Indeed, it's Packed with Gibberish, Extreme Hosting and Self-Help Jargon. But I Do Adore Meghan's Christmas Special.
No concerned with the season, it's constantly open season for commentary on the Meghan Markle's televisual offering, With Love, Meghan. Reviewers, both professional and armchair, have seldom found such common ground as when gleefully ripping the program's initial installments to shreds. The prevailing view held that a more egregious regal scandal had never been witnessed than the much-discussed pretzel-bagging incident.
Now, in the spirit of a holiday maverick, she is back once again with a "Holiday Celebration" (also known as a yuletide episode). But this time, things have shifted. The standard components viewers are accustomed to – vague self-help platitudes, extreme hosting – remain, but set of a holiday show, suddenly it all makes sense. The pieces have fallen together; it's a flawless festive blizzard.
Now, Meghan is like the eccentric aunt at Christmas celebrations everywhere – offering unsolicited, unnecessary advice, and delivering 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 presence is familiar and strangely comforting. And she looks content; she's inflicting the slightest hurt.
She knows her each tiny facial movement, syllable and look will be picked apart and scrutinized, but manages to seem unburdened and serenely untroubled.
Maybe this is the initial instance in history where that well-worn saying – "Ignore them, they're just jealous" – may well be true. Since, you know what?, all aspects in Meghan's Holiday Celebration is lovely. Granted, it's all painfully excessive, nonsense and flamboyant – but doesn't that represent exactly what Yuletide is for? And the talk she's talking might be laughable, but the walk she's walking seems authentically impeccably styled.
Whatever she turns her beautifully manicured, diamond-adorned hand to, she pulls off with style. Her recipes looks scrumptious, the festive decoration she makes is breathtaking, her presents are almost too pretty to unwrap. Nothing is ordinary or aesthetically displeasing – including the way she secures her apron is artful and chic. She doesn't toss a dish in the oven, it "goes for a spin", and she folds gift paper like an origami guru. She also seems to be genuinely relishing herself the entire time. How could any hate-watcher not be convinced, bursting with festive joy and left with a powerful yearning for handmade crackers or a crudites platter where broccoli is positioned in the likeness of a Christmas ring?
Meghan had a career in acting for a living, obviously, but despite that, after the intensity of scrutiny she has endured since she became involved with Prince Harry, even a hypothetical offspring of Meryl Streep and Judi Dench would find it hard to appear this authentically. Her refusal to alter or even moderate her shtick, despite it being so relentlessly, widely parodied, is weirdly comforting. In our uncertain world, here is one thing we can count on: Meghan will remain herself, come what may. We will always know our position with her.
If you're still not buying her brand, a point that will certainly come as a comfort: you aren't required to. There isn't mandatory conscription these days, and if there were, it would be improbable to include watching With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. If, conversely, you choose to watch and are overcome with longing about her idyllic Christmas, all is not lost either. Whether you're a royal or a office worker, few children truly appreciates the time and energy their mother does in December. So you can console yourself by envisioning Archie and Lilibet's faces when they reveal a beautifully scripted letter that says, 'I love you because you are brave,' from a homemade Advent calendar, rather than a candy.
