Indeed, it's Brimming with Absurdity, Extreme Hosting and Self-Help Jargon. Yet I Truly Love Meghan's Holiday Special.
No considering the time of year, it's perpetually hunting season for criticism on the Duchess of Sussex's Netflix series, With Love, Meghan. Critics, both professional and armchair, have seldom found such common ground as when gleefully ripping the lifestyle show's earlier episodes to shreds. The prevailing view was that a more egregious regal scandal had never been witnessed than the notorious snack re-labeling incident.
Currently, as a festive rebel, she makes a comeback for another round with a "Christmas Special" (aka a yuletide episode). But this time, things have shifted. The standard components viewers are accustomed to – vague self-help platitudes, overzealous entertaining – remain, but framed of a Christmas special, it all clicks into place. The elements have slid together; it's a flawless festive blizzard.
Now, Meghan has become the oddball family member at the typical holiday get-together – offering unasked-for guidance, 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 an interesting figure, but her company is customary and unexpectedly soothing. And she seems content; she's not doing the slightest hurt.
She knows her all subtle gestures, utterance and gaze will be picked apart and judged, but nonetheless looks carefree and remarkably at ease.
Maybe this is the initial instance in history where that clichéd phrase – "Pay no mind, it's only envy" – might be true. Because, let's face it, everything in Meghan's Holiday Celebration honestly feels charming. Yes, it's all awkwardly over-the-top, foolishness and over the top – but doesn't that represent exactly what the holiday season is all about? And the talk she's talking might be absurd, but the example she sets seems authentically beautifully curated.
Whatever she sets her mind to, she executes with style. Her culinary efforts looks scrumptious, the festive decoration she makes is breathtaking, her presents are nearly too beautiful to unwrap. Not a single thing is mediocre or visually unappealing – even the way she secures her apron is artful and chic. She doesn't bung a meal in the oven, it "goes for a spin", and she creases wrapping paper like an craft master. She also seems to be genuinely relishing herself throughout. How could any skeptical viewer not be convinced, bursting with holiday spirit and left with a powerful yearning for handmade crackers or a vegetable display where greens is positioned in the likeness of a Christmas ring?
Meghan used to pretend for a living, of course, but despite that, after the intensity of attention she has faced since she became involved with Prince Harry, even a hypothetical offspring of acting royalty would struggle to act this authentically. Her refusal to alter or even tone down her persona, despite it being so constantly, internationally ridiculed, is oddly heartening. In our unpredictable world, here is one thing we can depend on: Meghan will be like this, come what may. We will consistently know where we are with her.
If you're still not buying her brand, a thought that will surely come as a reassurance: you don't have to. There isn't mandatory conscription in this country, and were it to return, it would be doubtful to include watching With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. If, however, you decide to tune in and are consumed by envy about her flawless Christmas, there is hope either. If you are a royal or a data administrator, no kid fully understands the time and energy their mother expends in December. So you can find comfort by envisioning the young royals' faces when they reveal a handwritten message that says, 'I love you because you are brave,' from a DIY festive calendar, instead of a candy.
