Yes, it's Full of Nonsense, Over-the-Top Hospitality and Self-Help Jargon. Yet I Truly Adore Meghan's Festive Episode.
No concerned with the time of year, it's always open season for scrutiny on the Duchess of Sussex's Netflix series, With Love, Meghan. Critics, both professional and armchair, have seldom found such common ground as when enthusiastically shredding the lifestyle show's initial installments apart. The general consensus was that a greater royal outrage had never been witnessed than the much-discussed pretzel-bagging incident.
Currently, in the spirit of a holiday maverick, she has returned once again with a "Holiday Celebration" (aka a Christmas special). However on this occasion, 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 pieces have fallen together; it's a flawless festive blizzard.
By this point, Meghan has become the eccentric aunt at Christmas celebrations everywhere – 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 an interesting figure, but her aura is known and unexpectedly soothing. And she appears pleased; she's causing any harm.
She knows her all subtle gestures, syllable and glance will be analyzed and criticised, but still appears unburdened and too blessed to be stressed.
Maybe this is the only time in history where that clichéd phrase – "Ignore them, they're just jealous" – could actually be true. Because, you know what?, everything in Meghan's Holiday Celebration truly is charming. Yes, it's all awkwardly over-the-top, foolishness and extravagant – but isn't that precisely what Christmas is all about? And the talk she's talking might be ridiculous, but the life she leads appears to be beautifully curated.
Anything she turns her beautifully manicured, diamond-adorned hand to, she pulls off with flair. Her recipes looks delicious, the holiday arrangement she makes is gorgeous, her gifts are practically too exquisite to tear into. Not a single thing is average or ugly – including the way she ties her kitchen garment is creative and fashionable. She doesn't throw a dish in the microwave, it "goes for a spin", and she wraps gift paper like an craft master. She also seems to be completely savoring herself the entire time. How could any skeptical viewer not be won over, bursting with holiday spirit and left with a powerful yearning for handmade crackers or a crudites platter where greens is organized in the likeness of a wreath?
Meghan was once an actress for a living, naturally, but nonetheless, after the intensity of scrutiny she has weathered ever since she met Prince Harry, even a hypothetical offspring of acting royalty would have difficulty behaving this naturally. Her refusal to alter or even tone down her shtick, even though it being so persistently, internationally ridiculed, is weirdly comforting. In our volatile world, here is something we can rely on: Meghan will remain herself, whatever happens. We will consistently know where we are with her.
If you're not yet convinced by what she's selling, a point that will undoubtedly come as a relief: you aren't required to. There isn't mandatory conscription anymore, and were it to return, it would be improbable to include streaming With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. If, conversely, you willingly check it out and are consumed by envy about her flawless Christmas, all is not lost either. Whether you're a royal or a office worker, hardly any child fully understands the time and energy their parent puts in in December. So you can find comfort by imagining the young royals' faces when they open a handwritten message that says, 'I love you because you are brave,' from a handcrafted holiday countdown, rather than a chocolate.
