Prince Harry’s mental health series reviews roundup: What the critics are saying

The Me You Can’t See is available to stream on Apple TV+

After weeks of anticipation, Prince Harry and Oprah Winfrey’s new mental health documentary has arrived.

The Me You Can’t See – which debuts on Apple TV+ today (21 May) – aims to break down the stigmas surrounding mental health. It includes testimonials from celebrities such as Lady Gaga, Glenn Close and the San Antonio Spurs basketball player DeMar DeRozan.

The series’ release follows 10 weeks after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s high-profile sit-down with Winfrey, during which a number of revelations about the royal family were made.

In Prince Harry’s new docuseries, which consists of five one-hour instalments, Lady Gaga talks about self-harming and experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder after being raped at the beginning of her career. Robin Williams’s son also appears to talk about the loss of his father and struggle with addiction.

Winfrey herself discusses her own mental health issues. The household name endured poverty and abuse in her early life. At age 14, she became pregnant with a son who died weeks later.

The first reviews for The Me You Can’t See are in, a roundup of which you can find below. Whether the documentary is worth your time depends on who you ask.

The Independent, two stars

“Prince Harry’s honesty is powerful but the rest of his series with Oprah is frustratingly ambiguous,” writes Adam White.

“The Me You Can’t See is undeniably well-intentioned, but it doesn’t push the conversation about mental health any further than it feels the need to. Winfrey’s ethos is rooted in a ‘pull oneself up by the bootstraps’ lesson of self-sufficiency, where merely talking about pain and trauma is the be-all and end-all. The economic causes of mental illness, and the chronic underfunding and scarcity of mental health support, are never mentioned.”

(AFP via Getty Images)

The Times, three stars

“For all its clarity of vision and talk of a ‘universal condition’, however, The Me You Can’t See feels myopic on the burning issue that many, indeed most, people cannot afford years of therapy. Flipping between Harry, who calls home an £11 million Californian mansion, and a refugee camp might be seen as glib.”

“But do you know what? It left me in no doubt that Harry had done the right thing in distancing himself from the royal family and moving to California.”

The Telegraph, four stars

“But to label this as the follow-up to Oprah’s sensational sit-down with Meghan would be to do the programme a disservice. That one was all showbiz, complete with cliffhanger endings and carefully-curated soundbites. Taken as a whole [...] The Me You Can’t See (Apple TV+) is a sensitive, serious-minded look at mental health.”

iNews, four stars

“Every single participant, from Lady Gaga to chef Rashad Armstead, is shockingly open, a testament to the trust they placed in Oprah and her honourable intentions for the series.”

“In stepping away from the empty platitudes celebrities often provide and treating its topic as an urgent, medical issue, this series is a much-needed leap in the right direction.”

(Apple TV+)

Variety

“The impact of these revelations is blunted, somewhat, both by repetition and by context. Both co-creators seem to be striving for the point that trauma is a universal fact of life, that we all have something terrible that we’ve been through. This is not, strictly speaking, new: Winfrey has made her name on shared intimacy with her audience. But this show struggles to make its case, growing more successful the more time elapses between Harry’s appearances.”

“A project that attempts to range widely over a cross-section of our troubled world ends up returning to a similar place time and again. The result, often, is overwhelming in the wrong way.”

The Hollywood Reporter

“The most immediate question that a glossy doc like this (especially siloed on a niche streaming service seemingly targeted at a high-income viewership) prompts is what kind of impact it can really have, when access to social and psychological services in the U.S. are already so stratified by class. What’s the use of a docuseries that aims itself at the kind of people who are already the best positioned to get the kind of help it endorses?”

The Me You Can’t See is available to stream on Apple TV+ now.

If you’ve been raped or sexually assaulted, you can contact your nearest Rape Crisis organisation for specialist, independent and confidential support: www.rapecrisis.org.uk

If you are experiencing feelings of distress and isolation, or are struggling to cope, The Samaritans offers support; you can speak to someone for free over the phone, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org, or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch.

If you are based in the USA, and you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call National Suicide Prevention Helpline on 1-800-273-TALK (8255). The Helpline is a free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week.