The Story Of The Royals (ABC)

[Dirtybubble]

Quote

The Story of the Royals will explore pivotal moments in the crown's history beginning with a simple question: How exactly did we get here? The multipart series captures the mystique of the monarchy through its many loves, losses, extravagances, challenges and charms. With Prince William and Kate's new royal baby and Prince Harry's recent marriage to Meghan Markle, the Windsors have truly begun to modernize and resemble a 21st-century family. "The Story of the Royals" will illustrate that evolution as well as examine the American obsession behind all things royal.

So who's watching?  What do you guys think?

[GaT]

I recorded it, but haven't watched yet.

[MissT]

I watched both.  It's was ok, nothing new - everything was basically old news, nothing that we haven't already heard or seen.  The only thing that I was quite surprised about was Elizabeth really was NOT a hands on mother.  Watching that segment made me feel a bit sorry for Charles as he really seemed like a very lonely child.  Being a Royal "watcher" for many years, I always felt somewhat sorry for Charles, even through the whole Diana death.  I think he's probably a decent person, but grew up in a very dysfunctional family and he's always gotten a bad rap.   He obviously loves his sons and I truly think he wanted a happy marriage, but growing up the way he did, it seemed he and Diana were destined to fail.   She was not a saint either.

[GaT]

4 hours ago, MissT said:

He obviously loves his sons and I truly think he wanted a happy marriage, but growing up the way he did, it seemed he and Diana were destined to fail.   She was not a saint either.

They were destined to fail because they only met 12 times before they got married.

[Cobb Salad]

I watched most of the first part and was intrigued by the short segment that talked about the 60s documentary that showed the royal family at home in a relaxed setting.  They looked like regular people to me, ironically the reason why the Queen doesn’t want it shown in its entirety again. 

The segment about Charles and Diana’s “courtship” where one of the commentators made a remark about Charles’ possible misinterpretation of Prince Phillip’s comments about marrying Diana (taken as meaning you need to marry her or something to that effect) was interesting.  I guess if he moved on instead she would have been a footnote and he would have married someone else and/or marry Camilla anyway eventually. 

I caught a bit of last night’s segment but wasn’t interested in it much because it looked too much of a rehash of the past few years and I’ve seen that to death.  Nothing new there.  

[Steph J]

9 hours ago, GaT said:

They were destined to fail because they only met 12 times before they got married.

It's kind of surprising to me that Charles and Diana didn't know each other at least a little bit better because, on paper, it seems like their families were very much in each other's orbit. Diana and her brother played with Prince Andrew and Prince Edward as children and visited Sandringham every Christmas, the Queen Mother was a godmother to Diana's eldest sister, and the Queen is a godmother to the now Earl Spencer.  I guess it's a matter of the age difference between them, since it's not as if a 26/27 year old Charles would have been hanging out with a 13/14 year of Diana, but the very fact that when they got engaged she had just reached an age where grown men could spend time with her socially without it being illegal should have been a red flag in and of itself (and I assume that it would have been if there hadn't been this insistence that Charles' wife be a virgin/have no history of her own yet).

I've only watched the first part so far, but I agree with the assessment that it seems to  be a rehash of all the recent stuff.  At this point the story from Charles & Diana up to Harry and Meghan has pretty much been told to death, both because it all played out in the tabloids in real time and because the media revisits the Charles/Diana story all the time both for itself and for the sake of comparison to their sons' marriages.  I would have been much more interested in going further back and looking at the reigns of Edward VII and George V (particularly George V, since he's one of the few monarchs who still had a kingdom at the close of WWI).  If they're going to go over Charles and Camilla's relationship pre-Diana, they could at least shine some light on how Anne fit into that situation, since I understand that one of the reasons Anne disliked Camilla was because she had it bad for Andrew Parker-Bowles back in the day and wanted him for herself.

[GaT]

Since a few people have said there's nothing new, I've decided to pass on watching this.

[Mittengirl]

It definitely would have been more interesting if it had focused more on the queen and her parents and grandparents and less on the endlessly rehashed Charles and Diana and the current two favorite couples.   Is there anything we don’t know about Chuck & Di at this point?  I would have liked more about the rest of the Queen’s family - Phillip, Margaret, Anne,  Andrew, Edward and their families and their relationships amongst each other.

The only thing I would be interested in hearing at this point would be for Diana’s sister (the one that dated Charles) to explain why the hell she thought that her shy teenaged sister marrying Charles was a good idea.   Did anyone try to talk her out of it?

 

Why the heck was Gloria Allred on the show?

Edited August 25, 2018 by Mittengirl

[kassygreene]

If you have Prime, there is a lot of Royal stuff available for free viewing.  Netflix has some too, I think (go to The Crown and see what's suggested for you).  Prime runs the spectrum, from very well researched stuff to the tabloid-quality muck.

And, of course, you can find anything on YouTube.

[BW Manilowe]

22 hours ago, Mittengirl said:

It definitely would have been more interesting if it had focused more on the queen and her parents and grandparents and less on the endlessly rehashed Charles and Diana and the current two favorite couples.   Is there anything we don’t know about Chuck & Di at this point?  I would have liked more about the rest of the Queen’s family - Phillip, Margaret, Anne,  Andrew, Edward and their families and their relationships amongst each other.

The only thing I would be interested in hearing at this point would be for Diana’s sister (the one that dated Charles) to explain why the hell she thought that her shy teenaged sister marrying Charles was a good idea.   Did anyone try to talk her out of it?

 

Why the heck was Gloria Allred on the show?

 

Regarding the bolded: As near as I can tell, Gloria Allred was on the show because of Meghan’s long before her marriage declaration that she considers herself a feminist, & because Allred also either is 1 or is seen as being 1 because of how many “women who were wronged in some way, shape, or form—especially by men, & usually powerful men to boot” legal cases she’s made a point of handling, & getting publicity for over the years; especially in fairly recent years.

Edited August 26, 2018 by BW Manilowe
To add a word that better explains something.

[funkopop]

Gloria spoke mostly about Princess Diana but Allred was one of the people Meghan wrote a letter to about the dishwashing liquid commercial.

[Dirtybubble]

I agree with previous posters that it was a lot of the same stuff.  I think this was just a filler for ABC and just slapped it together.  Having said that, enh it was alright.  A lot of time spent on on Charles & Di (AGAIN) and not enuff time spent on everybody else.  I did like learning about the crash course finishing school offered for ladies wanting to behave more like a Duchess.  Live the fantasy ladies!!

[cpcathy]

I enjoyed it, but I love Royal stuff and I got to watch it uninterrupted by a grumbly husband, so it was cool.