Shade or coincidence? Netflix dropped the trailer for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle‘s docuseries the morning after Prince William and Kate Middleton stole the spotlight from the Boston Celtics.
And British journalist and royals expert, Jonathan Sacerdoti thinks the trailer’s timing was boringly predictable. “I think we always expected something like this, didn’t we?” he told Showbiz Cheat Sheet. “But in all those photographs that they shared, these sort of personal black and white images of their personal life seems really, I think puts to bed the idea that they’d ever wanted less public attention into their private lives.”
“They couldn’t be showing that to be wrong in any more substantial way,” he continued. “They’re personally sharing. They’re opening up their own photo album. And I think that we come to expect that. Because I think Meghan in that interview had said that it wouldn’t be a reality show. It would be a historical documentary about their love story or something similarly nauseating.”
Sacerdoti mused how Prince Harry and Meghan are so adept at riding the line of predictability and surprise.
“I just think that they’re very predictable. And yet they’re also still quite shocking because even though people know what their game is, I think every time they outdo themselves in just how brazen they are,” he remarked.
“So, for example, dropping this trailer on the second day of the Royal Tour of the Prince and Princess of Wales to the US, it is an obvious attempt to steal focus,” Sacerdoti said. “And I think that it worked of course. But again, I think if you look past that, it just reminds everybody how without the association with royalty, without their allegations and accusations against the royal family, they’re not really of great interest if it weren’t for being able to hijack royal events and moments.”
He doesn’t believe that the Meghan Markle and Prince Harry Netflix trailer drop would have broken the internet without the associated drama and accusations.
“If it weren’t for shocking the royal family or trying to do them down, they’d be of very little interest,” Sacerdoti said. “I don’t think anybody would be watching a Netflix series about a failed B-list actress and a faded, unimportant member of the British aristocracy getting married if there weren’t some associated dramas and rumors and allegations about the royal family itself.”
“And those have all been created by the couple,” he asserted. “So I think that the actual nuts and bolts of it, these two people, these two personalities, their love story, I don’t think anyone’s interested in it per se. It’s more about who they are and who they’ve angered and double-crossed over the years that makes it interesting.”
Sacerdoti said the dramatic music, and the black and white photographs in the trailer – all used for effect – were also over the top. At one point in the trailer, Meghan Markle says the public will finally hear their side of the story. But Sacerdoti said that’s all the public has heard for years.
“I think actually Harry and Meghan thought they were making Schindler’s List. But actually, it’s just a sort of Kardashian sub-Kardashian series about celebrities,” he said about the Netflix docuseries. “And yes, it’s a trailer. And trailers often try to be somewhat hyperbolic, but I suspect the whole series will be like that.”
“This idea that he had to protect his family and save them and her comment at the end of the trailer that isn’t it better to hear their side of the story as if we’ve heard anything else for the last two years,” Sacerdoti said. “All we’ve heard is their side of the story. In fact, the royal family, and they know this, won’t comment on most of the stuff they talk about because it’s just not In their nature to do that. The royal family tries to keep relatively tight-lipped about personal matters and personal issues, especially where there are disagreements within the family.”
Netflix has yet to announce an official date for when the docuseries will begin streaming.