Admittedly, it's Full of Nonsense, Over-the-Top Hospitality and Self-Help Jargon. However, I Honestly Adore Meghan's Holiday Special.
No concerned with the season, it's constantly open season for commentary on the Duchess of Sussex's televisual offering, With Love, Meghan. Critics, from seasoned journalists to online pundits, have seldom found such common ground as when enthusiastically shredding the series' initial installments apart. The prevailing view was that a more egregious regal scandal had hardly ever taken place than the now-infamous pretzel re-packaging incident.
Presently, in the spirit of a holiday maverick, she is back once again with a "Christmas Special" (or a holiday episode). However on this occasion, things have shifted. The familiar ingredients audiences anticipate – psychobabble word salads, extreme hosting – are still present, but set of a Christmas special, it all clicks into place. The puzzle has come into place; it's a ideal seasonal storm.
At this stage, Meghan resembles the oddball family member at the typical holiday get-together – dispensing unsolicited, unnecessary advice, and delivering the odd random outburst. ("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 presence is familiar and oddly reassuring. And she looks happy enough; she's causing the slightest hurt.
She knows her all subtle gestures, utterance and glance will be analyzed and judged, but manages to seem unburdened and remarkably at ease.
Perhaps this is the initial instance in history where that clichéd phrase – "Pay no mind, it's only envy" – might be true. The reason is, let's face it, all aspects in Meghan's Holiday Celebration truly is delightful. Granted, it's all cringily ultra-extra, foolishness and over the top – but doesn't that represent precisely what Yuletide is about? And the words she speaks might be laughable, but the walk she's walking genuinely looks shop-bought.
Anything she turns her beautifully manicured, diamond-adorned hand to, she pulls off with flair. Her cooking looks tasty, the wreath she makes is breathtaking, her gifts are almost too pretty to open. Not a single thing is mediocre or ugly – including the way she fastens her apron is creative and fashionable. She doesn't bung a meal in the microwave, it "takes a twirl", and she wraps wrapping paper like an craft master. She also seems to be thoroughly enjoying herself the entire time. How could any hate-watcher not be won over, filled with seasonal cheer and left with a powerful yearning for handmade crackers or a crudites platter where greens is positioned in the likeness of a Christmas ring?
Meghan was once an actress for a living, naturally, but even so, after the level of attention she has weathered ever since she became involved with Prince Harry, the love child of acting royalty would find it hard to appear this authentically. Her decision to change or even moderate her routine, regardless of it being so constantly, widely parodied, is strangely reassuring. In our unpredictable world, here is something we can rely on: Meghan will be like this, no matter what. We will forever know what to expect with her.
If you're not yet convinced by her brand, a point that will certainly come as a relief: you don't have to. There isn't the draft anymore, and were it to return, it would be improbable to include watching With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. If, conversely, you willingly check it out and are consumed by longing about her picture-perfect Christmas, all is not lost either. Be you a royal or a office worker, no kid completely grasps the time and energy their parent expends in December. So you can console yourself by envisioning her children's faces when they unfold a beautifully scripted letter that says, 'I love you because you are brave,' from a handcrafted holiday countdown, rather than a candy.
