"Harry and Meghan"

As usual, I am on the opposite side of popular opinion.  Reviewers on both sides of the pond have universally panned this Netflix miniseries about the former royals (or, former royal and his wife).  I like Meghan.  I liked her a long time before her union with the adorable British lad.  She is a self-actualized, confident, outspoken woman.  So, since I don't see her as the devil incarnate or a bully (two of the most-used epithets used against her), maybe I was able to watch this tale with a little less vitriol than most of those decrying it.  I do find the current press attacks as unfair as everything else they have published about Meghan.  The the press says that she and Harry "talked out of school" in the Oprah interview, insulting the royal family, and now they say this series is rubbish because it doesn't reveal enough of the inside drama.  Pick a side, people!  In any case, what Harry asks for, in the opening moments, is the chance to be seen as the people they are.  Real people, human beings, who can be surprisingly normal.  Who just want what everyone wants -- family, security, love.  Given that plea I tried to watch this series as if these were not the people we all think they are.  I tried to watch and just see two individuals.  Given that bar of measurement, the series isn't bad.  It shows pieces of their childhood, helping to round out the idea that they aren't two-dimensional figures but that they are whole entities.  This is successful, particularly in filling out Harry's understandable hatred of the paparazzi.  The look in his eyes as he talks about facing cameras in every part of his life is a visceral experience.  The show fails, if it fails at all, on the following point: it's difficult, in an age of fiscal belt-tightening, to listen to any really rich person complain about any part of their privileged life.  The production is also slick.  Perhaps too slick.  Many have wondered if it isn't an attempt to gloss over things by having the conversation cherry-picked.  On that note, I'm willing to give the couple a pass.  Plenty of negative things have been said about them.  Too much, in fact.  Letting them punch back by showing the other side of the coin is their right.  There are also awkward moments, the most notable being Meghan's discussion of her own race -- stating that she was never treated like a black woman until she was involved with Harry.  In any case, I've always seen this whole thing as a love story.  And on that point, the series succeeds.  In any case, most viewers will come to it with their opinions pre-formed.  It's not about changing minds as much as it is about letting them say their piece.  And I don't mind hearing it.