Yes, it's Full of Gibberish, Extreme Hosting and Self-Help Jargon. But I Do Adore Meghan's Festive Episode.
No matter the season, it's perpetually fair game for criticism on the Meghan Markle's Netflix series, With Love, Meghan. Commentators, expert and amateur alike, have hardly ever agreed so completely as when gleefully ripping the program's first and second seasons to shreds. The general consensus seemed to be a more egregious regal scandal had hardly ever taken place than the notorious pretzel-bagging incident.
Now, like a merry renegade master, she has returned with a new offering with a "Holiday Celebration" (aka a yuletide episode). However on this occasion, things have shifted. The usual elements audiences anticipate – meaningless jargon salads, overzealous entertaining – persist, but set of a Christmas special, the purpose becomes clear. The pieces have fallen perfectly; it's a flawless festive blizzard.
By this point, Meghan has become the oddball family member at the typical holiday get-together – providing unsolicited, unnecessary advice, and delivering the periodic peculiar declaration. ("I love spinach!" … "A tradition has to have a beginning." … "A tree is part of my memory and love of the holiday season.") She's a bit of a character, but her presence is familiar and strangely comforting. And she seems happy enough; she's not doing any harm.
She knows her each tiny facial movement, syllable and glance will be analyzed and scrutinized, but still appears unburdened and serenely untroubled.
It could be this is the initial instance in history where that old chestnut – "Ignore them, they're just jealous" – may well be true. Since, you know what?, each element in Meghan's Holiday Celebration is delightful. Yes, it's all painfully excessive, silliness and over the top – but doesn't that represent precisely what Christmas is about? And the talk she's talking might be laughable, but the example she sets genuinely looks beautifully curated.
Whatever she turns her beautifully manicured, diamond-adorned hand to, she executes with style. Her cooking looks scrumptious, the wreath she creates is gorgeous, her gifts are nearly too beautiful to unwrap. Nothing is average or ugly – including the way she ties her apron is stylish and elegant. She doesn't bung a dish in the microwave, it "has a moment", and she folds wrapping paper like an origami guru. She also seems to be thoroughly enjoying herself throughout. How could any skeptical viewer not be convinced, filled with festive joy and left with a powerful yearning for handmade crackers or a crudites platter where greens is organized in the shape of a wreath?
Meghan used to pretend for a living, naturally, but despite that, after the intensity of attention she has weathered from the moment she started dating Prince Harry, a theoretical combination of acting royalty would struggle to act this naturally. Her unwillingness to modify or even soften her shtick, regardless of it being so relentlessly, internationally ridiculed, is strangely reassuring. In our uncertain world, here is one thing we can rely on: Meghan will be like this, whatever happens. We will forever know where we are with her.
If you're not yet convinced by her message, a reminder that will undoubtedly come as a reassurance: you are not obligated to. We don't have national service these days, and should it be reinstated, it would be improbable to include viewing With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. If, on the other hand, you decide to tune in and are overcome with envy about her flawless Christmas, there is hope either. If you are a royal or a office worker, no kid completely grasps the time and energy their mum does in December. So you can find comfort by envisioning Archie and Lilibet's faces when they unfold a beautifully scripted letter that says, 'I love you because you are brave,' from a homemade Advent calendar, in place of a chocolate.
