Admittedly, it's Packed with Gibberish, Over-the-Top Hospitality and Self-Help Jargon. Yet I Truly Love Meghan's Christmas Special.
No matter the season, it's always fair game for scrutiny on the Meghan Markle's televisual offering, With Love, Meghan. Reviewers, expert and amateur alike, have hardly ever agreed so completely as when eagerly tearing the lifestyle show's first and second seasons to shreds. The prevailing view held that a more egregious regal scandal had never been witnessed than the now-infamous pretzel-bagging incident.
Presently, like a merry renegade master, she makes a comeback with a new offering with a "Holiday Celebration" (aka a yuletide episode). Yet now, it's different. The familiar ingredients audiences anticipate – vague self-help platitudes, overzealous entertaining – remain, but framed of a yuletide episode, the purpose becomes clear. The puzzle has come perfectly; it's a flawless festive blizzard.
By this point, Meghan resembles the quirky relative at the typical holiday get-together – dispensing unsolicited, unnecessary advice, and delivering the odd random outburst. ("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 strangely comforting. And she seems pleased; she's causing any harm.
She knows her each tiny facial movement, utterance and look will be dissected and scrutinized, but nonetheless looks unburdened and remarkably at ease.
It could be this is the initial instance in history where that clichéd phrase – "Pay no mind, it's only envy" – might be true. The reason is, let's face it, everything in Meghan's Holiday Celebration honestly feels charming. Granted, it's all cringily ultra-extra, silliness and flamboyant – but isn't that exactly what Christmas is for? And the talk she's talking might be laughable, but the walk she's walking appears to be shop-bought.
Whatever she turns her beautifully manicured, diamond-adorned hand to, she accomplishes with flair. Her cooking looks tasty, the wreath she crafts is breathtaking, her gifts are nearly too beautiful to open. Nothing is ordinary or visually unappealing – including the way she secures her apron is artful and chic. She doesn't throw a dish in the oven, it "goes for a spin", and she wraps wrapping paper like an origami guru. She also seems to be completely savoring herself from start to finish. How could any hate-watcher not be convinced, filled with holiday spirit and left with a deep longing for crafted festive snaps or a crudites platter where greens is arranged in the form of a wreath?
Meghan used to pretend for a living, obviously, but even so, after the level of examination she has faced ever since she became involved with Prince Harry, a theoretical combination of acting royalty would find it hard to appear this genuinely. Her decision to alter or even tone down her routine, despite it being so persistently, globally mocked, is weirdly comforting. In our uncertain world, here is one thing we can count on: Meghan will stay true to form, whatever happens. We will consistently know our position with her.
If you're remaining skeptical of her brand, a reminder that will surely come as a reassurance: you are not obligated to. There isn't the draft in this country, and should it be reinstated, it would be doubtful to include streaming With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. If, on the other hand, you willingly check it out and are consumed by longing about her idyllic Christmas, there is hope either. If you are a royal or a office worker, hardly any child truly appreciates the time and energy their mother does in December. So you can console yourself by envisioning her children's faces when they open a beautifully scripted letter that says, 'I love you because you are brave,' from a homemade Advent calendar, rather than a candy.
