Last week, Netflix finally dropped the trailer for Polo, a sports docuseries produced by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. While their names appear in the trailer as producers, neither of them appears in the trailer. I would assume that Harry appears at some point in the series though, right? If only to provide some commentary, although we know that cameras have been around for some of his polo matches. Here’s the trailer again:
Netflix has the money and inclination to do these deeper dives into various sports. Full Swing looked into professional golf and that series was a huge success. Break Point – which focused on pro tennis – was less successful, because (in my opinion) no one at Netflix thought to put actual fans of the sport in charge of the show and you could tell that they didn’t actually give a sh-t about the actual tennis part. Polo looks good to me, because I’ve always been curious about that elite world, and it looks like pretty standard Netflix fare – dialing up the glamour and soap opera drama. Obviously, the British media has been screaming and crying about the trailer for days. Now the Daily Beast’s Royalist columnist Tom Sykes managed to get Prince Harry’s “former friends” and a “senior Hollywood executive” to bad-mouth the series:
Former friends of Prince Harry who played polo with him in their younger years have told the Daily Beast they have been left in “appalled hysterics” by the new trailer for his and Meghan Markle’s “tacky” new Netflix show about polo. One Hollywood executive has cautioned the couple are “running out of last chances” to prove they can make compelling TV that is not about themselves, and speculated their futures may lie in social media influencing.
The trailer for Polo dropped this week, and has been either ignored or ridiculed in global media, a clear sign that Harry and Meghan’s once-bright star appears to be fading. Although their role as “executive producers” is flagged full screen in the opening credits, the cheesy trailer does not feature an appearance by either Harry or Meghan.
One former friend of Harry’s who played polo with him as a teenager said, “It’s hilarious, but not in a good way. It’s so tacky and cringey, it is literally all the worst things about polo. I watched it in appalled hysterics.”
Another former friend said, “The irony is that polo is actually a surprisingly inclusive sport these days. You do see plenty of rich kids but there are also plenty of kids from less rarefied backgrounds who just happen to be fantastic riders who are sponsored by the teams. It doesn’t look like this show is going to foreground that, which is a real missed opportunity.”
A senior Hollywood executive told The Daily Beast: “This looks like it has failed to capture the imagination. They still have Meghan’s cooking show to screen next year but there is very little tolerance for pissing money away these days. It’s debatable whether anyone cares about these two if they are not serving up outrageous stories about the royals. They are running out of last chances to prove that isn’t so. If they can’t, they could try to monetize their fame on social media. Plenty of people would still give Harry a million bucks for a post.”
The trailer was ridiculed by the prominent Daily Mail columnist Liz Jones. Jones was for many years a Meghan sympathizer but has recently turned against the duchess. In one particularly biting comment she opines: “What next? His own slot on the Shopping Channel? How can Harry and Meghan possibly travel the globe, preaching about poverty and diversity and inclusion, when not one black player can be spied… the funds required to run a polo team doubtless outstrip that of Formula 1. How can they lecture us about global warming when one player admits he flies to Argentina twice a week?”
Pick a struggle, you know? Or in this case, pick a consistent criticism for why this series (which has not been viewed by any one of these people) is bad or unwatchable. It’s bad because it features rich people who fly around the world playing polo! Yeah, we get that from the word “polo.” It’s bad because Harry and Meghan are involved yet they aren’t involved enough! It’s bad because it’s tacky and cringey, unlike every single tacky and cringey thing Harry’s brother does! Jesus. This whole Royalist piece reads like William screaming and throwing a tantrum. Polo belongs to Peg!!
Photos courtesy of Backgrid,Cover Images, Netflix.