Admittedly, it's Full of Nonsense, Over-the-Top Hospitality and Psychobabble. Yet I Truly Love Meghan's Holiday Special.
No considering the season, it's perpetually fair game for commentary on the Meghan Markle's Netflix series, With Love, Meghan. Reviewers, both professional and armchair, have rarely been so united as when eagerly tearing the lifestyle show's initial installments to pieces. The common opinion held that a greater royal outrage had seldom occurred than the much-discussed pretzel-bagging incident.
Presently, as a festive rebel, she makes a comeback with a new offering with a "Holiday Celebration" (aka a Christmas special). Yet now, it's different. The familiar ingredients we've come to expect – vague self-help platitudes, extreme hosting – remain, but framed of a Christmas special, suddenly it all makes sense. The elements have slid perfectly; it's a ideal seasonal storm.
By this point, Meghan is like the quirky relative at Christmas celebrations everywhere – dispensing unsolicited, unnecessary advice, and contributing the occasional strange exclamation. ("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 an interesting figure, but her aura is known and oddly reassuring. And she looks happy enough; she's inflicting the slightest hurt.
She is aware her all subtle gestures, syllable and look will be picked apart and judged, but still appears unburdened and serenely untroubled.
Perhaps this is the only time in history where that clichéd phrase – "Pay no mind, it's only envy" – may well be true. Since, in all honesty, each element in Meghan's Holiday Celebration honestly feels charming. Admittedly, it's all painfully excessive, nonsense and over the top – but isn't that exactly what Yuletide is all about? And the advice she gives might be absurd, but the life she leads appears to be beautifully curated.
Anything she sets her mind to, she pulls off with panache. Her cooking looks tasty, the wreath she crafts is gorgeous, her gifts are practically too exquisite to tear into. Nothing is ordinary or aesthetically displeasing – even the way she fastens her apron is creative and fashionable. She doesn't bung a meal in the microwave, it "goes for a spin", and she folds gift paper like an origami guru. She also seems to be thoroughly enjoying herself the entire time. How could any skeptical viewer not be convinced, filled with seasonal cheer and left with a deep longing for crafted festive snaps or a crudites platter where broccoli is arranged in the form of a festive circle?
Meghan used to pretend for a living, of course, but despite that, after the intensity of examination she has faced from the moment she met Prince Harry, even a hypothetical offspring of two legendary actresses would find it hard to appear this genuinely. Her decision to modify or even soften her shtick, despite it being so relentlessly, globally mocked, is strangely reassuring. In our volatile world, here is one thing we can rely on: Meghan will remain herself, no matter what. We will always know where we are with her.
If you're still not buying what she's selling, a reminder that will surely come as a reassurance: you aren't required to. We don't have the draft anymore, and if there were, it would be doubtful to include streaming With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. If, on the other hand, you willingly check it out and are overcome with envy about her picture-perfect Christmas, you can take solace either. Whether you're a royal or a office worker, few children fully understands the time and energy their mum puts in in December. So you can console yourself by picturing her children's faces when they unfold a beautifully scripted letter that says, 'I love you because you are brave,' from a DIY festive calendar, rather than a candy.
