Indeed, it's Packed with Nonsense, Over-the-Top Hospitality and Psychobabble. However, I Honestly Love Meghan's Christmas Special.
No matter the season, it's constantly fair game for commentary on the Meghan Markle's Netflix series, With Love, Meghan. Commentators, both professional and armchair, have seldom found such common ground as when gleefully ripping the program's initial installments apart. The general consensus held that a greater royal outrage had never been witnessed than the much-discussed snack re-labeling incident.
Now, as a festive rebel, she makes a comeback with a new offering with a "Holiday Celebration" (also known as a holiday episode). Yet now, the dynamic has changed. The standard components viewers are accustomed to – vague self-help platitudes, overzealous entertaining – are still present, but set of a yuletide episode, it all clicks into place. The puzzle has come into place; it's a ideal seasonal storm.
At this stage, Meghan has become the quirky relative at the typical holiday get-together – offering unasked-for guidance, and supplying 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 quite a personality, but her company is customary and unexpectedly soothing. And she looks pleased; she's causing the slightest hurt.
She understands her each tiny facial movement, word and glance will be analyzed and scrutinized, but still appears relaxed and serenely untroubled.
It could be this is the first occasion in history where that well-worn saying – "Ignore them, they're just jealous" – might be true. The reason is, you know what?, all aspects in Meghan's Holiday Celebration is lovely. Yes, it's all painfully excessive, silliness and flamboyant – but isn't that precisely what the holiday season is all about? And the talk she's talking might be ridiculous, but the walk she's walking appears to be shop-bought.
Anything she attempts, she pulls off with flair. Her recipes looks scrumptious, the wreath 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 toss a meal in the microwave, it "has a moment", and she folds gift paper like an paper-folding expert. She also seems to be completely savoring herself the entire time. How could any hate-watcher not be charmed, bursting with holiday spirit and left with a deep longing for personalized Christmas crackers or a vegetable display where broccoli is positioned in the form of a Christmas ring?
Meghan used to pretend for a living, of course, but even so, after the intensity of attention she has faced ever since she started dating Prince Harry, even a hypothetical offspring of two legendary actresses would struggle to act this genuinely. Her unwillingness to alter or even moderate her routine, even though it being so persistently, globally mocked, is strangely reassuring. In our uncertain world, here is one thing we can rely on: Meghan will stay true to form, come what may. We will forever know what to expect with her.
If you're still not buying what she's selling, a reminder that will undoubtedly come as a reassurance: you don't have to. We don't have the draft anymore, and were it to return, it would be unlikely to include viewing With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. If, conversely, you choose to watch and are consumed by envy about her flawless Christmas, there is hope either. Be you a royal or a office worker, hardly any child truly appreciates the effort and hard work their mother expends in December. So you can take heart by imagining the young royals' faces when they reveal a beautifully scripted letter that says, 'I love you because you are brave,' from a DIY festive calendar, rather than a sweet treat.
