Yes, it's Brimming with Nonsense, Over-the-Top Hospitality and Self-Help Jargon. Yet I Truly Love Meghan's Festive Episode.
No matter the time of year, it's constantly fair game for criticism on the Meghan Markle's Netflix series, With Love, Meghan. Critics, both professional and armchair, have seldom found such common ground as when enthusiastically shredding the program's earlier episodes to shreds. The prevailing view was that a more egregious regal scandal had seldom occurred than the much-discussed snack re-labeling incident.
Presently, in the spirit of a holiday maverick, she is back with a new offering with a "Holiday Celebration" (aka a yuletide episode). But this time, it's different. The usual elements viewers are accustomed to – psychobabble word salads, intense hospitality – remain, but set of a yuletide episode, it all clicks into place. The pieces have fallen together; it's a ideal seasonal storm.
Now, Meghan is like the eccentric aunt at the typical holiday get-together – offering unsolicited, unnecessary advice, and contributing the occasional strange exclamation. ("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 company is customary and oddly reassuring. And she looks happy enough; she's not doing the slightest hurt.
She understands her each tiny facial movement, syllable and glance will be picked apart and scrutinized, but nonetheless looks relaxed and serenely untroubled.
Maybe this is the only time in history where that clichéd phrase – "Don't listen, it's pure jealousy" – might be true. Since, in all honesty, each element in Meghan's Holiday Celebration is delightful. Yes, it's all cringily ultra-extra, nonsense and over the top – but doesn't that represent precisely what Christmas is for? And the talk she's talking might be ridiculous, but the example she sets appears to be impeccably styled.
Anything she turns her beautifully manicured, diamond-adorned hand to, she pulls off with flair. Her cooking looks scrumptious, the festive decoration she creates is gorgeous, her presents are nearly too beautiful to unwrap. Nothing is ordinary or visually unappealing – including the way she fastens her kitchen garment is creative and fashionable. She doesn't toss a meal in the microwave, it "takes a twirl", and she creases wrapping paper like an paper-folding expert. She also seems to be genuinely relishing herself from start to finish. How could any hate-watcher not be convinced, overcome by holiday spirit and left with a intense desire for crafted festive snaps or a vegetable display where broccoli is positioned in the likeness of a Christmas ring?
Meghan had a career in acting for a living, naturally, but even so, after the degree of examination she has faced ever since she met Prince Harry, a theoretical combination of Meryl Streep and Judi Dench would struggle to act this naturally. Her unwillingness to alter or even moderate her routine, even though it being so persistently, widely parodied, is weirdly comforting. In our volatile world, here is something we can count on: Meghan will stay true to form, whatever happens. We will consistently know our position with her.
If you're remaining skeptical of what she's selling, a point that will certainly come as a relief: you aren't required to. We don't have mandatory conscription in this country, and if there were, it would be unlikely to include viewing With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. If, however, you choose to watch and are gripped with jealousy about her idyllic Christmas, you can take solace either. Be you a duchess or a data administrator, hardly any child fully understands the time and energy their mother puts in in December. So you can find comfort by picturing her children's faces when they unfold a beautifully scripted letter that says, 'I love you because you are brave,' from a homemade Advent calendar, rather than a sweet treat.