, I had high expectations.
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  Speaker 1: Jacqueline magnet Is The Australian's europe correspondent.
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  Speaker 4: I thought that with the money that Netflix is throwing
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  Speaker 4: at it, with the expertise that they have behind the scenes,
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  Speaker 4: with the director, the lighting, the technical aspects of it
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  Speaker 4: looked beautiful. And obviously was very well done with a
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  Speaker 4: lot of people, a very big professional outfit behind it all.
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  Speaker 4: But then she just doesn't have the charm. There's no
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  Speaker 4: engagement with the audience, and it's more a lovely to Megan.
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  Speaker 1: Meghan Markle, sorry Meghan Sussex, as she now wishes to
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  Speaker 1: be known. The American actress who was previously famous for
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  Speaker 1: playing a super smart lawyer in the TV show Suits,
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  Speaker 1: has been giving earnest vibes since twenty seventeen, when she
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  Speaker 1: was launched onto the global consciousness as the fiance of
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  Speaker 1: Prince Harry.
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  Speaker 2: I'm excited to just really get to know more about
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  Speaker 2: the different communities here, smaller organizations. We're working on the
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  Speaker 2: same causes that I've always been passionate about. Under this umbrella,
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  Speaker 2: and also being able to go around to the Commonwealth.
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  Speaker 1: I think it's just just the beginning of her There's
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  Speaker 1: a lot to do. There's a lot to do. In
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  Speaker 1: their engagement interview, the pair clutched hands and spoke with
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  Speaker 1: shiny eyed optimism about the work making the world a
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  Speaker 1: better place. But what they didn't talk about, and what
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  Speaker 1: now becomes glaringly obvious, is that Meghan's call wasn't in
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  Speaker 1: the Commonwealth. It was in the lifestyle blog she founded
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  Speaker 1: in twenty fourteen. It was on a film set, dressed
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  Speaker 1: beautifully assembling a cheese platter. I've got to tell you
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  Speaker 1: the truth. I'm not a fan of Meghan and I
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  Speaker 1: sat down to watch With Love Meghan, her new Netflix show,
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  Speaker 1: hoping it would be another iteration of the entitled car Crash.
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  Speaker 1: I found their previous outing on Netflix, the Blockbuster interview series,
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  Speaker 1: where they complained about every aspect of their lives and
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  Speaker 1: cast themselves as the innocent victims of two scheming families,
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  Speaker 1: his Royal family and her American family. But I found
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  Speaker 1: With Rove Meghan to be much less offensive than i'd expected.
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  Speaker 1: It's engaging in a way. Her own social media content
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  Speaker 1: just isn't. When Meghan is in charge, she comes across
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  Speaker 1: as syrupy and inauthentic, like in this Instagram poste years.
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  Speaker 3: But now I can so as things are starting to
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  Speaker 3: trickle out there, I wanted you to hear it from me. First.
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  Speaker 3: Of course, there will be fruit preserves. I think we're
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  Speaker 3: all clear at this point that jam is my jam.
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  Speaker 3: But there's so many more products that I just love
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  Speaker 3: that I use in my home, and now it's time
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  Speaker 3: to share it with you, so I can't wait you
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  Speaker 3: to see it.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks Gaate, Netflix has ensured she comes across on the
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  Speaker 1: show as charismatic and warm.
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  Speaker 2: I love that we're doing this together for the first time,
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  Speaker 2: making new friends.
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  Speaker 1: I suspect this will be partly about age. There will
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  Speaker 1: be millennials and gen zetters who think Megan has been
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  Speaker 1: cruelly treated by the heteronormative and racist royal family, and
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  Speaker 1: we'll be cheering for her, and then they'll be I
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  Speaker 1: suspect the majority who aren't buying what she's selling.
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  Speaker 4: I was quite intrigued how she started with bumblebees and thought, wow,
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  Speaker 4: that's interesting. But then she asked some questions about you know,
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  Speaker 4: how long the bees live for Yet she claims to
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  Speaker 4: have been beekeeping for a year, so there was just
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  Speaker 4: a little bit of disconnect there that I thought was intriguing.
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  Speaker 4: So and then I was just incredulous when and I
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  Speaker 4: wrote this, I wrote, as a self described working mother,
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  Speaker 4: Meghan gives other working parents tips on how to make
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  Speaker 4: a cake in the four hours of waiting for bees
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  Speaker 4: wax candles to set, all the while wearing pristine white
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  Speaker 4: clothes of course without an apron, and then with the
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  Speaker 4: honey from the bees, you two can make a three
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  Speaker 4: layered honeycake, she tells her guests. Now her guest is
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  Speaker 4: a makeup artist that her kids, Prince Archie and Princess
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  Speaker 4: Lilibet called uncle Daniel, and Daniel gushes in the vanishingly
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  Speaker 4: rare moments, Meghan pauses to take a breath. And we
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  Speaker 4: even learned from Meghan how tough life really was back
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  Speaker 4: in the day, where she says, all those years I
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  Speaker 4: had to do my makeup all by myself, So I yes,
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  Speaker 4: I can't see too many Australian women resonating with that
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  Speaker 4: at all. You know, we're supposed to feel sorry for her.
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  Speaker 4: I don't think so.
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  Speaker 1: Now you've covered the full Megan markle arc from engagement
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  Speaker 1: through to departure from the royal family and now this
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  Speaker 1: new iteration of her as I guess an influencer on TV.
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  Speaker 1: Do you remember what your initial impressions of her were
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  Speaker 1: and how your assessment of her has changed over those years.
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  Speaker 4: I certainly can, because it was back in twenty seventeen
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  Speaker 4: when the love match was unfolding and she was so
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  Speaker 4: embraced by the British community. I mean, everybody loved her.
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  Speaker 4: Everybody wanted to love her. They thought she was such
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  Speaker 4: a breath of fresh air to the starchy royal family,
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  Speaker 4: and everybody just wanted Prince Harry to fall in love
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  Speaker 4: and have the woman of his dreams, and we were
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  Speaker 4: all so thrilled for him. And it went sour that
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  Speaker 4: fairy tale wedding, of course, which was a very expensive
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  Speaker 4: wedding where you could see the warmth and the welcome
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  Speaker 4: that the British public put out for her there. But
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  Speaker 4: it did go very sour, very quickly within a year.
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  Speaker 4: For me, I was hearing whispers from some of my
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  Speaker 4: royal sources not very long after that royal wedding, and
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  Speaker 4: of course I discounted it originally, I've got a whole
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  Speaker 4: don't be so ridiculous, she's lovely. But then the story
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  Speaker 4: started coming out, a little bit more was being written.
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  Speaker 4: There seemed to be a distancing between the fab four,
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  Speaker 4: of course, Prince William and Kate, and so it was
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  Speaker 4: then just very slowly just seemed to gather momentum, and
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  Speaker 4: just like a snowball rolling down a hill, it just
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  Speaker 4: got bigger and bigger and bigger and The public turned
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  Speaker 4: quite quickly in the end, because when they left the
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  Speaker 4: Royal family, it was like, well, you don't love us anymore.
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  Speaker 4: We feel betrayed. We welcomed you and now you're treating
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  Speaker 4: us like this. There was a real sense that they
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  Speaker 4: had turned their backs on the British public and people
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  Speaker 4: here were not happy about it.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up. So if the critics hate, we love Meghan,
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  Speaker 1: why is Netflix commissioning another season. Then came the Oprah interview,
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  Speaker 1: in which Meghan framed her experience as essentially being one
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  Speaker 1: of racism, not just racism inflicted by members of the
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  Speaker 1: Royal family in some very damaging allegations, but the British
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  Speaker 1: press and the public. She positioned herself as a victim
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  Speaker 1: of institutional and societal racism, didn't she.
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  Speaker 4: She did, And I think that that a big mistake
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  Speaker 4: because in Britain the issue of her being biracial had
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  Speaker 4: not been raised really, It was more that she was
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  Speaker 4: an American that was an issue. It wasn't a divorcee
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  Speaker 4: as well, because of the issue with the Royal family
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  Speaker 4: of marrying a divorcee and how that would mark a
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  Speaker 4: real turning point for the Royal family. So it wasn't
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  Speaker 4: about race at all. So when she was raising this,
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  Speaker 4: people were very perplexed. It was like, we didn't say that,
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  Speaker 4: we didn't think that. And of course some of the
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  Speaker 4: allegations she made were just completely wrong as well, about
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  Speaker 4: Archie in the title, about how he wasn't going to
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  Speaker 4: be given security because he was of a biracial mother.
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  Speaker 4: I mean, it was the most outrageous claims that were
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  Speaker 4: proven to be totally incorrect.
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  Speaker 1: I thought when they launched their deals with Netflix and
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  Speaker 1: Spotify that it would be content in the vein of
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  Speaker 1: what they had been talking about as royals in their
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  Speaker 1: engagement interview, and beyond that where it seemed to be
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  Speaker 1: very dull but worthy, it was going to be kind
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  Speaker 1: of water programs in Nigeria or educational documentaries about elephants.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, what they have produced is a podcast by
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  Speaker 1: her Archetypes, which was basically her interviewing famous friends, then
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  Speaker 1: a polo documentary by Prince Harry, and now this cooking show.
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  Speaker 1: I've got to say watching the cooking show, I had
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  Speaker 1: a bit of an epiphany. I was like, Oh, this
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  Speaker 1: woman's actually a lifestyle blogger, she's an influencer. She actually
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  Speaker 1: uses the word hostessing. She sprinkles flowers on everything. This
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  Speaker 1: is who she is. And if we'd actually paid attention
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  Speaker 1: way back before she did that engagement interview where they
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  Speaker 1: claim to want to kind of reform the Commonwealth with
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  Speaker 1: their magical touch, maybe we would have understood her a
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  Speaker 1: bit better. She's not actually that serious.
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  Speaker 4: But she portrayed herself as being that serious. Remember, she
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  Speaker 4: was the UN ambassador. She was the woman that was
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  Speaker 4: the face of all women and that was going to
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  Speaker 4: change the world. But then it all got a bit
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  Speaker 4: too hard, wasn't it. She had to do the dull
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  Speaker 4: royal work, which a lot of it is tedious, opening
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  Speaker 4: church faiths, and so it's not really to be active
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  Speaker 4: and being an activist. It is about being present and
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  Speaker 4: having a very understated yet very clear role being a royal.
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  Speaker 4: And she just didn't fit into it, and she didn't
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  Speaker 4: like it and she didn't want to do it in
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  Speaker 4: the end.
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  Speaker 1: Are we seen now? Do you think one of the
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  Speaker 1: reasons why the Queen was not open to the kind
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  Speaker 1: of half in, half out model that Harry and Meghan wanted,
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  Speaker 1: where they wanted to earn their own income or at
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  Speaker 1: least part of their own income, but also still be
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  Speaker 1: working Royals. No, we're seeing what a commercial venture by
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: Meghan and Harry looks like. It's the edible flower sprinkles.
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  Speaker 1: Was that going to be just never acceptable to the Queen?
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  Speaker 4: Do you think the Queen was a very smart woman,
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  Speaker 4: wasn't she She saw straight through Meghan. I think she
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  Speaker 4: also saw straight through that she would lose control of
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  Speaker 4: Meghan and Harry, especially because they were going to another country.
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  Speaker 4: And I think she realized that it wasn't going to
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  Speaker 4: work because some of their ideas, frankly, were quite out there.
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  Speaker 4: And if she had allowed that to happen, then where
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  Speaker 4: do you draw the line. It's a very delicate line
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  Speaker 4: that here in Britain the Royal family don't accept freak goods.
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  Speaker 4: They don't market themselves, they don't expect payment for things,
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  Speaker 4: which was very different to what Meghan and Harry were proposing.
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  Speaker 4: And of course we've had the next series announced, which
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  Speaker 4: has been presented so gleefully by men on her social
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  Speaker 4: media accounts. But I would perhaps a word of caution
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  Speaker 4: here is that normally, in presenting a second series, the
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  Speaker 4: TV networks have a big build up about it. There's
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  Speaker 4: a sense of anticipation will another series happen. We all
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  Speaker 4: can't wait for the next series. And yet for Netflix,
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  Speaker 4: they've chosen to release this second series or announce it
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  Speaker 4: immediately after the first one has been aired, because I
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  Speaker 4: think they realize they just want to get rid of it.
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  Speaker 4: They've already filmed it. It was filmed at the same
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  Speaker 4: time as the first series, so it doesn't involve any
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  Speaker 4: extra money. It's in the can. They can just produce it,
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  Speaker 4: throw it out there, get rid of it before there's
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  Speaker 4: any renegotiation of that very hefty contract that they had signed,
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  Speaker 4: and that's about to come to an end. So I
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  Speaker 4: suggest that Netflix just perhaps clearing out the cupboards of
• 15:03
  Speaker 4: anything of Harry and Meghan before that renegotiation happens.
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  Speaker 1: Jacqueline Magnet is The Australian's europe correspondent. Her writing about
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: the Royals is funny, incisive and impeccably sourced. You can
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: check it out anytime at the Australian dot com dot
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: au