Indeed, it's Packed with Gibberish, Over-the-Top Hospitality and Self-Help Jargon. However, I Honestly Adore Meghan's Holiday Special.
No considering the season, it's perpetually hunting season for commentary on the Duchess of Sussex's televisual offering, With Love, Meghan. Reviewers, from seasoned journalists to online pundits, have seldom found such common ground as when enthusiastically shredding the lifestyle show's first and second seasons to pieces. The prevailing view was that a more egregious regal scandal had seldom occurred than the much-discussed pretzel re-packaging incident.
Currently, like a merry renegade master, she makes a comeback once again with a "Holiday Celebration" (or a yuletide episode). However on this occasion, it's different. The familiar ingredients viewers are accustomed to – psychobabble word salads, overzealous entertaining – are still present, but framed of a holiday show, suddenly it all makes sense. The elements have slid together; it's a flawless festive blizzard.
Now, Meghan is like the eccentric aunt at Christmas celebrations everywhere – dispensing unasked-for guidance, 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 presence is familiar and oddly reassuring. And she appears happy enough; she's causing the slightest hurt.
She knows her all subtle gestures, utterance and gaze will be picked apart and judged, but nonetheless looks unburdened and too blessed to be stressed.
Maybe this is the first occasion in history where that old chestnut – "Ignore them, they're just jealous" – may well be true. Since, in all honesty, all aspects in Meghan's Holiday Celebration is delightful. Yes, it's all painfully excessive, nonsense and over the top – but doesn't that represent just what Christmas is for? And the words she speaks might be laughable, but the walk she's walking genuinely looks beautifully curated.
Anything she turns her beautifully manicured, diamond-adorned hand to, she accomplishes with style. Her cooking looks delicious, the holiday arrangement she crafts is stunning, her presents are almost too pretty to unwrap. Not a single thing is average or visually unappealing – including the way she fastens her apron is creative and fashionable. She doesn't toss a meal in the oven, it "goes for a spin", and she creases gift paper like an craft master. She also seems to be genuinely relishing herself the entire time. How could any hate-watcher not be convinced, filled with holiday spirit and left with a intense desire for handmade crackers or a vegetable display where greens is positioned in the form of a Christmas ring?
Meghan used to pretend for a living, of course, but despite that, after the level of scrutiny she has endured since she met Prince Harry, the love child of two legendary actresses would have difficulty behaving this naturally. Her decision to modify or even moderate her persona, despite it being so relentlessly, widely parodied, is weirdly comforting. In our unpredictable world, here is one thing we can depend on: Meghan will stay true to form, no matter what. We will always know where we are with her.
If you're not yet convinced by her message, a thought that will certainly come as a relief: you are not obligated to. We don't have the draft these days, and should it be reinstated, it would be unlikely to include streaming With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. If, however, you willingly check it out and are consumed by envy about her picture-perfect Christmas, all is not lost either. Be you a royal or a everyday person, hardly any child completely grasps the effort and hard work their mum does in the holiday season. So you can console yourself by picturing the young royals' faces when they open a calligraphy note that says, 'I love you because you are brave,' from a homemade Advent calendar, in place of a chocolate.
