OPINION – ALICIA LIBERTY: One yr after her high-profile Netflix debut, the Duchess of Sussex’s landmark second feels much more muted than triumphant.
Meghan Markle needs to be celebrating large milestone – as a substitute she’s been humiliated (Picture: Netflix)
Meghan Markle needs to be celebrating a serious profession milestone – it’s been one yr since With Love, Meghan launched on Netflix and marked her high-profile pivot into actuality tv. As a substitute, there’s no renewal announcement, no confirmed third season and a noticeable silence surrounding the sequence, which has gone chilly.
What ought to have been a victory lap now reads extra like a footnote. Whereas the Duchess of Sussex secured two seasons and a vacation particular with one of many world’s greatest streaming giants, the construction advised its personal story. Episodes ran to only 35 minutes, and each seasons have been filmed back-to-back in a single manufacturing cycle – hardly the blueprint of a long-term streaming powerhouse.
Meghan Markle appeared with a string of high-profile friends who appeared on the sequence. (Picture: Netflix)
Reviews advised viewership fell by a minimum of 20% between season one and season two, not the trajectory of a cultural juggernaut.
It factors as a substitute to a challenge that struggled to carry consideration, not to mention construct momentum. In that context, the silence round a 3rd season feels much less surprising and extra inevitable.
When Meghan introduced she was stepping away from appearing and pivoting into actuality tv, it was framed as daring.
One other reinvention in an ever-evolving narrative. She had shaken the globe earlier than – first along with her royal marriage ceremony, then along with her bombshell exit from the Royal Household, then with the tell-all interviews and streaming offers.
This, we have been advised, was merely the subsequent chapter. Nonetheless, it was not all it was cracked as much as be.
What makes this second significantly hanging is that it ought to have been celebratory. One yr since launch. One yr of proving doubters mistaken. And 6 years of carving out independence.
As a substitute, the headlines circle round dwindling viewership and stalled renewals.
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