Admittedly, it's Brimming with Gibberish, Extreme Hosting and Psychobabble. However, I Honestly Adore Meghan's Holiday Special.
No considering the season, it's perpetually fair game for criticism on the Meghan Markle's televisual offering, With Love, Meghan. Critics, expert and amateur alike, have seldom found such common ground as when gleefully ripping the program's first and second seasons to pieces. The prevailing view held that a more egregious regal scandal had hardly ever taken place than the notorious snack re-labeling incident.
Now, in the spirit of a holiday maverick, she has returned with a new offering with a "Holiday Celebration" (or a yuletide episode). But this time, things have shifted. The familiar ingredients viewers are accustomed to – psychobabble word salads, intense hospitality – persist, but set of a Christmas special, it all clicks into place. The pieces have fallen perfectly; it's a flawless festive blizzard.
By this point, Meghan resembles the oddball family member at the typical holiday get-together – 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 content; she's causing any harm.
She knows her all subtle gestures, utterance and look will be picked apart and criticised, but manages to seem carefree and remarkably at ease.
Perhaps this is the only time in history where that old chestnut – "Pay no mind, it's only envy" – may well be true. Because, you know what?, all aspects in Meghan's Holiday Celebration truly is lovely. Granted, it's all cringily ultra-extra, nonsense and flamboyant – but doesn't that represent precisely what the holiday season is all about? And the talk she's talking might be ridiculous, but the life she leads appears to be impeccably styled.
Whatever she turns her beautifully manicured, diamond-adorned hand to, she executes with style. Her recipes looks tasty, the wreath she creates is gorgeous, her presents are almost too pretty to tear into. Nothing is average or ugly – even the way she secures her apron is creative and fashionable. She doesn't bung a meal in the microwave, it "takes a twirl", and she folds wrapping paper like an craft master. She also seems to be completely savoring herself from start to finish. How could any skeptical viewer not be charmed, overcome by holiday spirit and left with a intense desire for personalized Christmas crackers or a crudites platter where broccoli is arranged in the likeness of a Christmas ring?
Meghan had a career in acting for a living, of course, but even so, after the level of scrutiny she has weathered ever since she met Prince Harry, even a hypothetical offspring of two legendary actresses would have difficulty behaving this authentically. Her refusal to alter or even tone down her routine, despite it being so constantly, globally mocked, is weirdly comforting. In our unpredictable world, here is something we can rely on: Meghan will be like this, come what may. We will always know our position with her.
If you're still not buying her brand, a thought that will surely come as a comfort: you don't have to. The UK has abolished mandatory conscription in this country, and if there were, it would be doubtful to include watching With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. If, conversely, you willingly check it out and are consumed by envy about her idyllic Christmas, you can take solace either. Whether you're a royal or a everyday person, hardly any child completely grasps the time and energy their parent does in December. So you can find comfort by imagining Archie and Lilibet's faces when they reveal a calligraphy note that says, 'I love you because you are brave,' from a handcrafted holiday countdown, instead of a chocolate.
