Yes, it's Packed with Nonsense, Extreme Hosting and Psychobabble. However, I Honestly Adore Meghan's Holiday Special.
No considering the time of year, it's constantly fair game for commentary on the Meghan Markle's Netflix series, With Love, Meghan. Reviewers, from seasoned journalists to online pundits, have seldom found such common ground as when eagerly tearing the lifestyle show's initial installments to shreds. The general consensus seemed to be a greater royal outrage had seldom occurred than the notorious pretzel re-packaging incident.
Currently, as a festive rebel, she has returned once again with a "Festive Special" (aka a Christmas special). Yet now, the dynamic has changed. The usual elements viewers are accustomed to – psychobabble word salads, intense hospitality – persist, but within the context of a yuletide episode, suddenly it all makes sense. The elements have slid into place; it's a flawless festive blizzard.
Now, Meghan resembles the eccentric aunt at Christmas celebrations everywhere – providing unasked-for guidance, and supplying 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 company is customary and oddly reassuring. And she looks happy enough; she's inflicting any harm.
She knows her each tiny facial movement, word and gaze will be picked apart and judged, but manages to seem unburdened and remarkably at ease.
Maybe this is the first occasion in history where that well-worn saying – "Ignore them, they're just jealous" – may well be true. Because, you know what?, everything in Meghan's Holiday Celebration honestly feels delightful. Granted, it's all cringily ultra-extra, silliness and extravagant – but doesn't that represent precisely what Christmas is all about? And the talk she's talking might be absurd, but the example she sets seems authentically beautifully curated.
Whatever she sets her mind to, she pulls off with style. Her cooking looks tasty, the festive decoration she creates is stunning, her gifts are practically too exquisite to tear into. Not a single thing is average or aesthetically displeasing – even the way she secures her kitchen garment is stylish and elegant. She doesn't throw a meal in the microwave, it "takes a twirl", and she creases gift paper like an craft master. She also seems to be completely savoring herself the entire time. How could any skeptical viewer not be charmed, bursting with festive joy and left with a intense desire for personalized Christmas crackers or a crudites platter where greens is organized in the likeness of a wreath?
Meghan was once an actress for a living, obviously, but nonetheless, after the degree of examination she has weathered since she met Prince Harry, a theoretical combination of Meryl Streep and Judi Dench would struggle to act this authentically. Her unwillingness to change or even soften her shtick, regardless of it being so persistently, widely parodied, is strangely reassuring. In our volatile world, here is one thing we can rely on: Meghan will stay true to form, no matter what. We will forever know what to expect with her.
If you're still not buying her brand, a thought that will certainly come as a relief: you are not obligated to. There isn't national service anymore, and were it to return, it would be improbable to include watching With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. If, however, you decide to tune in and are overcome with envy about her picture-perfect Christmas, you can take solace either. Be you a duchess or a everyday person, few children fully understands the dedication and labor their parent expends in December. So you can console yourself by picturing the young royals' faces when they reveal a beautifully scripted letter that says, 'I love you because you are brave,' from a handcrafted holiday countdown, in place of a sweet treat.
