Indeed, it's Packed with Nonsense, Extreme Hosting and Self-Help Jargon. However, I Honestly Cherish Meghan's Christmas Special.
No matter the season, it's always open season for scrutiny on the Meghan Markle's TV show, With Love, Meghan. Reviewers, expert and amateur alike, have seldom found such common ground as when eagerly tearing the program's earlier episodes apart. The general consensus seemed to be a more egregious regal scandal had hardly ever taken place than the much-discussed pretzel re-packaging incident.
Presently, as a festive rebel, she has returned with a new offering with a "Holiday Celebration" (also known as a holiday episode). However on this occasion, the dynamic has changed. The standard components we've come to expect – psychobabble word salads, extreme hosting – remain, but set of a Christmas special, the purpose becomes clear. The elements have slid together; it's a flawless festive blizzard.
At this stage, Meghan is like the quirky relative at Christmas celebrations everywhere – providing unsolicited, unnecessary advice, 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 an interesting figure, but her company is customary and strangely comforting. And she looks happy enough; she's inflicting the slightest hurt.
She understands her all subtle gestures, utterance and gaze will be analyzed and criticised, but manages to seem unburdened and remarkably at ease.
It could be this is the first occasion in history where that clichéd phrase – "Pay no mind, it's only envy" – may well be true. The reason is, you know what?, everything in Meghan's Holiday Celebration is charming. Admittedly, it's all painfully excessive, nonsense and over the top – but is that not exactly what the holiday season is for? And the advice she gives might be ridiculous, but the walk she's walking seems authentically shop-bought.
Anything she attempts, she pulls off with panache. Her culinary efforts looks delicious, the holiday arrangement she crafts is breathtaking, her presents are nearly too beautiful to unwrap. Not a single thing is mediocre or visually unappealing – including the way she fastens her apron is creative and fashionable. She doesn't bung a dish in the microwave, it "has a moment", and she wraps wrapping paper like an craft master. She also seems to be genuinely relishing herself from start to finish. How could any hate-watcher not be charmed, overcome by holiday spirit and left with a deep longing for personalized Christmas crackers or a vegetable display where greens is arranged in the likeness of a festive circle?
Meghan used to pretend for a living, of course, but even so, after the intensity of attention she has endured since she started dating Prince Harry, a theoretical combination of two legendary actresses would find it hard to appear this authentically. Her refusal to alter or even moderate her routine, despite it being so constantly, widely parodied, is oddly heartening. In our unpredictable world, here is one thing we can rely on: Meghan will remain herself, come what may. We will consistently know our position with her.
If you're still not buying her message, a thought that will surely come as a comfort: you don't have to. There isn't national service anymore, and were it to return, it would be doubtful to include watching With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. If, however, you choose to watch and are consumed by envy about her idyllic Christmas, you can take solace either. Be you a duchess or a office worker, no kid truly appreciates the dedication and labor their mother does in December. So you can take heart by envisioning the young royals' 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.
