Yes, it's Packed with Nonsense, Over-the-Top Hospitality and Psychobabble. But I Do Cherish Meghan's Holiday Special.
No concerned with the season, it's always fair game for commentary on the Meghan Markle's Netflix series, With Love, Meghan. Commentators, both professional and armchair, have seldom found such common ground as when enthusiastically shredding the program's first and second seasons apart. The general consensus seemed to be a greater royal outrage had seldom occurred than the notorious pretzel re-packaging incident.
Presently, in the spirit of a holiday maverick, she is back once again with a "Holiday Celebration" (also known as a Christmas special). Yet now, things have shifted. The familiar ingredients viewers are accustomed to – meaningless jargon salads, overzealous entertaining – remain, but set of a Christmas special, it all clicks into place. The elements have slid together; it's a flawless festive blizzard.
At this stage, Meghan has become the oddball family member 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 an interesting figure, but her aura is known and unexpectedly soothing. And she looks content; she's not doing the slightest hurt.
She knows her all subtle gestures, syllable and glance will be analyzed and judged, but manages to seem relaxed and remarkably at ease.
It could be this is the initial instance in history where that old chestnut – "Pay no mind, it's only envy" – may well be true. Since, let's face it, everything in Meghan's Holiday Celebration honestly feels delightful. Yes, it's all cringily ultra-extra, nonsense and over the top – but is that not just what the holiday season is for? And the words she speaks might be absurd, but the walk she's walking seems authentically shop-bought.
Anything she attempts, she accomplishes with flair. Her recipes looks scrumptious, the festive decoration she crafts is breathtaking, her gifts are nearly too beautiful to open. Nothing is average or visually unappealing – including the way she secures her kitchen garment is artful and chic. She doesn't toss a dish in the oven, it "has a moment", and she creases gift paper like an craft master. She also seems to be genuinely relishing herself the entire time. How could any cynical observer not be charmed, overcome by festive joy and left with a powerful yearning for handmade crackers or a vegetable display where broccoli is positioned in the form of a Christmas ring?
Meghan had a career in acting for a living, naturally, but nonetheless, after the intensity of examination she has faced since she became involved with Prince Harry, the love child of two legendary actresses would have difficulty behaving this naturally. Her refusal to alter or even soften her routine, regardless of it being so relentlessly, internationally ridiculed, is strangely reassuring. In our uncertain world, here is something we can depend on: Meghan will stay true to form, whatever happens. We will forever know our position with her.
If you're remaining skeptical of what she's selling, a reminder that will surely come as a reassurance: you don't have to. There isn't national service these days, and were it to return, it would be improbable to include streaming With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. If, conversely, you willingly check it out and are overcome with longing about her picture-perfect Christmas, you can take solace either. If you are a duchess or a office worker, few children completely grasps the time and energy their mum puts in in December. So you can take heart by imagining the young royals' faces when they open a calligraphy note that says, 'I love you because you are brave,' from a homemade Advent calendar, instead of a candy.
