Yes, it's Packed with Absurdity, Over-the-Top Hospitality and Psychobabble. However, I Honestly Adore Meghan's Holiday Special.
No matter the season, it's constantly hunting season for scrutiny on the Meghan Markle's TV show, With Love, Meghan. Commentators, expert and amateur alike, have hardly ever agreed so completely as when gleefully ripping the lifestyle show's earlier episodes to shreds. The prevailing view held that a greater royal outrage had seldom occurred than the notorious snack re-labeling incident.
Now, like a merry renegade master, she makes a comeback for another round with a "Christmas Special" (or a Christmas special). However on this occasion, the dynamic has changed. The familiar ingredients we've come to expect – meaningless jargon salads, intense hospitality – are still present, but framed of a Christmas special, suddenly it all makes sense. The elements have slid together; it's a flawless festive blizzard.
At this stage, Meghan has become the eccentric aunt at most festive family gatherings – providing random tips, and supplying 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 a bit of a character, but her aura is known and oddly reassuring. And she seems happy enough; she's not doing any harm.
She is aware her every micro expression, word and gaze will be dissected and scrutinized, but manages to seem carefree and too blessed to be stressed.
Perhaps this is the initial instance in history where that well-worn saying – "Ignore them, they're just jealous" – could actually be true. The reason is, let's face it, each element in Meghan's Holiday Celebration is delightful. Admittedly, it's all painfully excessive, silliness and flamboyant – but isn't that just what Yuletide is about? And the words she speaks might be laughable, but the example she sets genuinely looks impeccably styled.
Whatever she turns her beautifully manicured, diamond-adorned hand to, she executes with panache. Her culinary efforts looks scrumptious, the festive decoration she makes is breathtaking, her gifts are practically too exquisite to unwrap. Nothing is average or ugly – even the way she fastens her kitchen garment is creative and fashionable. She doesn't throw a dish in the microwave, it "goes for a spin", and she wraps wrapping paper like an craft master. She also seems to be genuinely relishing herself throughout. How could any skeptical viewer not be won over, filled with holiday spirit and left with a powerful yearning for handmade crackers or a crudites platter where greens is positioned in the form of a festive circle?
Meghan was once an actress for a living, obviously, but even so, after the degree of scrutiny she has weathered since she started dating Prince Harry, even a hypothetical offspring of acting royalty would struggle to act this authentically. Her decision to alter or even soften her shtick, even though it being so relentlessly, globally mocked, is weirdly comforting. In our volatile world, here is something we can depend on: Meghan will stay true to form, come what may. We will forever know our position with her.
If you're not yet convinced by what she's selling, a thought that will surely come as a reassurance: you aren't required to. We don't have mandatory conscription in this country, and should it be reinstated, it would be improbable to include watching With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. If, on the other hand, you choose to watch and are consumed by jealousy about her idyllic Christmas, you can take solace either. Whether you're a duchess or a data administrator, few children completely grasps the effort and hard work their mother puts in in the holiday season. So you can console yourself by envisioning her children's faces when they open a calligraphy note that says, 'I love you because you are brave,' from a handcrafted holiday countdown, rather than a sweet treat.
