Yes, it's Packed with Nonsense, Extreme Hosting and Psychobabble. Yet I Truly Love Meghan's Holiday Special.
No considering the time of year, it's perpetually hunting season for criticism on the Meghan Markle's TV show, With Love, Meghan. Reviewers, both professional and armchair, have hardly ever agreed so completely as when enthusiastically shredding the lifestyle show's initial installments to shreds. The prevailing view held that a greater royal outrage had never been witnessed than the much-discussed pretzel re-packaging incident.
Currently, in the spirit of a holiday maverick, she is back for another round with a "Holiday Celebration" (also known as a holiday episode). But this time, things have shifted. The usual elements audiences anticipate – psychobabble word salads, overzealous entertaining – persist, but framed of a yuletide episode, it all clicks into place. The pieces have fallen into place; it's a flawless festive blizzard.
By this point, Meghan has become the quirky relative at the typical holiday get-together – offering random tips, 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 quite a personality, but her aura is known and unexpectedly soothing. And she looks pleased; she's inflicting the slightest hurt.
She knows her all subtle gestures, utterance and glance will be picked apart and judged, but manages to seem relaxed and remarkably at ease.
It could be this is the initial instance in history where that well-worn saying – "Pay no mind, it's only envy" – may well be true. Since, in all honesty, each element in Meghan's Holiday Celebration honestly feels delightful. Admittedly, it's all painfully excessive, silliness and over the top – but isn't that exactly what the holiday season is all about? And the words she speaks might be ridiculous, but the walk she's walking genuinely looks impeccably styled.
Whatever she attempts, she pulls off with panache. Her culinary efforts looks scrumptious, the festive decoration she makes is stunning, her gifts are nearly too beautiful to unwrap. Not a single thing is mediocre or ugly – even the way she secures her kitchen garment is creative and fashionable. She doesn't throw a meal in the oven, it "has a moment", and she wraps gift paper like an origami guru. She also seems to be completely savoring herself from start to finish. How could any hate-watcher not be won over, filled with festive joy and left with a deep longing for personalized Christmas crackers or a crudites platter where greens is organized in the likeness of a Christmas ring?
Meghan had a career in acting for a living, naturally, but even so, after the level of attention she has endured from the moment she became involved with Prince Harry, the love child of two legendary actresses would find it hard to appear this authentically. Her refusal to modify or even soften her shtick, regardless of it being so persistently, globally mocked, is oddly heartening. In our volatile world, here is something we can rely on: Meghan will be like this, come what may. We will always know what to expect with her.
If you're still not buying her brand, a reminder that will surely come as a reassurance: you don't have to. The UK has abolished the draft anymore, and were it to return, it would be unlikely to include viewing With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. If, conversely, you choose to watch and are consumed by jealousy about her flawless Christmas, you can take solace either. If you are a duchess or a data administrator, hardly any child truly appreciates the dedication and labor their mother does in December. So you can console yourself by imagining 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.
