Yes, it's Full of Nonsense, Extreme Hosting and Psychobabble. However, I Honestly Love Meghan's Christmas Special.
No matter the time of year, it's perpetually open season for criticism on the Duchess of Sussex's TV show, With Love, Meghan. Critics, expert and amateur alike, have seldom found such common ground as when gleefully ripping the lifestyle show's first and second seasons to shreds. The common opinion held that a more egregious regal scandal had seldom occurred than the notorious pretzel re-packaging incident.
Now, like a merry renegade master, she is back with a new offering with a "Christmas Special" (also known as a yuletide episode). But this time, the dynamic has changed. The standard components viewers are accustomed to – vague self-help platitudes, overzealous entertaining – persist, but within the context of a holiday show, it all clicks into place. The elements have slid into place; it's a ideal seasonal storm.
By this point, Meghan has become the quirky relative at most festive family gatherings – 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 quite a personality, but her aura is known and oddly reassuring. And she seems happy enough; she's causing any harm.
She understands her all subtle gestures, syllable and look will be picked apart and judged, but nonetheless looks relaxed and serenely untroubled.
It could be this is the first occasion in history where that clichéd phrase – "Ignore them, they're just jealous" – might be true. Since, you know what?, everything in Meghan's Holiday Celebration is lovely. Admittedly, it's all cringily ultra-extra, foolishness and extravagant – but isn't that exactly what the holiday season is all about? And the words she speaks might be absurd, but the life she leads appears to be shop-bought.
Whatever she turns her beautifully manicured, diamond-adorned hand to, she executes with flair. Her cooking looks scrumptious, the wreath she makes is stunning, her gifts are practically too exquisite to tear into. Not a single thing is mediocre or visually unappealing – including the way she ties her kitchen garment is creative and fashionable. She doesn't bung a meal in the oven, it "takes a twirl", and she wraps wrapping paper like an origami guru. She also seems to be thoroughly enjoying herself the entire time. How could any cynical observer not be won over, filled with seasonal cheer and left with a intense desire for crafted festive snaps or a vegetable display where greens is organized in the shape of a wreath?
Meghan used to pretend for a living, obviously, but nonetheless, after the intensity of examination she has weathered from the moment she became involved with Prince Harry, the love child of two legendary actresses would find it hard to appear this genuinely. Her refusal to change or even moderate her persona, despite it being so persistently, widely parodied, is weirdly comforting. In our volatile world, here is something we can rely on: Meghan will stay true to form, whatever happens. We will consistently know our position with her.
If you're still not buying her brand, a point that will certainly come as a reassurance: you are not obligated to. The UK has abolished mandatory conscription anymore, and if there were, it would be improbable to include watching With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. If, conversely, you choose to watch and are consumed by jealousy about her idyllic Christmas, all is not lost either. If you are a royal or a office worker, no kid fully understands the effort and hard work their parent puts in in December. So you can take heart by imagining 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 chocolate.
