Yes, it's Packed with Absurdity, Extreme Hosting and Self-Help Jargon. However, I Honestly Adore Meghan's Christmas Special.
No matter the time of year, it's perpetually fair game for commentary on the Meghan Markle's Netflix series, With Love, Meghan. Reviewers, expert and amateur alike, 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 more egregious regal scandal had seldom occurred than the much-discussed pretzel-bagging incident.
Now, like a merry renegade master, she has returned for another round with a "Holiday Celebration" (also known as a holiday episode). But this time, things have shifted. The standard components audiences anticipate – meaningless jargon salads, extreme hosting – are still present, but set of a yuletide episode, suddenly it all makes sense. The elements have slid perfectly; it's a perfect snow storm.
By this point, Meghan is like the eccentric aunt at most festive family gatherings – offering random tips, and contributing 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 a bit of a character, but her aura is known and strangely comforting. And she appears pleased; she's not doing the slightest hurt.
She knows her all subtle gestures, utterance and gaze will be dissected and judged, but manages to seem unburdened and serenely untroubled.
Perhaps this is the initial instance in history where that old chestnut – "Don't listen, it's pure jealousy" – might be true. Since, you know what?, everything in Meghan's Holiday Celebration truly is lovely. Admittedly, it's all cringily ultra-extra, nonsense and flamboyant – but is that not exactly what Yuletide is for? And the advice she gives might be ridiculous, but the life she leads seems authentically impeccably styled.
Anything she attempts, she accomplishes with style. Her culinary efforts looks scrumptious, the festive decoration she crafts is breathtaking, her gifts are almost too pretty to open. Not a single thing is ordinary or ugly – including the way she ties her kitchen garment is artful and chic. She doesn't throw a meal in the oven, it "goes for a spin", and she folds gift paper like an craft master. She also seems to be thoroughly enjoying herself from start to finish. How could any skeptical viewer not be convinced, filled with holiday spirit and left with a powerful yearning for crafted festive snaps or a vegetable display where greens is arranged in the form of a wreath?
Meghan had a career in acting for a living, obviously, but nonetheless, after the degree of attention she has endured since she met Prince Harry, a theoretical combination of Meryl Streep and Judi Dench would find it hard to appear this authentically. Her unwillingness to alter or even moderate her shtick, even though it being so relentlessly, widely parodied, is weirdly comforting. In our volatile world, here is something we can depend on: Meghan will be like this, come what may. We will forever know where we are with her.
If you're not yet convinced by her message, a point that will surely come as a relief: you don't have to. There isn't national service these days, and were it to return, it would be improbable to include viewing With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. If, on the other hand, you decide to tune in and are overcome with jealousy about her picture-perfect Christmas, there is hope either. Be you a duchess or a everyday person, no kid completely grasps the time and energy their mum does in the holiday season. So you can console yourself by picturing Archie and Lilibet's faces when they reveal a beautifully scripted letter that says, 'I love you because you are brave,' from a homemade Advent calendar, rather than a candy.
