The holiday season symbolizes many things. Well-deserved lazy mornings, reunions with family and friends neglected for the past few months and the opportunity to resume books started, but not yet finished.
For my part, I will not dive into any great reading during this holiday. The only thing I’m going to read are restaurant menus on my phone screen.
I will also practice the new tradition of the unavoidable catch-up of series on the platforms of streaming. Already and with great enthusiasm, I recommend the excellent Bad Sisters, on AppleTV+. In the bucolic city of Dublin and through 10 episodes, we follow the imbroglios of the Garvey sisters. It’s a loving family, but not lacking in complexity or dysfunction.
Complexities, dysfunctions. It’s almost universal in families. Even the one who resides at Buckingham Palace is no exception and on Netflix, we have (still) proof of this.
Harry & Meghan smashed viewing records when it was released earlier this month with 175 million viewers, and the title topped the viewing charts in 85 countries. The unmissable documentary series is the story of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex – from their respective childhoods, to their early flirtations, then their engagement, their marriage and, above all, the media coverage of this high-speed train. speed.
Long before its release, the documentary series enjoyed superb visibility. It’s courtesy of Netflix’s powerful communications machine and also those who – even before seeing the work – questioned its raison d’être and displayed their disdain for the couple, as if it was a badge of honor. And then there were the numerous papers, post-viewing, criticizing the content of the documentary series, and written by those who made disliking the Sussexes – Meghan in particular – a profession.
There is a very strange side to this need to shout loud and clear that we didn’t like the documentary.
Yet viewing it is not mandatory – it is not military service. For many, it would certainly have been classier to say that they watched and liked a documentary on Pierre and Marie Curie, but for others, like me, Harry & Meghan represents an important barometer of an era in which there was Brexit on the one hand, and on the other, calls for the recognition of the harmful effects of colonization as well as requests for dissociations from the monarchy. Meghan Markle’s arrival in the royal family – a bit like a canary in a coal mine – makes her a witness, and the release of her word gives this documentary series social value. Harry & Meghan also seems to be a direct result of social movements that have disrupted various status quos for the past five years. It’s probably no stranger to what’s disturbing. At least, in part.
Recommendation, bis.
Also to see in catch-up, this time on france.tv, the first part ofOnce upon a time on the Champs-Élysées, offered for a few days. The documentary is a return to the 300 episodes of this cult variety show, hosted by Michel Drucker. In front of more than 10 million viewers, every Saturday evening, the Drucker set received the greatest names in song, television and cinema. From Celine Dion to Gilbert Bécaud, via Romy Schneider. The actress will also give her last interview there, in April 1982, a month before her death. Romy Schneider had asked Michel Drucker to invite her to the show. To talk about some of his projects, but especially to denounce the press, which had used preposterous tactics to obtain photos of his accidentally dead son the year before. Disguised as nurses, photojournalists had been able to infiltrate the hospital and photograph the lifeless body of his young David, 14 years old. “Where is the moral? Where is the tact? “A Romy Schneider marked by mourning and anger will ask Drucker.
The relationship between the press and celebrities has always been complex, dysfunctional.
In Harry & Meghan, the royal couple exposes the collusion which exists between certain British media and members of the royal family and the agreements which emerge from it and which resemble those which one makes with the devil. In their own way, the couple wonders where the moral is? Where is the tact? Questions that Madonna also asked herself, in the documentary Truth or Dare in 1991, and Taylor Swift, in Miss Americanareleased in 2020.
The twist in Harry & Meghan and what differentiates them is that while waiting for the answers, British-Californians are turning a certain tide by detailing not only the backstage of what has for so long been hidden, but also by defending themselves armed with lawyers, resuming thus control of what has been taken from them. The couple tell their side of their story. It is no less valuable because Meghan Markle and Harry are beautiful, wealthy and very well housed, especially because what they denounce, such as bullying, cannot be solved with money or with money. exceptional real estate. And yes, they were paid for this documentary, just like Madonna and Taylor Swift were paid for theirs.
We tax the couple for wanting too much visibility. It’s funny. At their wedding, all the big news anchors from all the major networks traveled to London to cover the event. Around the world, 1.9 billion people watched the ceremony on television. We have given the couple all this light for which they are reproached. We have amplified this brand which now overflows into podcasts, conferences, production companies and books. The commodification of the duo Meghan and Harry, like that of Barack and Michelle Obama, for example, is a product of its time and it takes a certain amount of bad faith to criticize a phenomenon to which we have contributed. Even the would-be king and his wife Kate Middleton have taken notice and are trying to copy this model that works, despite criticism. Why not show freudenfreude and celebrate this success?
The documentary series Harry & Meghan is simply the story of a young married couple. “What she needed from me was much more than what I was able to give her,” confided the prince about his wife, in one of the episodes. The transparency of this declaration – which could also have been made on Instagram – is also emblematic of our time.
The documentary series is the testimony of a young couple who overcome family entanglements and remind us – at least for now – that love conquers all and that, as Bécaud sang, love is wonderful. Not a bad holiday message.