Why ‘hate watching’ Harry and Meghan’s show will ironically make it Netflix’s biggest success yet

With its dramatic music, stylish black and white imagery that wouldn’t be out of place in a Steven Spielberg film and grandiose statements about high stakes and protecting family, the trailer for Netflix’s six part documentary series, Harry and Meghan, was every bit as earnest as we have come to expect from the couple. Needless to say the internet had thoughts and within minutes of it landing, social media was ablaze with comments – most of them negative and mocking in tone. 

It’s safe to say that the public’s patience has worn thin at what is widely perceived as their hypocrisy. They claim to want privacy, yet they take a big bucks Netflix deal to reveal all. That is alongside the money they received for Harry’s forthcoming autobiography, the unfortunately titled Spare. And let us not forget Meghan’s recent podcast, Archetypes, which was widely derided. To be fair, when Mariah Carey calls you a ‘diva’, that speaks volumes.

However, alongside the millions of comments criticising the couple and the forthcoming series, pretty much everyone admits that they can’t wait to watch it. Indeed, the viewing figures from hate watching could make this Netflix’s biggest show ever – something that the streaming giant is no doubt hoping for.

You would be hard pressed to get anyone to acknowledge that they listened to Meghan’s podcast, yet it still did exceptionally well despite the derision. In the grand scheme of things, only a tiny percentage of those listeners were journalists writing about it which implies that people tuned in simply to affirm the fact that they don’t like Meghan or her ideas and beliefs – something that a quick search of any social media confirms.

As much as we might like to think that we are nice people, the reality is that we all love to hate watch, hate follow and hate listen to material which we know will annoy us but we can’t help ourselves. Much like watching the proverbial car crash, we say it is out of curiosity but when you are five episodes into a show that you really can’t stand it has surely moved beyond curiosity and into something deeper.

No one is immune to it. I myself am a member of a group that was set up to comment on the Harry and Meghan Oprah documentary and since then we have dissected every morsel of the couple’s lives (although obviously they are so publicity shy that they don’t put much out there!) When we watched the trailer, our reactions were as extreme as any that were posted elsewhere, in fact I said I ‘vommed’ watching it. Yet we all agreed that we will be watching the show. It is bizarre to think that a group of people were brought together by a collective hatred of two other humans that they’ve never met, but that is the reality – and sometimes that’s as good a reason as any to hate watch. If something is universally reviled, you almost become part of a club by disliking it and commenting on it. If the popular opinion is to hate something then admitting that you actually liked it would make you one of the uncool kids. And with social media very much based around likes, no one wants to be the person in the corner who got a thumbs down on their comments.