James Cagney: Top of the World. The Television Documentary

JAMES CAGNEY: TOP OF THE WORLD

This review is part of the Summer Under the Stars Blogathon. Today's star is James Cagney.

There are two ways to think about James Cagney. Some see him as the ultimate gangster, a small brawler who could take down anyone who got in his way. Some see him as a cheerful song-and-dance man, making dancing down a staircase look effortless.  Cagney was able to play both with equal ability. Perhaps that is why he is still remembered long after his 1986 death. James Cagney: Top of the World is a good introduction to this iconic figure, respectful and with some surprising revelations along the way.

Top of the World uses an archival interview from Cagney himself to fill in bits of information presented by host Michael J. Fox. Fox speculates as to how he got to be our guide through Cagney's life and career. He notes in Top of the World that when he was asked what the difference between himself and other young actors was, Fox replied, "They all want to be James Dean. I want to be James Cagney".  Fox wasn't trying to be flip or glib. He was sincere in his aspirations to be an all-around actor. Perhaps, and this is just my speculation, the fact that Cagney was 5'6" brought a sense of comradery with the 5'5" Fox.

Top of the World starts us out with Cagney's early years in the tough streets of Lower East Side New York City, with his tough mother ruling over the tough brood of Cagney children. Despite this, young Jimmy had a love for the country and rural pursuits. He even applied to agricultural college but did not complete a semester. His family needed help. Cagney then turned to the stage, making his debut in drag as part of the chorus line. He also met his wife Frances "Billie" Vernon, to whom he would be married for 64 years.

Cagney was always studying his craft, learning to improve his acting and dancing. Finally, the years of being a hoofer and on-stage tough guy paid off with the Broadway production, Penny Arcade. Cagney was singled out for praise, and none other than Al Jolson bought the film rights and brought the play and Cagney to Warner Brothers. Retitled Sinner's Holiday, Warner Brothers soon found a solid but at times difficult contract player. His breakout role in The Public Enemy made him a star. 

It also typecast him as a tough guy, which frustrated him. More frustrating were the dangerous conditions that he and his fellow actors worked under. During filming for The Public Enemy, real bullets were used, which could have killed the actors. He also disliked how he was shown as treating women. However, his Public Enemy costar Mae Clarke stated that everything he did was choreographed. The fighting and infamous grapefruit slap was choreographed. So was the dancing, as Cagney finally was allowed to do a little on-screen soft shoe in Footlight Parade, showcasing a different side to Cagney. 

Cagney was not one to back down from a fight. He helped form the Screen Actors Guild, looking out for his other players. However, his lifelong friend and costar Pat O'Brien noted that Cagney was "the far away fellow", who preferred being a gentleman farmer than hitting the Hollywood scene. In real life, James Cagney was the antithesis of his tough guy persona.

But was he a Communist? His political activities brought him to the attention of the House Un-American Activities Committee before it grew into the post-war fright fest it became. While Cagney was completely cleared of any subversive activities, the experience was so strong that he and his brother decided that it would be in their best interest to make a passionately patriotic film. That film became more important when Yankee Doodle Dandy began filming on December 8, 1941.

From there, Top of the World covers Cagney's slow fade out from film by his own choice. Among the twilight triumphs was White Heat, where the documentary's title comes from. After 31 years of acting, making big budget and small independent films, Cagney decided that it was time to close out his career. Retiring to his farm, he would be lured back into the spotlight a few more times, with the American Film Institute salute being the highlight.

Top of the World, as I said, is a good primer for the life and career of this most extraordinary figure. He was an interesting contradiction; the tough guy who had a passion for rural pursuits. On screen, Cagney was a smooth-talking, at times brutal man with women. In real life, he was gentle and devoted to his Billie, the love of his life.  People will learn that, long before method acting was in vogue, Cagney drew from memories of visiting an insane asylum for his White Heat character's breakdown when learning of the mother's death. 

Cagney earned the nickname "The Professional Againster" from Jack Warner for his pugnacious manner when dealing with the studio. However, time mellowed him to where he could look back with some amusement. We see this at his AFI acceptance speech, where he corrected the record on an imaginary quote. "I never said, "You dirty rat". What I did say was, "Judy! Judy! Judy!", laughing at another imaginary quote from his contemporary Cary Grant.

At less than an hour, James Cagney: Top of the World is informative and entertaining. James Cagney was more than his image of the hoodlum. He was a man who loved nature, loved his wife, loved his colleagues. He could also look back on his career with great pride. 

He certainly made it to the Top of the World. 

8/10

Judy Garland: By Myself. The Television Documentary

JUDY GARLAND: BY MYSELF

This review is part of the Summer Under the Stars Blogathon. Today's star is Judy Garland.

There are names from the field of entertainment that were once wildly popular but now are almost if not totally forgotten. Other stars, however, have never faded even decades after their deaths. In the latter category is Frances Ethel Gumm, better known and loved as Judy Garland. Judy Garland: By Myself looks on her life and career. The extraordinary heights and disastrous lows of her professional and personal life are examined by friends, coworkers and even by Garland herself.

"Judy Garland made several attempts to craft her memoirs. Sometimes with a writer, sometimes with just a tape recorder for company. She never completed her book but, always the great raconteur, she also spoke freely to her public and the press. This is Judy's story, told in her own words and in the words of those how knew her best". Thus begins Judy Garland: By Myself, narrated by Harris Yulen. Over the course of two hours, we hear from both the living and dead talk about what it was like working with Garland. We even hear from Garland herself via Isabel Keating, who reads from the various audio recordings and written words from Garland's attempts at her memoir.

The film goes through her life, though not strictly in chronological order. For example, Judy Garland: By Herself at one point goes from the making of Meet Me in St. Louis to her own childhood years. For the most part though, Judy Garland: By Herself does follow the structure of going from birth to death at the shockingly young age of 47. The film does much to connect her biography to her filmography. 

The opening of the documentary, for example, shows the Born in a Trunk number from A Star is Born to underline her early years in vaudeville. It also ties her insecurity about not being in her mind a great beauty by showing a musical scene from Ziegfeld Girl, where she costarred with one of MGM's reigning beauties, Lana Turner.   

As a side note, Ziegfeld Girl was the film that I reviewed for a previous Judy Garland Day for Summer Under the Stars.

The information in Judy Garland: By Myself is good even for people familiar with Garland's story. People may be familiar with MGM's brutal and brutish manner with Garland. There are the forced diets to where she wisecracked that the thing she missed most about her early years was eating. There is the massive overwork that she endured. Judy Garland: By Myself reports that she did six pictures in eighteen months without a break. Garland via Raskin tells us that they would be shooting one film and rehearsing for another. 

What we do learn in Judy Garland: By Myself is sometimes shocking and heartbreaking. After a total collapse, she finally went to a sanitarium where she ate regularly and got proper sleep without pills. She felt rejuvenated, but MGM brought her back with no real recovery period to work on Summer Stock. They just got her back on the vicious cycle of pills, forced diets and overwork. Using the words of MGM drama coach Lilian Burns Sydney, "That mirror was Judy's nemesis". Thanks to her bosses and her own insecurities, Garland's confidence was never solid. 

Other information related to her career is surprising. After her dismissal from MGM at twenty-eight, she had no job, no income and no husband, being divorced from her second husband, Vincente Minnelli. For nine years she toured the world to keep body and soul together, as well as to keep her three children (Liza Minnelli and Lorna & Joey Luft). 

Judy Garland: By Myself features no on-camera interviews. Instead, the documentary does one of two things. We hear the various people who were alive at the time the documentary was made, such as comedian Alan King and fellow MGM star June Allyson. For those who were dead at the time, voice actors read their words. David Margulies, for example, read the words of director Joseph L. Mankiewicz. All of them revealed a talented woman who was done dirty by the studio and by some of those around her. Michael Dann, the CBS executive who was Head of Network Programming at CBS where The Judy Garland Show was made, reports that the taping of her last show was extremely hard to watch being made.

"Mike, why did you cancel me?", he reports her asking. More than likely due to CBS' mismanagement and poor planning from people like Dann (though as he reports, CBS head James Aubrey's intense hatred for Garland did not help). The clips from The Judy Garland Show seen in Judy Garland: By Myself show an exceptional talent with some wonderful numbers. They also show that The Judy Garland Show had no real focus. In the twenty-six episodes of The Judy Garland Show, it went through three production teams and faced stiff competition from the reigning show on Sunday nights at 9 PM: Bonanza. That had killed four previous shows. 

Dorothy Gale was no match for Little Joe Cartwright.

Judy Garland: By Myself has a major plus in Isabel Keating reading Garland's words. Keating does such a good Judy Garland voice that one soon forgets that it is an actress reading someone else's words. You come close to thinking that Garland herself is speaking to us. In a way she is as Keating is reading what Garland wrote and said, sometimes to others, sometimes just to herself. The film begins with Keating reading a defining set of statements as we see Garland sing the song By Myself. "I'm just trying to be heard. This is the story of MY life, and I, Judy Garland, am gonna talk". 

Talk she did, and while we hear many tales of working and living with Garland, director Susan Lacy (writing with Stephen Stept) was not going to fact-check everything. We see Garland tell Tonight Show host Jack Parr a tale of how her Wizard of Oz costars shut her out while dancing down the yellow brick road. According to Garland, it took director Victor Fleming to get the three Broadway veterans in line. "Hold it! You three dirty hams, let that little girl in there!" Fleming allegedly yelled at Jack Haley, Ray Bolger and Burt Lahr. This story makes for some great laughs. However, the veracity of this ever happening has been disputed.

Judy Garland: By Myself is a good primer into the life and career of this extraordinary tale, the little girl with a great big voice. Seeing early footage in short films like Bubbles and The Big Revue of 1929 shows us how immensely talented she was even as a youngster. One ends up appreciating not just the scope of what she did give but mourn what she could have given us.

"I would like audiences to know I've been in love with them all my life, and I've tried to please. I hope I did," Garland via Keating reflects in the end of Judy Garland: By Myself. 

Frances, you certainly did.  

8/10

Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything. The Television Documentary

 

BARBARA WALTERS: TELL ME EVERYTHING

It is a bit surprising to me to learn that Barbara Walters, one of the most recognized and well-known journalists, did not set out that way. That is just one of the many revelations about the late television news anchor in Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything. The documentary covers the length and breadth of Walters' career and life, showing that she was inspirational, aspirational and when needed, ruthless.

In not strict chronological order, Tell Me Everything reveals how Walters ended up being the First Lady of Journalism. She, as stated, did not set out to be on camera. Originally a Today Show writer, she was bumped up to being on camera thanks to her willingness to work for less money. She became a Today Girl, covering women's features. In other words, segments that the male writers, directors, producers and hosts thought were light and simple.

When bumped up to being one of the Today Show hosts, veteran Today Show host Frank McGee was openly hostile. He insisted that if they did joint interviews, she would have to wait until his third question to get involved in the interview. Walters' way around that was to do interviews outside the studio and away from the first of three people she defined as bullies.

It took McGee literally dropping dead before she could have more sway on NBC. The lucrative offer to co-host the ABC Evening News had her work with the second bully, Harry Reasoner. He was unreasonable in his dislike of having any co-host, let alone a woman. Despite her growing power and popularity with audiences, ABC was no paradise. The news magazine 20/20 continued her brand of interviews which blended the personal and professional of the interviewees. Walters on 20/20 could have celebrities or dictators. She could get almost anyone for a sit-down chat through her fierce tenacity.

What she could not get was even the modicum of respect from the third bully, ABC Evening News anchor Peter Jennings. He would constantly interrupt her and thought, like many of his colleagues, that celebrity interviews were not "real interviews", let alone real news. Walters was also leery of fellow journalist Diane Sawyer. She was civil to Sawyer, but saw menace from the younger woman, whom Walters would refer to as "the blonde goddess".

Walters' personal life was not without its adventures. After three miscarriages, she adopted a daughter, Jackie, with whom she had a fraught and at times tumultuous relationship. She dated such figures as future Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and even semi-closeted lawyer Roy Cohn. She contemplated marrying him despite his homosexuality and general loathsomeness. Walters, however, was always grateful for Cohn's help when her father faced financial hardships. She also had an affair with Ed Brooke, a married U.S. Senator who also happened to be black.

Walters was almost always "the first woman to do XYZ", and she had one more pioneering act. That was the creation of the female-centric chat show The View. Two to three generations of female news anchors and reports all have Barbara Walters to thank for their place in the sun.

Tell Me Everything does a good job of summing up Barbara Walters' life and career. Jackie Jesko's documentary is helped by none other than Walters herself. We have many audio clips of Walters discussing her life professional and personal. "I'm a good editor. That's what I do best," Walters remarks early in Tell Me Everything. She might not have seen herself as a great beauty. She made up for it with a strong, at times belligerent determination. Oprah Winfrey, who both modeled her career on Walters and was interviewed by her, notes that she had a good run to get Monica Lewinsky to sit with her. That is, as Winfrey notes, until Walters sweetened her offer by letting Lewinsky know that she could give her Good Morning America as well as her own two-hour special. She also let Lewinsky sell her story overseas, provided that Walters got her first at no cost. 

Walters was aware of her own flaws, particularly her inability to pronounce the letter R. We do get a brief clip of Gilda Radner's spoof of Walters as "Baba Wawa". She also knew that ultimately another interviewee was right. Tell Me Everything does not, to my recollection, mention the mockery Walters got when she allegedly asked Katharine Hepburn if she were a tree, what kind of tree would she be. In reality, this question was taken out of context, as Walters was merely following up to Hepburn's statement that she was strong like a tree. However, I digress. 

Hepburn firmly believed that marriage and career did not mix with children and motherhood. Walters, to her disappointment, found that she was too focused on her career to be the mother that she might have been if not for her dogged pursuit to be the top interviewer. Commenting on the conflict, Walters' protégé Cynthia McFadden said that Walters' daughter Jackie had a father and had a governess. 

She did face obstacles and pushed back against them. Walters beat out her rivals Walter Cronkite and John Chancellor to land interviews with Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and Israeli prime minister Menahem Begin. She also had the backing of ABC executive Roone Arlidge, whom she called her savior. 

Walters, however, was not above using her connections to her beau, Virginia Senator John Warner, to get political figures to speak to her. She also could be friendly but able to go for the kill. Bette Midler, one of the many people interviewed for Tell Me Everything, remarked, "I considered her a friend, but I also considered her a journalist". Walters could be pleasant but also ask very intrusive questions. 

Tell Me Everything does live up to the title. We hear clips from interviews not meant for broadcast. On one of them, Dolly Parton and Barbara Walters talk about marriage and children in whispered conversation. Parton asks about what she heard that Walters had a daughter. Walters replied that her daughter was adopted. Near the end, we see clips of McFadden's interview with Jackie Guber on a special about adoption. The documentary shows Walters' reaction to the questions and answers McFadden and Guber share. 

One curious moment, at least for me, was when Katie Couric remarked that "(Walters) wanted to be appreciated for her intelligence". The comment itself is not odd. It perfectly reflects the struggles that Walters as a female faced breaking into television. It is how Couric noted how Walters wanted to be appreciated for her intelligence when Couric was (and probably still is) seen as more perky than intelligent herself. Perhaps some things have not changed.

Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything gives us a good overview of her life and career. We see fascinating clips from her many interviews (the joint interview with Mike Tyson and his then-wife Robin Givens is a tense watch). The documentary ends with Walters' own voice remarking, "Maybe I made a difference". I think Barbara Walters more than has. 

8/10

The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks: The Television Documentary

 

THE REBELLIOUS LIFE OF 

MRS. ROSA PARKS

The popular image of Mrs. Rosa Parks is that of a demure, respectable middle-aged seamstress who, after a long day of work, decided that she would not move from her bus seat to the back of the bus so that a white man could sit where she was at. That image is not entirely true, for Mrs. Parks had long been active in the civil rights movement and not a random citizen. While not exactly spontaneous, this act of civil disobedience was not preplanned either. The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks reveals someone who was far more than the popular image. Radical, sometimes surprisingly prejudiced herself, The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks blends past and present in sometimes cumbersome ways.

Rosa McCauley grew up with strong antipathy towards mistreatment of any kind due to her black heritage. Even though she had white ancestry herself with her grandfather being light-skinned due to being biracial, Rosa harbored deep animosity towards whites. It was so strong that she initially rejected Raymond Parks because of his own light skin, finding him too white looking. However, Mr. Parks had two things in his favor: extensive social activism work and a car.

The Parks soon found themselves part of the NAACP, where Rosa was the secretary despite her hesitation. Her activism and knowledge grew. She also found a new world when she attended the Highlander Folk School for more training on combating segregation. Here, she found that not all white people were awful. Then came December 1, 1955.

From that one moment of defiance cascaded a series of events that would change the nation. One can make a trail from Mrs. Parks' arrest and the Montgomery bus boycott down to the eventual fall of Jim Crow legislation barring blacks from full citizenship. That, however, was not the end of the story for "Mother Parks". She supported radical causes such as the Republic of New Afrika, a black separatist movement that wanted both reparations and a separate nation made up of U.S. territory. 

On the personal side, the stress of the bus boycott played havoc with the Parks' finances and safety. Opting to join the Great Migration, they resettled in Detroit where she continued to balance attempting to support herself and her family with various honors and tributes. There were terrible moments, such as when a young black man broke into her home and assaulted her. There were also moments of triumph, such as when she was presented with the Congressional Gold Medal. The ultimate honors came postmortem, when she lay in honor in the Capitol rotunda and when a statue of her was placed in Statuary Hall.

The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks is in keeping with how Parks was in life: unapologetic and militant. One of the interviewees referred to the 1967 Detroit riots as "the Detroit Rebellion of 1967". Other interviewees were quick to add that we have new voter suppression laws according to them. Directors Johanna Hamilton and Yoruba Richen have a firm viewpoint.

I however wonder if other, less positive aspects were papered over. Parks had a perhaps understandable animosity towards whites in her early to middle years. However, that little mention is made on how her initial rejection of Raymond Parks was based on his color is surprising. We do learn that Claudette Colvin, a teenager who similarly refused to give up her seat, was rejected as the test case because she was deemed too dark-skinned to be a sympathetic defendant. Mrs. Parks, with lighter complexion, was seen as a better fit. 

It is terrible but sadly a sign of those times that Colvin's skin color was a factor in the local NAACP's decision to wait for another test case. However, that Parks found a man initially unsuitable because of his own skin color is to my mind distressing. We also have footage of her stating that after interacting with white liberal activist Virginia Durr, she found that not all white people were bad. I was reminded of when Malcolm X had a similar revelation when performing hajj, finding white Muslims who embraced him as a brother. 

There are other revelations in The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks that are more disheartening. In the 1963 March on Washington for example, women were essentially excluded. Daisy Bates, who was instrumental in organizing the integration of Little Rock High School, was the only female speaker and that speech was very brief. A. Philip Randolph, a prominent civil rights activist and labor organizer, had Mrs. Parks wave to the crowd. The local NAACP also essentially shafted the Parks by providing no funds despite the immense financial boon they got from them and the Parks' hard economic situation.

As a side note, that the Parks struggled financially all their lives post-boycott while the leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement have reaped a lavish lifestyle is not touched on. Granted, the current BLM movement was not the subject of the documentary. However, as the subject of how the civil rights leadership gladly used the Parks to get publicity and funds but balked at so much as helping the Parks themselves was raised, it would have made for an interesting comparison. 

We do get some fascinating bits of information about Rosa Parks. Her brother Sylvester was once taunted as a child by a white child, but Rosa, who was with Sylvester, had either the courage or the temerity to threaten that child. She said that she would rather be lynched than accept mockery for being black, a courageous stand.   

There were some elements that brought the documentary down. LisaGay Hamilton narrates Mrs. Parks' words, and her narration was fine. I did, however, wonder why she was billed I think almost if not every time Parks' words were used. I do not understand why we needed constant reminders on who was reciting Mrs. Parks' words. Up to a point I can see why, but Hamilton did not sound like Mrs. Parks, and I think once or twice would have worked just fine.

The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks does not shatter the image of this lone, courageous woman who took a great stand by remaining seated. It does give us a more complex portrait of the icon, where her radical beliefs run counter to the image of a sweet little old lady. These revelations neither detract nor diminish her extraordinary act. They do put them in the context of her life experiences up to December 1, 1955. Mrs. Rosa Parks was more than one day, one bus ride. The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks gives us more of her story, shining a light on the full range of her beliefs. 

5/10

With Love, Meghan. The Netflix Series. An Overview

WITH LOVE, MEGHAN

Queen Mary took her responsibilities as Queen very seriously. "You are a member of the British Royal Family. We are never tired, and we all love hospitals," she once reminded her granddaughter, the future Queen Elizabeth II, I believe. That mantra of duty above self and of showing enthusiasm for the most mundane of tasks or people has been followed by her successors Queens Elizabeth the Queen Mother and Camilla with perhaps only minor modifications. Her one-time potential successor Diana, Princess of Wales as well as the current Princess of Wales, the former Catherine Middleton, continued or continue that custom.

The late Diana's daughter-in-law Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, however, decided that she was tired and did not like hospitals. For whatever reason, be it a lack of privacy, an abundance of racism, or a combination thereof, she along with her husband Prince Henry, Duke of Sussex, decided to "step back" as working members of the Royal Family. Their first efforts to be "half-in, half-out", where they could take on some royal duties while pursuing outside commercial ventures, was shut down flat. Since "Megxit", she and Prince Harry have inked several lucrative deals for podcasts and Netflix productions. Their first podcast, Archetypes, had 12 episodes and lasted one year. Their first Netflix production, Harry & Meghan, was about themselves. 

Now comes their fifth Netflix production, With Love, Meghan, where Meghan Markle (or Meghan Sussex, depending on whom you ask) transforms into a domestic doyenne duchess, offering her insights into creating an elegant and joyful lifestyle. Having seen all eight episodes of the first of an eventual sixteen (a second set already filmed and scheduled to be released later this year), With Love, Meghan is an awe-inspiring vision of one wealthy woman's journey to the center of attention.  

Each With Love, Meghan episode has a set pattern. Over nice Carolina shag music, the Duchess of Sussex tells her film crew who is coming to visit her rented home, what she will be doing to make them feel welcome and go over what they will be doing with or for her to match the theme of whatever she has decided. It will end with her and her guest enjoying the fruits of their labor while they heap lavish praise on our domestic goddess and relatable gal pal. 

After finishing With Love, Meghan, for better or worse, I was reminded of another royal wife, though probably not the one Meghan, Duchess of Sussex would want comparisons to. Queen Marie Antoinette built a small retreat at Versailles, where she allegedly dressed up as a simple milkmaid and pretended to be a peasant girl, the Ancien Regime version of cosplay. With Love, Meghan similarly came across as this former actress turned royal pretending to be a domestic-minded woman who wants only to bring joy to the lives of average people (there is a lot of mention of joy in the series).

It is strange that the more Meghan attempts to come across as relatable and endearing, the end result is the opposite. She comes across as plastic, desperate even, for affirmation, validation and de facto worship. She is not fishing for compliments. She is throwing grenades into the river to have the fish blasted out of the water. 

The endless praise that her guests heap on her is almost shocking in its garishness and vanity. Some of the things that her guests tell her go past cringe to downright looney. Mindy Kaling has gotten the most press for this, and her statements in Episode Two (Welcome to the Party) did lay it on thick. "When I received that in the mail, a box of your preserves, it was probably one of the most glamorous moments in my life". Any person who thinks that receiving a box of preserves from someone that you may or may not barely know is "one of the most glamorous moments" in their life has led a remarkably boring life.

Kaling also had one of the most viral moments from With Love, Meghan, where she remarks to Meghan, "I don't think anyone in the world knows that Meghan Markle has eaten Jack in the Box and loves it". That statement alone in and of itself is bizarre, as if the concept of an American going to a fast-food place is such a rarity. If it had been Anne, Princess Royal driving up to a Jack in the Box and chowing down on it, then the shock and surprise of it all would have made sense. But for Meghan Markle?

That led to a surprisingly passive-aggressive moment between these lifelong chums when Meghan, in a voice that blended sweetness with barely contained anger, expressed surprise that she kept calling her Markle when it was Sussex now. This is a curious thing to get hung up on as for years after her wedding, people called her "Meghan Markle" without incident in the same way that the Duchess of Windsor was and is still called "Wallis Simpson" and the Princess of Wales is called "Catherine Middleton", though to be fair less frequently now. 

The subject of her surname is open to debate. Less interesting than what her last name is, is the Duchess' reaction. There was an edge to her response, a curious defensiveness that was surprisingly hostile. For someone who is attempting to showcase her hosting skills, Meghan Markle or Sussex or Mountbatten-Windsor or Saxe-Coburg-Gotha for all we know, to all but snap at her guest over something that you have never brought up publicly is so bizarre, but it is revelatory. It suggests that for all the efforts to be graceful and elegant, there is a level of entitlement that you expect from others, even friends. 

The Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, had a similar mindset. She could be down-to-earth and pleasant, almost chummy with others, until you dared called her "Margaret". At that point, she would instantly remind you that she was a King's daughter and the Queen's sister and insist that you pay her the proper reverence. Her circle took to calling her "Ma'am, Darling" in a mix of deference and mockery. The difference between Margaret and Meghan is that while Margaret was born royal, Meghan merely married into it. 

As a side note, I think both Anne and Margaret would loath and be enraged at being compared to Meghan, but I digress.

While Kaling has received the lion's share of notoriety for the grandiose praise she heaped on Meghan, I think the winner in the "It's The Joy of My Life to Bask in Your Presence, Meghan" contest is Delfina Figueras. She is the Argentine wife of a polo player whom Meghan and Harry know and whom we meet in Episode Three (Love is in the Details); after a day of hiking and making focaccia (which is Italian bread and the first time that I have heard of such a thing), they picnic in the backyard of Meghan's rented villa. 

Delfi tells her, "I enjoyed this morning's hike because I saw you being you. And I love that. I love when you are doing your thing, and yeah. I absolutely, I'm obsessed with that face of Meghan. So happy". I think Indians thanked Gandhi less enthusiastically for leading the end of the Raj than Delfi did for Meghan making sun tea and having her make bread.

That may be one of the most surprising things in With Love, Meghan. Markle tells us how she prepared certain dishes and drinks prior to her guests' arrival. However, once they arrive, she also has them essentially make the meal almost as if they were caterers. I figure that Markle thinks this is all fun for her guests, a nice group project where everyone can delight in making a gourmet taco bar while having girl-talk and giggles.  

I come at this from a very different viewpoint. My late mother also loved entertaining. I firmly believe that if she had seen With Love, Meghan, she would be aghast and appalled that any hostess would make her guests do any cooking or cleaning up. Mom was adamant that as the hostess, it was her exclusive responsibility to see that the guests were served and that they were not to lift a finger in preparing any aspect of the gathering. This extended to any offers from guests to help, offers that were kindly but firmly declined. Mom would have made all the arrangements, had all the food prepared, and seen to it that her guests enjoyed the event. She would have been horrified at the sight of making lifelong friends make beeswax candles or horror of horrors, cook their own meals in her kitchen.  

As a side note, Mom would also have been horrified by the sight of any woman walking around the kitchen barefoot, though to be fair she would have approved of seeing the Duchess of Sussex dress impeccably to be on television. Mom might have wondered why she was dressed so elegantly to cook, but at least she would think that if you knew you were going to be on television, you should look your absolute best. 

Almost all the guests gush about Meghan to Meghan, praising her skills to where it transcends hyperbole and slips into farce. Even some of the professional chefs (the only ones whom Markel, or Sussex, or who knows now defers to on With Love, Meghan) seem a bit too enthusiastic about being in her presence. One, maybe two of the chefs think that what they whipped up in the rented kitchen would make for a good dish at said chef's restaurant. If memory serves correctly, only Chef Ramon Velasquez from Episode Six (The Juice is Worth the Squeeze) seems nonchalant about being in her presence, treating her as an eager student versus the more downhome Martha Stewart with a noble title to her name (whatever her name may be). To be fair, chef Alice Waters from Episode Eight (Feels Like Home) seems more perplexed than worshipful at the goings-on around her.

I am reminded of what someone once said about T.E. Lawrence when I think of With Love, Meghan. Like Lawrence of Arabia, Meghan (Markle/Sussex) has a way of backing into the limelight. As tawdry as the previous American-born divorcee who married a British Prince of the Realm might have been, Wallis Simpson (or Windsor if we apply Meghan's methodology) would never be so garish as to be hawking jam and prattling on about making beeswax candles to a television audience. She may have literally cavorted with Nazis, but you'd never see the Duchess of Windsor hosting Wallis' Workshop.

Overall, I think Markle's training as an actress is actually a major hinderance in With Love, Meghan for two reasons. The first is that the audience can never fully shake off the idea that all this is a performance. There is throughout all eight episodes something a bit off-putting, dare I say fake about the entire production. I am not bothered that Markle did not use her actual home. I actually think it makes sense. However, I do not understand why she wants her friends and family to trudge up to a rented house and essentially pretend that they are not performing for the camera. What was intended as a kind of eavesdropping in The Juice is Worth the Squeeze when the girls are playing mah-jongg ends up looking like four people trying to figure out what to do around each other. 

Secondly, Markle never looks at the audience. Sometimes she does not appear to even look at her guests. Instead, most of the time she looks at her director, Michael Steed, and speak to him. I think her acting training to not look into the camera prevents there being any connection between herself and her viewing audience. 

Liberace back on his 1950's television series knew enough to look directly into the camera and even literally wink at the audience. He understood that there needed to be an intimacy between host and audience, even if it was artificial. Meghan, however, never looked at anyone outside her immediate presence, like Steed or sometimes her guests. As such, we lost a sense that Meghan actually wanted us there. Perhaps they wanted a "fly on the wall" manner to With Love, Meghan. However, that to me makes for a strange way to invite people to learn all your various entertaining tips and tricks.

Ultimately With Love, Meghan is boring and elitist. The Duchess' efforts to come across as friendly, casual and relatable end up making her look like Election's Tracy Flick. I imagine that With Love, Meghan would have been the exact thing that she would have done if she had never married Harry and she needed a job after Suits had ended.  

I admit to being at a loss over how hosting a television show demonstrates a desire to live a life of privacy, but there it is. Meghan, Duchess of Sussex has passionate defenders and passionate haters. That may or may not color your view on With Love, Meghan. Separate from one's feelings about the hostess with the mostest, With Love, Meghan never makes a case as to why we should listen to the Duchess on anything domestic. 

2/10

Matthew Perry: A Hollywood Tragedy. The Television Documentary

MATTHEW PERRY: A HOLLYWOOD TRAGEDY

It would be fair, I suppose, to call Matthew Perry's story a cautionary tale. Here is this man whom to the outside world had not only so much to live for, but everything anyone would want. He made millions from a television show that was not only a major hit, but which continues to have a cultural impact and is still wildly popular (albeit less popular among the succeeding generations who find it problematic). He was famous and attractive, having squired a bevy of beauties to his bed. Yet, for all that, he died alone at the relatively young age of 54, done in by his addictions and those willing and eager to feed them for their own gain. Matthew Perry: A Hollywood Tragedy, looks into the life and death of the actor, revealing what are at times shocking details that astound and break the heart.

A year before his death in 2023, it looked like the long and public battles that Perry had over his chemical dependencies were if not over at least not controlling him. He was promoting his book Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, where he discussed the destructive actions that brought him to the brink of destruction. Despite those appearances, Perry continued to struggle with addiction. In particular, it was with ketamine, which he had been using legally to treat anxiety.

However, the highs had been too great for Perry to handle, and he fell into the hands of a group of unscrupulous people allegedly eager to cash in on his weakness and vulnerability. Two doctors allegedly took advantage of Perry to enrich themselves, charging him $55,000 for twenty vials of ketamine. One even allegedly went so far as to inject Perry in a parking garage, a most curious place for legitimate medical treatment to take place at. 

Perhaps to Perry, this would not be a great financial burden. He had spent at least $9 million dollars for his various detox efforts. Soon though, the ketamine needed to roll out more than the doctors could get at, so they allegedly resorted to getting three more people into their ring. There was Erik Fleming, a former television director who allegedly had connections to Los Angeles' drug underground. There was Jasveen Sangha, an alleged drug dealer who had earned the nickname the Ketamine Queen. Finally, there was Kenneth Iwanasa, Perry's personal assistant. 

Then, on October 28, 2023, Matthew Perry was found dead in his jacuzzi, a result of the ketamine and drowning. Three of those alleged to have been involved in supplying the ketamine pled guilty, with two others still to go to trial.

This is why Matthew Perry: A Hollywood Tragedy has a disclaimer to it. "This program examines a legal case that is yet to be tried for all defendants. Statements about activities of defendants are alleged until determined by a court of law". Interviews with retired Los Angeles Police Detective Greg Kading and Martin Estrada, U.S. Attorney for the State of California Central District state their case as to how they reached their conclusions on the Perry case. A Hollywood Tragedy, however, is not completely bound out by the legal circumstances.

It also goes into the personal. I do not remember if Perry himself speculated that a lot of his issues stemmed from his parent's divorce, but he does mention via either an interview or the audiobook narration of Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing on how he first had alcohol at 14. He mentions how frightening it was for him to fly alone from his home in Canada to Los Angeles to see his father, who was an actor best known for a series of Old Spice commercials. 

It is perhaps unsurprising that neither fame nor substances can fill in any sense of emptiness within. Matthew Perry is different from others who struggle only because he was in the public eye. There are hundreds if not hundreds of thousands of people who also have their personal struggles self-medicated. Matthew Perry: A Hollywood Tragedy makes some mention of Cody McLaury (which the subtitles read as "McClury"), who also died of a ketamine overdose. McLaury may have also been supplied by Sangha. Granted, the documentary is about Perry, but part of me would have liked some more information about McLaury, almost a parallel lives comparison. 

Via the interviews both archival and specific to A Hollywood Tragedy, we see that for all the fame and fortune and good will that Perry received, it was not what fulfilled him. That need to find peace brought him to the drink and the ketamine, which did not fill him either. It numbed him, but that was all. 

Some information is new and interesting. Hank Azaria via an uploaded video made the day after Perry's death remarks how Perry was instrumental in getting Azaria to sobriety. We also learn that a 1996 jet-ski accident in Lake Mead while filming Fools Rush In may have been where his addiction to painkillers began.   

Matthew Perry: A Hollywood Tragedy gives one a good overview of both the actor's life and death and the legal proceedings that stem from it. I hope that people, when they remember Matthew Perry, focus more on the joy he brought as Friends' Chandler Bing than on him being found floating face down in a jacuzzi. It is a Hollywood tragedy, albeit a far too common one. 

7/10

Gary: The Television Documentary

GARY

The history of Hollywood is filled with child stars who fell once they became adults. There are to be fair more successful child star stories than people are willing to admit. Everyone from Shirley Temple to Elizabeth Taylor, Roddy McDowell and Jackie Cooper down to Jodie Foster, Kieran Culkin and Dakota Fanning have managed to carve out careers post-puberty or in Temple's case, a successful second act as an ambassador. However, it is the disastrous post-fame lives of child performers that we remember, or perhaps gleefully enjoy. Karl "Alfafa" Switzer. Natalie Wood. Sal Mineo. Anissa Jones. Brad Renfro. 

Among that unfortunate list is Gary Coleman, who delighted America as Arnold Jackson on television's Diff'rent Strokes. The travails of his post-Diff'rent Strokes life are probably well-known. Gary, the documentary about his life and career, gives us more insight due to the participation of many of those who ultimately harmed Coleman, intentionally or not as they might assert. 

Gary covers his all-too-brief life, mixing in interviews with his estranged ex-wife Shannon Price and his parents, Sue and Willie. While health issues eventually stunted his physical growth and would plague him the rest of his life, it also gave him a unique look that got him into commercials for a local bank. From that, he found his way to being on Diff'rent Strokes, a new television comedy about a white widower with a daughter who adopts the two black children of his late housekeeper. The show was an instant hit and Coleman became a star.

However, things show that work was hard, aggravated by his health problems that eventually resulted in him requiring dialysis. At eighteen, once Diff'rent Strokes ended, he really wanted to retire from showbusiness altogether, down to trying to find exile in Hawaii. There were, unfortunately, too many meal tickets riding on Coleman, so back to the grind with having less and less to show for it. The career was not the only thing faltering. Coleman's finances had been wildly mismanaged by those he trusted. 

Coleman kept going. In a curious turn, his job as a security guard was not a comedown in Coleman's eyes. It was instead something of a dream job, him having a long-held desire to be in law enforcement. An ugly encounter with a fan killed that hope. However, did his once-wife Shannon do more than kill Coleman's hopes? Their relationship, which by Price's own admission involved slapping, was tempestuous at best. Ultimately, the exact circumstances surrounding Coleman's death will never be confirmed to everyone's satisfaction. 

One may know the details about Gary Coleman, everything from how he had to sue his parents to how his altercation with a fan became physical. Gary, however, delves more into the circumstances that ultimately showed how awful the public was to someone they had once adored. While many, for example, saw his security guard job as the greatest fall from grace in former child star history, Gary reveals that he was actually quite enthusiastic and eager about it. He was looking forward to living out his hopes for something akin to law enforcement, so to see his dream job collapse because of Diff'rent Strokes was devastating. For all the mockery he got, Coleman was deeply hurt about his actions, and more so by the response.

A surprise revelation was how he wrote stories about spaceships and had a lifelong fascination with space travel. That love found an outlet not just in astronomy but in guest starring on Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. 

We also see footage of Coleman and Price's wedding. We see in his reciting the vows how he really loved Price. Whether she felt the same is hard to know. The idea that Price was not as enamored of Coleman as Coleman was of Price is brought to the forefront right at the beginning, when we hear her say, "I slapped him a couple of times. I mean, nothing major, nothing like red flag". It is a startling confession to make right off the bat. Gary closes with the selfie Price took with herself and a comatose, intubated Coleman. It is as tawdry an image as one can find. Price continues to defend the picture, but others in Gary find it as I did: an appalling spectacle.

Interviews with Coleman's family and friends reveal the struggles physical and emotional and financial that he went through. Of particular note is hearing about how so much money was coming in but not going to Coleman. $18 million was what he earned through Diff'rent Strokes run, but so much was being cut into by his parents, managers, agents and lawyers that there was less and less for Coleman himself. Add to that how people were diving into what were meant as blocked accounts and the whole thing is sad, so terribly sad. 

Gary is more than a cautionary tale, which I think Todd Bridges, the sole surviving Diff'rent Strokes cast member, calls it if memory serves right. Gary is a tale of how greed and the wrong people wrecked a genuinely talented person who would have been happier pursuing dreams of outer space than dreams of Hollywood stardom. Gary allows everyone say their piece, and sometimes the end results boomerang back at them. It lets the viewer decide what to make of all this. Hopefully, Gary will be an example to future young performers of what not to allow to happen.

7/10

This is Joan Collins: The Television Documentary

 

THIS IS JOAN COLLINS

Despite having a career that has lasted for over fifty years, and despite being one of the last surviving stars from the so-called Golden Age of Hollywood, Dame Joan Collins is known for one television role: that of scheming villainess Alexis Carrington on the primetime soap opera Dynasty. Far from being disgruntled by that, Collins is actually quite thrilled by all that Alexis has brought her. It saved her from bankruptcy. It made her internationally known. It even got her a favorable court decision, but more on that later. This is Joan Collins, the documentary of her life, tells the ups-and-downs of the then-89-year-old, unvarnished, with lots of humor and some regrets.

Joan Collins narrates her own story, telling us right from the start that this is her story and will it her way. Her way is to go over scrapbooks as well as old interviews and clips from her filmography, reminiscing about figures living and dead. 

She starts with her showbiz background (Collins is fond of referring to her line of work as "showbiz"). Her father was a theatrical agent, her grandmother Hettie was a performer in "comedy and dance" as Grandma Hettie's photo states. Pushing to train as an actress, Collins went to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) and aspired to go into the theater. The lure of three hundred pounds a week, however, got her into film, which RADA disdained. Soon, she finds a mentor in Laurence Harvey, but also a loathsome first husband in British film star Maxwell Reed.

Collins reveals that her first outing with Reed was date rape. Out of a mix of naivete and shock, she marries him, finding him increasingly grotesque. Fortunately, Hollywood calls, and with a chance to flee. None other than Marilyn Monroe warned her about the Hollywood wolves, like Twentieth Century Fox's head Darryl Zanuck. He literally chased her down Fox's halls, pinning her and telling her "You need a real man, honey, a real man" until a makeup artist came along and saved her from Zanuck's clutches. 

Her career hit a certain level of success but not as big a star as everyone hoped. Then came her second husband, musical star Anthony Newley. Marriage, children and a pause in her career left her temporarily fulfilled, until it didn't. Enduring Newley's rampant infidelities, she eventually found her third husband, American businessman Ron Kass. She also found herself facing financial and career crises. Those paled to the greatest crisis in her life: when her daughter Katyana was almost killed in a car accident and required a long recovery period.

It is at what was a low point, even to the point of almost filing for unemployment benefits, when a television role was offered to her. Collins did not know what Dynasty was. She was told only that the character of "Alexis" was a bitch, but super-smart. Channeling her memories of Ava Gardner, Collins took the part and ran with it. A pair of divorces, a fifth husband with whom she has stayed with for twenty years despite the thirty-two-year age gap and the great tribute of a damehood all encapsulate Collins' extraordinary life and career.

Dame Joan Collins has a great sense of humor about much of her career. By her own admission, she called herself a "utility infielder" at the studio. When a film could not get Gene Tierney or Susan Hayward, she observes, they turned to her. Collins has no delusions that her cinematic output will merit many if any Criterion releases. While the nadir may have been Empire of the Ants, she also notes that Empire of the Ants is now a cult film. Whether she notes this with actual pride or genuine puzzlement is a bit unclear. 

When looking over a This is Your Life episode of her life in a recording booth, the host calls her "controversial". "Why was I always controversial?", Collins remarks to us. "What did I do that was so controversial?" A pause later, she remarks, with a touch of slyness, "Just had a few boyfriends. Got married a few times". Shortly afterwards, when recounting her failed efforts to shave a few years off her age when promoting her comeback role in the adaptation of her sister Jackie Collins' book The Stud, she almost laughs at the hysteria the discovery of her true age unleashed. "You'd think I'd murdered a convent full of nuns", she wisecracks. 

Her reminiscences of the people she got to meet, work with, bed with and almost bed with are fascinating. At one party, she saw Paul Newman, James Dean and Marlon Brando sitting together. The Method Actors, she remarks. Brando tells her that acting is a bum's life. Why then did he act if he found it all rather silly and unfulfilling? "Money, doll. Money," Brando replies. She remembers Gregory Peck as the most elegant of her costars but calls Richard Burton a neanderthal who pursued her but got nowhere. She had a brief affair with Ryan O'Neil while married to Newley and came dangerously close to doing the same with Senator Robert F. Kennedy. 

Some of her observations are now amusing to her; she thought her The Virgin Queen costar Bette Davis terrifying and a bully on set to young actresses. Others are sad. Remembering her encounter with Marilyn Monroe, she first described her as looking nondescript until Monroe began talking to her about her experiences with the Fox studios. "You know what they said about me? That I was passed around like hor'dourves". Soon, Collins understood why Monroe was so brilliant with her mix of allure and vulnerable. When she learned of Monroe's death, she grieved for Monroe's pain. She also looked back on with sadness on the raincheck she had with Bobby Kennedy when she learned about his assassination.  

The worst one, however, was when her daughter Katie was almost killed. If memory serves right, she asks quietly, "Do we really have to talk about this?" when remembering how close her daughter came to death. 

Her marriages bring mostly mixed memories. She detests Reed and Peter Holm, husband Number Four. She does not harbor anger or resentment against Newley or Kass. She even worked with Newley in stage and screen adaptations of her beloved Noel Coward. While still horrified at the Felliniesque film Newley made about their marriage, she finds that life is too short to hold anger against the father of two of her children. 

For the most part, however, This is Joan Collins is her looking back with mostly amusement. Looking over her Playboy layout, she remarks, "These are filthy", but it is hard to know if it is said with tongue in cheek, adding that it was the only cover for which she got paid. 

She relishes going over when the publishers Random House sued her for the return of her book advance. At first, she was faltering on the stand and was coming close to losing the case. She was advised to go back on the stand and "become Alexis", the steely but with panache villainess the world loved to hate. The next day, she channeled her alter ego to great effect. When asked about whether she had once titled her book Athena, Collins nonchalantly stated on the stand that at one point she called it Hitler's Mistress. "That is a pretty good Alexis line," Collins observes.

Collins, perhaps more than other actresses from that Golden Age, knows that the public does not want its stars to be like us. "I wonder where the mystique has gone now. I wonder where the glamour has gone," she says. While today's actresses may want to be relatable, Collins holds firm to the notion that stars are something different. She even has positive feelings for Wall Street's villain. "I like Gordon Gekko", she says shyly, which might be the most controversial thing Dame Joan Collins says in the documentary.

Concluding her retrospective, Collins remarks, "But who wants reality?". There's too much of it, and that is not what the public pays you for, she notes. Joan Collins may never rank among the greatest actress of all time, but I think Dame Joan Collins knows it, is at peace with it, and lives the life she loves. This is Joan Collins makes one like Joan Collins, even if we will always hate Alexis Carrington, albeit hate her with glee. 

8/10

Wild Wild Country: The Television Docuseries

WILD WILD COUNTRY

People will continue to search for spiritual enlightenment and peace. Some turn to the religions of the West, be it Christianity or Islam. Some turn to the East, such as Buddhism or Hinduism. Some go to more New Age thinking. My sense is that the teachings of the late Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (also known as Osho) would be closer to the third while drawing from the second. Wild Wild Country covers the sometimes frightening, sometimes wacky story of when the Bhagwan attempted to set up camp in the wilds of Oregon. In turns terrifying and bizarre, Wild Wild Country shows how there is a thin line between free will and submissive control.

Antelope is a small, rural town in eastern Oregon. Generally isolated from the world, it is safe to say that the town of mostly elderly retirees had never heard of the Indian mystic and guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, usually referred to as The Bhagwan or just Bhagwan. The Bhagwan is a curious spiritual leader in that he does not preach asceticism and self-denial but instead celebrates the joys of capitalism and almost unregulated sex. Bhagwan has built up a large group of mostly Western disciples at his ashram in India, but the government is wary of both his influence and the goings-on.

The Bhagwan then learns that the United States has freedom of religion enshrined in its Constitution. That and a large tract of land brings the Bhagwan to Antelope, where he can set up his new ashram in relative peace and freedom from intrusive outsiders. The tiny community, however, is none too pleased at the thought of wild orgies, strange chanting and a holy man riding around in Rolls-Royces building a camp nearby. They are even less thrilled at the Bhagwan's secretary and second-in-command, Ma Anand Sheela. 

She is belligerent, bellicose and almost gleefully confrontational. Ma Anand Sheela rolled over all opposition, while equally if not more devoted American lawyer Philip Toelkes (also known as Niren Toelkes) is more moderate and scholarly in his manner. More of the Bhagwan's devotees or sannyasins start coming, but the dreams of Bhagwan and Sheela grow beyond a humble commune. They will overturn any opposition by getting themselves political power, starting with Antelope.

Using their superior numbers, they vote themselves into power. The police force is now a "Peace Force", but one that targets opponents. The state and federal governments now turn their eyes to the newly christened Rajneeshpuram, the community that encompasses both Antelope and the Bhagwan's commune. Sheela does not shrink from dubious methods to get at her enemies real or perceived. Everything from sham marriages and literally importing homeless people to increase the population of Rajneeshpuram (thus increasing the registered voters who will vote her way) were the more benign methods. Launching a bioterrorist attack to poison Wasco County residents and plotting political assassinations were the more deadly.

Eventually, things grew so out of control that Sheela flees the commune when the Bhagwan is falling under the alleged influence of both drugs and other voices. Bhagwan finally speaks for the first time in three years, denouncing his former protégé, but it is now too late. The federal government decides to have a formal investigation into the various crimes alleged to be masterminded at Rajneeshpuram. The Bhagwan and some of his top officials attempt to flee to Bermuda but his plane is forced down in Charlotte, North Carolina. Eventually, Ma Anand Sheela is extradited from Germany, imprisoned and released, the Bhagwan dies, Rajneeshpuram folds but the teachings of Osho live on.

I have vague memories of the many adventures of the Bhagwan when I was younger. I even remember a public access show that his devotees had, though I was far too young to understand anything being said. I, however, was unaware of both how looney and psychotic things were. Wild Wild Country in its six episodes covers the stranger than strange tale in a surprising fashion. 

Surprising in that it sometimes appears almost sympathetic to the sannyasins and the overall Osho movement. To be fair, the images of displaced sannyasins after a commune-owned hotel was bombed will not make people stand up and cheer. However, codirectors Maclain and Chapman Way have a strong ability to shift things from how the devotees saw themselves to how their leadership really was.

When, for example, Rajneeshpuram starts busing in homeless people, what Wild Wild Country shows are happy people who have found refuge and shelter both physical and spiritual. Granted, they do have to wear the requisite maroon clothes that the Bhagwan's followers wear (even the "Peace Force" has maroon, pink or red uniforms). We see them happy, working in the shops or fields, even having late night clubbing at the commune's disco.

However, we soon learn that there is a sinister aspect to this act of benevolence. The homeless were being used to gin up eligible voters so that the leadership could vote their own to govern Wasco County. The takeover of the Antelope City Council was essentially just an opening act. With dreams of taking over first the county and then perhaps the whole of Oregon, Wild Wild Country shocks the viewer with the brazenness of their manipulation of the law to their own benefit. Alarmed County officials, seeing this invasion as an effort to manipulate voting results, refuse to register new voters. With the homeless now a burden and no longer useful, they are summarily expelled from Rajneeshpuram. It should not be unexpected to see how people were used, but it still distresses to see how greed and the lust for power blinded people into what could have been a genuine good.

Of all the people involved in the wild goings-on at Rajneeshpuram, one stands out. It is not the Bhagwan himself, who is mostly the motivator but not the instigator. It is not Sheela (one of the many interviewees for Wild Wild Country), who is slightly less combative now than when she welcomed fighting with anyone who disagreed with her. Instead, for me the most fascinating figure is the Bhagwan's legal mastermind Philip Toekles, also known as Swami Prem. With his professorial beard and intellectual manner, Toekles seems the last man to be seen as under the spell of some mystic. However, he still stands by the Bhagwan long after the guru's death in 1990. He at least had enough sense to say that the flight out of Rajneeshpuram was a wild mistake. However, Swami Prem also holds the idea that the Bhagwan was if memory serves correct, "an innocent and beautiful man". Toekles total devotion to the Bhagwan then and now is fascinating to watch. Throughout Wild Wild Country, Swami Prem is if not an apologist a quiet fanatic, fully aware of the facts but using his legal mind to find a plausible explanation for everything presented to him. 

Sheela too, defiant to the end, makes for an almost stunning viewing experience. Appearing a sweet old Indian grandmother, Sheela is not above looking like a spiritual Eva Peron, using her position of power to become a de facto dictator of this small realm of faith. "With every crown come the guillotine. Without the guillotine, you cannot wear the crown", she reflects in Episode One, a most curious way of looking at oneself.

The things one learns from Wild Wild Country leave the viewer slightly stunned. Lynn Enyart, an FBI agent who goes to the commune, reported in archival footage that the first thing he saw was a couple having sex on a bridge. The videos of the dynamic meditation, which I believe involve naked men and women screaming themselves into a meditative state, prove equally shocking. Granted, not as shocking as bioterrorist attacks and plotting to assassinate political figures. 

Wild Wild Country flows relatively well, giving a chance for the beleaguered Antelope residents to recount their ordeal while also giving those within Rajneeshpuram a chance to speak. "I leave you my dreams," the Bhagwan says as his final words. Those who were caught up in the events chronicled in Wild Wild Country may not see them as dreams, but they still linger in their wakened state.   

8/10

Harry & Meghan: The Netflix Docuseries

HARRY & MEGHAN

Let us start our fairy tale with that oft-used line, "Once upon a time". 

Once upon a time, there was a handsome young British prince. He was beloved and adored by the people, with fame and fortune and everything that goes with it. An eligible bachelor, our Prince of the Realm was the object of many a pretty young thing's affection. Yet, he remained unmarried. Seeing his brother happily married to a popular Duchess, with children of their own, only highlighted his own empty albeit privileged life.

Then, he came upon The One. He was besotted with Her, possessed body and soul by Her, the Woman who could explain everything. She was fount of all wisdom, all truth. Sexual, emotional, psychological, spiritual gratification and liberation he found in Her. She was not just lover but Mother, Friend, Confidante and Confident. She and only She could soothe his soul, spark his erotic desires, love him for himself separate from his title and position. She was light of his life, fire of his loins, his sin, his soul.

She was also, alas, not the type of woman who usually married into monarchy. She was a divorcee and American too. She spoke her mind freely, much to the horror of the Establishment. Would such a woman make for a suitable wife to our Prince? 

It did not matter to him. He must have Her by his side, no matter what the cost. His love for Her was so great, so intense, that he willingly gave up all that was Royal to be with "the Woman he loves". Their love would have to make up for titles and riches, though it would mean a life outside his homeland and separation from his family. They would spend the rest of their lives in luxurious exile, shimmering yet fading lights among the glitterati, faraway yet so close to the British throne.

I would not blame you for thinking I was writing about Edward & Wallis, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. In reality, I was writing about Harry & Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Harry & Meghan is the six-part docuseries recounting "their truth" from their moment of birth to their new lives in Montecito. The aim of Harry & Meghan appears to be of a loving pair that makes some serious allegations against the House of Windsor. It also reveals Mr. & Mrs. Mountbatten-Windsor to be a remarkably boring couple.

Through six episodes, we see their lives then and now. He is the second son to Charles, Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales. His mother's early death when he was twelve was one of the two turning points of his life. The other turning point is when Harry met Meghan.

She is the mixed-race daughter of a California couple, ambitious for an acting career and a desire to be a positive force in the world. 

They met, Meghan Markle unaware who he was. A whirlwind romance began, and at last, they fell in love, and he fell at her feet to propose marriage. Being the newest member of the House of Windsor, however, was a jolt to the big-time television star. The notion of curtsying to her fiancée's grandmother was comical to her. Realizing that her future sister-in-law and Queen didn't hug her back when Meghan greeted Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge was a bad experience. 

To be fair, the Windsors were nothing compared to the Markles, the latter creating so much drama as to rival anything the royals could do compared to the white-trash version of Dynasty. Windsor wives have faced intense scrutiny before, but Meghan faced the added layer of overt racism. The entire House of Windsor, in fact, has yet to face a reckoning on their role in upholding white supremacy through the Commonwealth, or as one of the Harry & Meghan interviewees called it, "Empire 2.0".

The press intrusion, the Royal Family's refusal to defend the Sussexes, the feeding of negative Harry and Meghan stories to promote and prop up positive press for the other Windsors (and Cambridges as well), all conspired to drive Harry and Meghan out. Despite the Sussexes' best efforts to find a compromise, it was either all in or all out. They chose freedom and a new life in America, where they can be activists for a better world.

Harry & Meghan reminds me of when one of my cousins invariably breaks out the vacation photos and videos. Now, I love my cousin dearly. However, there is something difficult about seeing my niece in essentially the same pose but from different angles. We get to see Harry and Meghan as victims and survivors, heroes and role models, speaking truth to power. At least, that is how they see themselves.

Unfortunately, Harry & Meghan reveals more about themselves than what even, I suspect, the Sussexes thought short of posing for Playgirl and Playboy respectively. As a side note, I think people have already seen the Duke & Duchess of Sussex in various stages of undress already, but I digress.

The couple we encounter has one positive: they appear to be loving parents to their children Archie and Lilibet, who are seen just enough to be there but not enough to reveal their faces. Apart from that, Harry & Meghan holds up a bizarre self-worship that veers close to parody. There is a lot of footage that the Duke and Duchess shot of themselves (we even start with a video diary from Harry, who more often than not literally does not know what day it is). We see photos of their first AND second dates, posts of his proposal and video of Harry declaring he's on a "freedom flight" when they leave Canada to slum it in Tyler Perry's mansion.

Granted, perhaps it is a generational issue, but I am forever perplexed by people's desire to chronicle every aspect of their lives for others to see. Moreover, the wealth of footage provided by the Sussexes makes one openly wonder if they had planned to use said footage for such a thing as Harry & Meghan. I cannot say that there was such a plan. I merely offer that if they didn't have that plan, why film and photograph themselves ad nauseum?

Some revelations are damning, some quite banal, all of them unpleasant. We learn that their nicknames for each other are "H" and "M", which I find rather odd terms of endearment. That is more on the boring side. For those interested in scandal, Harry and Meghan state that they were sacrificial lambs to The Firm, lightning rods to spare other Windsors from bad press. "We were being more than thrown to the wolves. We were being fed to the wolves," Meghan states. In short, the Duke & Duchess allege that the House of Windsor collaborated with the British press to portray them in the worst light so as to portray the Cambridges and the now King and Queen Consort in the best light.

Those of very serious allegations, but there is no proof of it. Harry and Meghan do not have to provide any proof of collusion and conspiracy, particularly in Harry & Meghan. This, it should be remembered, was coproduced by their production company, Archewell Productions. As such, we would never get anything other than their side of the story. Harry & Meghan would never contradict or dispute anything the Duke & Duchess, their friends, allies or Doria Ragland (the Duchess' mother) said. 

Their other major allegation (that criticism towards the Sussexes was motivated in part or whole due to racism) is also hard to pin down. Episodes Two and Three are the most "criticizing Meghan is racist" heavy episodes. However, I do not think that having people such as British commentator Afua Hirsh talk about the history of colonialism and calling the Commonwealth "Empire 2.0" is proof that the Royal Family, their handmaidens the British Press or any random outsider is racist towards a very wealthy woman.

Sometimes though, one is left almost in awe at the Sussexes narcissism and almost clueless nature. Hearing Harry bemoan the poor conditions of Nottingham Cottage on the Kensington Palace grounds is a bit bizarre given that it is still a pleasant, comfortable and posh home (if perhaps a bit small for a tall man like Harry). Meghan, for her part, references "that old movie, Princess Diaries" to indicate what she thought her royal training would be like. The Princess Diaries is as of this date twenty-two years old. For context, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex is as of this writing, 41 years old. 

Over and over throughout Harry & Meghan, the portrait they themselves paint is that of a pair of self-important figures, convinced of their victimhood and rightness on everything. Episode Four ends with Leslie Gore's You Don't Own Me playing it out. Why they selected this particular song, I can only guess.

It is not my place to fact-check everything Harry & Meghan say. My job is to review the product presented, not the veracity of said product. There is, however, one point which raised my eyebrows. In Episode Five, Harry states that they were willing to relinquish their titles to make living in self-imposed exile work for them and the Royal Family. However, when asked by Anderson Cooper on 60 Minutes why they didn't give up their titles, the Duke of Sussex replied, "And what difference would that make?" 

To my mind, it strikes me as strange and contradictory to offer to renounce a title before only to state later that it would not make a difference now. It did then, so what changed?

One now-infamous moment is when Meghan finds the idea of curtsying to her-then fiancée's grandmother hilarious. Comparing it to Medieval Times, she makes an exaggerated curtsy while her husband watches, she barely able to suppress her laughter. Somehow, her husband apparently failed to explain that said grandmother is also the Sovereign and that until Meghan came along no one questioned bowing or curtsying to The Queen regardless of familial connection. There is a look of horror mixed with uncomfortableness at how Meghan ridicules showing deference to The Queen.

Perhaps that one moment crystallizes the dynamic of the Sussex's worldview. 

Ultimately, we learn nothing about the Duke & Duchess of Sussex that the public did not already know. Listing a laundry list of complaints about the Royal Family, their alleged collusion with the press to smear the nobility (regal and spiritual) of Harry and Meghan is not worth the time Harry & Meghan took up. Hearing someone say, "Their departure felt like the death of a dream" is hilarious in its grandiose worldview. One wonders, after finishing Harry & Meghan, if this is how the Duke & Duchess saw it as well.  

Harry & Meghan is a puff piece masquerading as a no-hold-barred exposé on the inner workings of the House of Windsor. It ends up revealing the Duke and Duchess of Sussex as almost bitter and resentful towards everything and everyone apart from themselves. 

The Duke and Duchess of Windsor literally cavorted with Nazis, yet they at least never openly trashed the Royal Family. It takes great skill to make Edward & Wallis look dignified, even regal, but Harry and Meghan and Harry & Meghan managed that extraordinary feat. 

3/10