Yes, it's Full of Absurdity, Extreme Hosting and Self-Help Jargon. But I Do Adore Meghan's Christmas Special.
No considering the season, it's always fair game for criticism on the Duchess of Sussex's TV show, With Love, Meghan. Commentators, from seasoned journalists to online pundits, have hardly ever agreed so completely as when eagerly tearing the lifestyle show's first and second seasons to pieces. The prevailing view held that a greater royal outrage had hardly ever taken place than the notorious pretzel-bagging incident.
Now, as a festive rebel, she makes a comeback for another round with a "Holiday Celebration" (or a yuletide episode). Yet now, things have shifted. The familiar ingredients we've come to expect – meaningless jargon salads, overzealous entertaining – remain, but within the context of a holiday show, suddenly it all makes sense. The puzzle has come into place; it's a ideal seasonal storm.
By this point, Meghan is like the eccentric aunt at Christmas celebrations everywhere – dispensing random tips, 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 quite a personality, but her company is customary and oddly reassuring. And she looks happy enough; she's inflicting the slightest hurt.
She knows her every micro expression, syllable and glance will be picked apart and scrutinized, but nonetheless looks unburdened and remarkably at ease.
It could be this is the only time in history where that well-worn saying – "Don't listen, it's pure jealousy" – may well be true. The reason is, in all honesty, everything in Meghan's Holiday Celebration truly is charming. Admittedly, it's all painfully excessive, foolishness and flamboyant – but is that not exactly what Yuletide is about? And the words she speaks might be laughable, but the example she sets genuinely looks beautifully curated.
Anything she sets her mind to, she pulls off with panache. Her recipes looks tasty, the festive decoration she makes is stunning, her gifts are practically too exquisite to tear into. Nothing is average or aesthetically displeasing – even the way she fastens her kitchen garment is creative and fashionable. She doesn't throw a dish in the oven, it "has a moment", 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 charmed, overcome by seasonal cheer and left with a intense desire for crafted festive snaps or a crudites platter where greens is arranged in the form of a festive circle?
Meghan had a career in acting for a living, of course, but nonetheless, after the level of scrutiny she has endured since she met Prince Harry, the love child of acting royalty would find it hard to appear this authentically. Her unwillingness to alter or even tone down her shtick, even though it being so relentlessly, internationally ridiculed, is weirdly comforting. In our volatile world, here is one thing we can depend on: Meghan will remain herself, come what may. We will always know our position with her.
If you're not yet convinced by her brand, a thought that will certainly come as a relief: you aren't required to. We don't have mandatory conscription in this country, and were it to return, it would be unlikely to include watching With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. If, conversely, you choose to watch and are consumed by envy about her flawless Christmas, you can take solace either. If you are a duchess or a everyday person, hardly any child fully understands the effort and hard work their mother expends in December. So you can find comfort by picturing her children's faces when they unfold a calligraphy note that says, 'I love you because you are brave,' from a handcrafted holiday countdown, in place of a chocolate.
