Indeed, it's Brimming with Absurdity, Extreme Hosting and Self-Help Jargon. However, I Honestly Love Meghan's Holiday Special.
No matter the season, it's constantly open season for criticism on the Meghan Markle's televisual offering, With Love, Meghan. Reviewers, both professional and armchair, have seldom found such common ground as when eagerly tearing the lifestyle show's earlier episodes apart. The general consensus was that a bigger monarchy-related faux pas had hardly ever taken place than the now-infamous snack re-labeling incident.
Presently, like a merry renegade master, she is back for another round with a "Christmas Special" (or a yuletide episode). But this time, things have shifted. The familiar ingredients we've come to expect – psychobabble word salads, intense hospitality – persist, but framed of a holiday show, suddenly it all makes sense. The pieces have fallen together; it's a ideal seasonal storm.
By this point, Meghan resembles the eccentric aunt at Christmas celebrations everywhere – providing random tips, 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 an interesting figure, but her presence is familiar and oddly reassuring. And she appears content; she's inflicting the slightest hurt.
She understands her all subtle gestures, word and gaze will be analyzed and scrutinized, but manages to seem carefree and remarkably at ease.
Maybe this is the only time in history where that old chestnut – "Ignore them, they're just jealous" – could actually be true. Since, in all honesty, all aspects in Meghan's Holiday Celebration honestly feels delightful. Granted, it's all painfully excessive, silliness and over the top – but isn't that precisely what Yuletide is about? And the advice she gives might be laughable, but the life she leads genuinely looks impeccably styled.
Anything she turns her beautifully manicured, diamond-adorned hand to, she pulls off with panache. Her recipes looks scrumptious, the holiday arrangement she creates is stunning, her gifts are almost too pretty to unwrap. Nothing is ordinary or ugly – including the way she ties her kitchen garment is creative and fashionable. She doesn't toss a dish in the oven, it "takes a twirl", and she folds wrapping paper like an origami guru. She also seems to be genuinely relishing herself throughout. How could any hate-watcher not be won over, filled with holiday spirit and left with a deep longing for crafted festive snaps or a vegetable display where greens is organized in the form of a wreath?
Meghan was once an actress for a living, of course, but despite that, after the level of scrutiny she has faced since she met Prince Harry, even a hypothetical offspring of acting royalty would find it hard to appear this authentically. Her decision to modify or even moderate her shtick, even though it being so persistently, widely parodied, is strangely reassuring. In our uncertain world, here is one thing we can count on: Meghan will remain herself, come what may. We will always know where we are with her.
If you're not yet convinced by her brand, a point that will undoubtedly come as a reassurance: you are not obligated to. We don't have national service in this country, and should it be reinstated, it would be improbable to include watching With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. If, however, you willingly check it out and are gripped with envy about her flawless Christmas, all is not lost either. If you are a duchess or a data administrator, no kid completely grasps the dedication and labor their parent expends in December. So you can take heart by imagining the young royals' faces when they unfold a handwritten message that says, 'I love you because you are brave,' from a handcrafted holiday countdown, in place of a chocolate.
