Yes, it's Full of Nonsense, Over-the-Top Hospitality and Psychobabble. Yet I Truly Love Meghan's Christmas Special.
No concerned with the time of year, it's constantly open season for criticism on the Meghan Markle's televisual offering, With Love, Meghan. Commentators, 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 common opinion held that a greater royal outrage had seldom occurred than the notorious snack re-labeling incident.
Presently, like a merry renegade master, she makes a comeback with a new offering with a "Holiday Celebration" (aka a yuletide episode). However on this occasion, it's different. The standard components we've come to expect – vague self-help platitudes, overzealous entertaining – remain, but within the context of a Christmas special, it all clicks into place. The pieces have fallen perfectly; it's a flawless festive blizzard.
By this point, Meghan resembles the oddball family member at the typical holiday get-together – dispensing unsolicited, unnecessary advice, and contributing 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 quite a personality, but her company is customary and oddly reassuring. And she looks happy enough; she's causing a bit of damage.
She knows her all subtle gestures, word and look will be analyzed and judged, but manages to seem unburdened and remarkably at ease.
It could be this is the first occasion in history where that clichéd phrase – "Ignore them, they're just jealous" – might be true. Since, in all honesty, everything in Meghan's Holiday Celebration truly is delightful. Yes, it's all painfully excessive, silliness and over the top – but is that not precisely what Yuletide is for? And the advice she gives might be absurd, but the life she leads seems authentically impeccably styled.
Whatever she sets her mind to, she accomplishes with flair. Her recipes looks scrumptious, the festive decoration she creates is gorgeous, her presents are practically too exquisite to open. Not a single thing is average or ugly – including the way she secures her apron is artful and chic. She doesn't throw a dish in the microwave, it "goes for a spin", and she creases gift paper like an origami guru. She also seems to be genuinely relishing herself from start to finish. How could any cynical observer not be convinced, overcome by holiday spirit and left with a intense desire for personalized Christmas crackers or a crudites platter where broccoli is arranged in the shape of a festive circle?
Meghan was once an actress for a living, obviously, but despite that, after the intensity of examination she has faced from the moment she met Prince Harry, a theoretical combination of two legendary actresses would struggle to act this authentically. Her decision to modify or even moderate her shtick, regardless of it being so relentlessly, widely parodied, is weirdly comforting. In our unpredictable world, here is something we can rely on: Meghan will remain herself, come what may. We will always know our position with her.
If you're remaining skeptical of her brand, a thought that will undoubtedly come as a comfort: you don't have to. The UK has abolished mandatory conscription these days, and were it to return, it would be unlikely to include streaming With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. If, however, you willingly check it out and are overcome with longing about her flawless Christmas, you can take solace either. Whether you're a duchess or a office worker, few children fully understands the effort and hard work their mum expends in December. So you can console yourself by envisioning Archie and Lilibet's faces when they unfold a beautifully scripted letter that says, 'I love you because you are brave,' from a homemade Advent calendar, in place of a sweet treat.
