Indeed, it's Brimming with Nonsense, Over-the-Top Hospitality and Self-Help Jargon. Yet I Truly Adore Meghan's Holiday Special.
No considering the season, it's always hunting season for scrutiny on the Meghan Markle's televisual offering, With Love, Meghan. Reviewers, from seasoned journalists to online pundits, have hardly ever agreed so completely as when gleefully ripping the lifestyle show's first and second seasons to pieces. The general consensus seemed to be a more egregious regal scandal had never been witnessed than the now-infamous pretzel-bagging incident.
Presently, like a merry renegade master, she makes a comeback once again with a "Festive Special" (or a Christmas special). Yet now, things have shifted. The familiar ingredients audiences anticipate – psychobabble word salads, intense hospitality – remain, but framed of a holiday show, suddenly it all makes sense. The pieces have fallen perfectly; it's a ideal seasonal storm.
At this stage, Meghan resembles the eccentric aunt at the typical holiday get-together – offering 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 strangely comforting. And she seems happy enough; she's causing the slightest hurt.
She is aware her each tiny facial movement, syllable and glance will be picked apart and scrutinized, but manages to seem relaxed and remarkably at ease.
Perhaps this is the initial instance in history where that old chestnut – "Pay no mind, it's only envy" – may well be true. Since, let's face it, all aspects in Meghan's Holiday Celebration honestly feels charming. Admittedly, it's all awkwardly over-the-top, 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 turns her beautifully manicured, diamond-adorned hand to, she pulls off with panache. Her recipes looks scrumptious, the holiday arrangement she creates is gorgeous, her presents are practically too exquisite to open. Nothing is mediocre or aesthetically displeasing – even the way she fastens her apron is creative and fashionable. She doesn't throw a meal in the microwave, it "goes for a spin", and she creases wrapping paper like an origami guru. She also seems to be genuinely relishing herself from start to finish. How could any skeptical viewer not be won over, filled with festive joy and left with a deep longing for personalized Christmas crackers or a vegetable display where greens is arranged in the likeness of a wreath?
Meghan had a career in acting for a living, of course, but nonetheless, after the level of examination she has endured ever since she met Prince Harry, a theoretical combination of Meryl Streep and Judi Dench would find it hard to appear this authentically. Her refusal to change or even tone down her routine, regardless of it being so constantly, widely parodied, is strangely reassuring. In our unpredictable world, here is one thing we can rely on: Meghan will remain herself, whatever happens. We will consistently know where we are with her.
If you're still not buying what she's selling, a reminder that will certainly come as a reassurance: you are not obligated to. There isn't the draft these days, and if there were, it would be unlikely to include viewing With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. If, on the other hand, you decide to tune in and are consumed by jealousy about her idyllic Christmas, all is not lost either. If you are a royal or a everyday person, few children completely grasps the time and energy their parent puts in in December. So you can console yourself by imagining the young royals' faces when they reveal a calligraphy note that says, 'I love you because you are brave,' from a handcrafted holiday countdown, instead of a sweet treat.
