Indeed, it's Full of Nonsense, Over-the-Top Hospitality and Psychobabble. Yet I Truly Adore Meghan's Christmas Special.
No concerned with the season, it's always hunting season for scrutiny on the Meghan Markle's Netflix series, With Love, Meghan. Commentators, both professional and armchair, have rarely been so united as when gleefully ripping the lifestyle show's first and second seasons to pieces. The general consensus was that a bigger monarchy-related faux pas had hardly ever taken place than the now-infamous pretzel re-packaging incident.
Currently, like a merry renegade master, she is back for another round with a "Christmas Special" (aka a yuletide episode). Yet now, it's different. The familiar ingredients audiences anticipate – vague self-help platitudes, overzealous entertaining – persist, but within the context of a yuletide episode, it all clicks into place. The pieces have fallen together; it's a perfect snow storm.
Now, Meghan resembles the eccentric aunt at most festive family gatherings – offering unasked-for guidance, 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 company is customary and oddly reassuring. And she looks pleased; she's inflicting any harm.
She knows her all subtle gestures, word and glance will be picked apart and judged, but manages to seem relaxed and serenely untroubled.
Maybe this is the initial instance in history where that old chestnut – "Don't listen, it's pure jealousy" – could actually be true. Because, you know what?, everything in Meghan's Holiday Celebration honestly feels delightful. Admittedly, it's all cringily ultra-extra, nonsense and extravagant – but isn't that just what Yuletide is for? And the words she speaks might be absurd, but the walk she's walking appears to be impeccably styled.
Anything she attempts, she pulls off with style. Her cooking looks scrumptious, the holiday arrangement she creates is gorgeous, her gifts are almost too pretty to tear into. Not a single thing is average or visually unappealing – even the way she fastens her apron is artful and chic. She doesn't throw a dish in the oven, it "has a moment", and she wraps wrapping paper like an paper-folding expert. She also seems to be genuinely relishing herself from start to finish. How could any hate-watcher not be won over, filled with festive joy and left with a deep longing for crafted festive snaps or a vegetable display where broccoli is arranged in the form of a Christmas ring?
Meghan was once an actress for a living, naturally, but nonetheless, after the intensity of scrutiny she has weathered ever since she became involved with Prince Harry, the love child of Meryl Streep and Judi Dench would have difficulty behaving this authentically. Her refusal to modify or even soften her routine, despite it being so relentlessly, internationally ridiculed, is oddly heartening. In our uncertain world, here is something we can count on: Meghan will stay true to form, whatever happens. We will forever know where we are with her.
If you're remaining skeptical of her brand, a point that will surely come as a comfort: you are not obligated to. We don't have the draft anymore, and if there were, it would be doubtful to include viewing With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. If, on the other hand, you willingly check it out and are consumed by longing about her picture-perfect Christmas, you can take solace either. Whether you're a royal or a everyday person, no kid fully understands the dedication and labor their parent puts in in the holiday season. So you can console yourself by imagining her children's faces when they reveal a handwritten message that says, 'I love you because you are brave,' from a handcrafted holiday countdown, instead of a sweet treat.
