So, I finally started Heart of Invictus. I made the mistake of watching it on my ipad at a car dealership, so I was weeping in a corner as people buzzed around me. What struck me, first of all, is how Harry is still the heart of Invictus. I don’t mean that he centers himself or that the show is all about him, but Invictus is his baby and it’s his vision that people are buying into. I loved the glimpses of the Invictus Games team, like the corporate team, and all of the team leaders in other countries. Early in episode one, during the pandemic, one of the team leaders asks somewhat softly if Harry and Meghan are both confirmed for The Hague games and she’s so pleased when she’s told that they are 100% coming. The star power they have.

The next thing that blew me away was how the series is simply done beautifully. It’s a slick series, and I don’t mean that as a negative. The wounded warriors’ stories and biographies are front and center, but it’s done in a matter-of-fact yet glossy way. I have some early favorites among the veterans – the Korean veteran Na Hyeongyoon, who speaks in poetry, not prose. Yuliia “Taira” Paievska, the Ukrainian medic who makes dirty jokes, has tattoos and smokes like a chimney. Gabe George, the American who is living in agonizing chronic pain but greets everyone in his life with love and positivity.

Heart of Invictus centers the veterans’ stories and the uplifting and powerful message of hope, transformation, healing and building a new life after military service and injury. But it also does something else: it shows that this is Harry’s legacy, that he had the vision for this, that he built this extraordinary thing which gives wounded warriors a path to find healing. This is why the British media has been ranting and raving about Harry “slamming his family” in the series – the Windsors are desperately trying to attach themselves to Harry yet again, because this is a showcase for why the family was contemptibly stupid to treat him the way they did.

Netflix released another teaser:

Photos courtesy of Netflix.