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The reviews are in for Prince Harry and Meghan’s latest Netflix endeavour Polo, the latest installment of their £80million deal with the streaming service.
But despite the likely high hopes that this would join the ranks of great sport documentaries such as Disney +’s Welcome to Wrexham and 2020’s The Last Dance, the series has been panned by critics.
Receiving two stars or less out of five across the board, the five-part show has been labelled ‘a tedious inside-look at posh polo’ and a ‘mostly boring look at a sport that very few people outside of elite circles have any particular interest in’.
For The Guardian’s Stuart Heritage, who awarded the series just two stars, ‘Polo looks destined to fall through the submenus into obscurity at the speed of light’.
The Telegraph’s Ed Power, meanwhile, noted how there was ‘not enough of the Sussexes to make this anything other than a dull indulgence about a rich person’s pursuit’.
After the Duke of Sussex caused a storm with his bombshell Netflix documentary released in December 2022 that took aim at his own family, he cuts a surprisingly low-key figure in the show, which was released on Monday.
The Prince, 40, only appears a handful of times throughout the five episodes, with his wife Meghan, 43, appearing even less – despite both being executive producers of the series.
Harry appears in the opening credits of the show, but doesn’t appear again until episode four, when he is only part of a conversation with the other players.
The reviews are in for Prince Harry and Meghan’s latest Netflix endeavour Polo (pictured), the latest installment of their £80million deal with the streaming service
But despite the likely high hopes that this would join the ranks of great sport documentaries such as Disney +’s Welcome to Wrexham and 2020’s The Last Dance, the series has been panned by critics
Instead, the series mainly focuses on Adolfo and Poroto Cambiaso, Louis Devaleix, Timmy Dutta, Nacho Figueras, Keko Magrini – who all overshadow Harry – and preparations for the US open.
THE TELEGRAPH
The Telegraph’s Ed Power noted in his two-star review of Polo, the ‘bafflingly little’ appearance of the Prince in his own series.
‘Netflix and Archewell team up for a tedious inside-look at posh polo – and for once, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex don’t hog the limelight,’ claimed the critic.
He concluded: ‘There’s lots of blood, sweat, and tears in the series – but not enough of the Sussexes to make this anything other than a dull indulgence about a rich person’s pursuit.’
DECIDER
Meanwhile, Decider urged viewers to ‘skip’ the series in its review, claiming: ‘Polo is a mostly boring look at a sport that very few people outside of elite circles have any particular interest in.’
Critic Joel Keller insisted: ‘The first episode was tough to connect with, because it presents a world that not only isn’t very relatable to most people, but is boring to boot.’
However, the writer did admit that ‘if you want to find out about the nuts and bolts of the game of polo, then Polo should be an interesting watch.’
THE GUARIDAN
The Guardian labelled polo ‘the stupidest, most obnoxious sport known to humanity’ and a ‘playground of the rich’
In one scene, Harry and Meghan share a sweet kiss, but the event in Florida was already photographed back in April
The Guardian labelled polo ‘the stupidest, most obnoxious sport known to humanity’ and a ‘playground of the rich’.
Critic Stuart Heritage said: ‘Mainly, though, Polo looks destined to fall through the submenus into obscurity at the speed of light. And rightly so.
‘It’s clattering and niche, and feels like a spoof documentary designed to play on screens in the background of episodes of Succession.
‘The end of the final season goes out of its way to tee up a sequel, but I really don’t think any of us deserve that.’
AND WHAT DID THE VIEWERS THINK?
It wasn’t just critics who were left unimpressed by the five-part series, with some viewers also labelling Netflix’s Polo ‘boring’.
One person wrote on X: ‘Polo is one of the most boring series ever on Netflix’, while another individual added: ‘Polo is five hours no one can get back, boring!’
Another said: ‘OK, I am done. I can’t watch this s*** anymore. It’s too painfully boring. How they play Polo with all the other sports available is beyond me. Horse racing would be more interesting.’
But it wasn’t all bad reviews from viewers, with some insisting the show had them ‘hooked’, with one person writing: ‘Watched all five episodes in one sitting. Couldn’t pause even if I wanted to. Great job and well done to everyone involved!’
Reaction: It wasn’t just critics who were left unimpressed by the five-part series, with some viewers also labelling Netflix’s Polo ‘boring’
But it wasn’t all bad reviews from viewers, with some insisting the show had them ‘hooked’, with one person writing: ‘Watched all five episodes in one sitting. Couldn’t pause even if I wanted to. Great job and well done to everyone involved!’
The programme goes behind the scenes of professional polo, offering an ‘unprecedented look into the players’ lives on and off the field’.
Speaking to People Magazine previously, Harry said: ‘This series offers audiences an unprecedented, behind-the-scenes look into the passion and determination driving some of the world’s elite polo players, revealing the grit behind the glamor.
‘We’re proud to showcase the true depth and spirit of the sport — and the intensity of its high-stakes moments.’
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Netflix series Polo: JANE FRYER’S VERDICT
Polo
Another Christmas, another creative offering from Harry and Meghan, those titans of television, forever beavering away in their Montecito mansion.
Two years ago, we had the six-part Harry & Meghan mini-series – the first programme of their $100million Netflix deal from which they promised to produce ‘content that informs but also gives hope’ through a ‘truthful and relatable lens’.
Since then, we’ve had one decent documentary about Harry’s Invictus Games and another, less good, about leadership.
Their $20million Archetypes podcast for Spotify was scrapped in 2023 after just 13 episodes. And despite a lot of talk about a Meghan cookery programme, there is still no show.
But none of that has dampened their spirits. Because now they bring us Polo.
Not, sadly, the next series of the brilliantly naughty adaptation of Dame Jilly Cooper’s Rutshire romp-a-thon, courtesy of Disney+. But instead a five-part docu-series about the breathtakingly elite world of polo, which will ‘pull the curtain back on the grit and passion of the sport’.
To be fair, in the opening moments it does promise rather a lot.
Harry and Meghan’s blink-and-you-miss-it appearance in Polo comes at the beginning of episode five, when Harry plays a charity polo match for his non-profit Sentebale
That we’re going to enjoy ‘one of the most thrilling sports you can imagine’. Full of ‘dirty, sweaty, sexy boys – riding…’, a lot of drama and tension, and a man in a fuchsia pink polo shirt smashing up a cool box with his polo stick in a rage.
Perfect for a wet Wednesday in London. You’d think.
The ‘drama’ centres around the build-up to the World Cup in Florida, where a lot of very slim women with very smooth faces and less smooth necks will cheer on muscular menfolk who take it all very seriously indeed.
‘Our life is on the line every time we get out there,’ says one polo player, as if he’s a fireman or a marine, or perhaps a disaster relief worker.
‘Polo is not just a sport. Polo is a lifestyle. We eat, we breathe, we sleep polo!’ cries another.
And they clearly work hard at it, because they’re all wonderfully ripped and muscled, with astonishingly white teeth, strong forearms, very expensive watches, Louis Vuitton holdalls and chests like brick walls.
We see them lift weights and sky dive and go deep sea fishing and drive expensive cars with lovely leather interiors as dramatic music swirls.
And we learn that Tim Dutta, 22, is a sweet boy who is funded by his over-bearing dad who is always shouting ‘we’re here for one thing and that’s to win’, and spoiled by his mum. But at least he seems to really love his horses.
Nacho Figueras and Delfina Blaquier with Meghan and Harry at the Royal Salute Polo Challenge benefitting Sentebale in April
That Adolfo Cambiaso, from Argentina, is the ‘Michael Jordan of Polo’.
And that Louis Devaleix, the loathsome patron and player of a team called La Fe, is the cool box smasher – and also has biceps as big as hams, a nasty temper, a pregnant wife and doesn’t seem to care much about his ponies.
‘I don’t even know what my f***ing horses’ names are!’ he says.
It seems odd that executive producers Harry and Meghan were so desperate to share this ghastly world with the rest of us.
But despite criticism that the sport is ferociously elitist, a carbon disaster and not always very nice for the poor ponies – don’t get Peta started, for goodness’ sake – Meghan is said to adore the whole polo scene.
And according to his best mate and fellow polo player, Nacho Figueras, it has always been Harry’s ‘dream and passion to share with the world what it takes to be a really competitive polo player’.
Though, sadly, not in person.
Because while they were ‘very hands on’ in the making, they are not really in it – other than Harry’s five-second cameo in the third minute and a joint, brief, appearance in Episode Five.
But their ridiculous polo pals do their best to make up for that – explaining to us novices that there are four in a team, six seven and a half minute ‘chukkas’ (periods of play) to a game and that riders change horses ‘like Formula One drivers’.
And strutting about in tight trousers, popping confetti-filled balloons to choose fixtures, flashing their naked chests and piping up with ridiculous comments such as ‘polo gives me hope that I can accomplish something’ and ‘He was hand made by God to play polo’.
Awful though it all is, I wonder whether, in the right hands, it could have been fun, guilty pleasure TV – a sort of brilliant mash-up of Rivals, Selling Sunset and Made in Wrexham, that made us shout the telly in horrified joy.
Instead, somehow, it is flat, plodding and really rather boring. And if it tried, it couldn’t be any further from ‘content that informs but also gives hope’.
