Yes, it's Packed with Absurdity, Over-the-Top Hospitality and Psychobabble. But I Do Adore Meghan's Holiday Special.
No considering the time of year, it's constantly hunting season for scrutiny on the Meghan Markle's televisual offering, With Love, Meghan. Critics, expert and amateur alike, have seldom found such common ground as when enthusiastically shredding the lifestyle show's earlier episodes to shreds. The general consensus was that a greater royal outrage had never been witnessed than the now-infamous pretzel-bagging incident.
Presently, like a merry renegade master, she makes a comeback with a new offering with a "Holiday Celebration" (also known as a Christmas special). But this time, it's different. The familiar ingredients we've come to expect – vague self-help platitudes, extreme hosting – are still present, but framed of a holiday show, it all clicks into place. The puzzle has come into place; it's a ideal seasonal storm.
By this point, Meghan is like the eccentric aunt at Christmas celebrations everywhere – providing random tips, and delivering 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 presence is familiar and oddly reassuring. And she seems happy enough; she's causing a bit of damage.
She knows her each tiny facial movement, syllable and gaze will be picked apart and judged, but manages to seem unburdened and remarkably at ease.
It could be this is the first occasion in history where that well-worn saying – "Pay no mind, it's only envy" – might be true. The reason is, you know what?, everything in Meghan's Holiday Celebration is charming. Yes, it's all cringily ultra-extra, foolishness and flamboyant – but isn't that exactly what the holiday season is about? And the talk she's talking might be laughable, but the example she sets seems authentically impeccably styled.
Anything she turns her beautifully manicured, diamond-adorned hand to, she accomplishes with style. Her recipes looks scrumptious, the wreath she creates is stunning, her presents are practically too exquisite to tear into. Nothing is ordinary or aesthetically displeasing – even the way she fastens her apron is creative and fashionable. She doesn't bung a meal in the microwave, it "goes for a spin", and she folds gift paper like an craft master. She also seems to be completely savoring herself throughout. How could any skeptical viewer not be convinced, overcome by holiday spirit and left with a deep longing for personalized Christmas crackers or a crudites platter where broccoli is arranged in the form of a festive circle?
Meghan had a career in acting for a living, of course, but despite that, after the degree of scrutiny she has weathered from the moment she started dating Prince Harry, even a hypothetical offspring of Meryl Streep and Judi Dench would struggle to act this naturally. Her refusal to change or even moderate her routine, regardless of it being so persistently, internationally ridiculed, is strangely reassuring. In our unpredictable world, here is one thing we can count on: Meghan will stay true to form, come what may. We will always know where we are with her.
If you're still not buying what she's selling, a reminder that will undoubtedly come as a relief: you aren't required to. We don't have the draft in this country, and were it to return, 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 longing about her picture-perfect Christmas, all is not lost either. If you are a royal or a office worker, no kid completely grasps the effort and hard work their mum expends in December. So you can console yourself by picturing Archie and Lilibet's faces when they open a calligraphy note that says, 'I love you because you are brave,' from a homemade Advent calendar, rather than a chocolate.
