Yes, it's Packed with Absurdity, Over-the-Top Hospitality and Psychobabble. However, I Honestly Adore Meghan's Holiday Special.
No concerned with the time of year, it's always hunting season for scrutiny on the Meghan Markle's TV show, With Love, Meghan. Reviewers, both professional and armchair, have seldom found such common ground as when enthusiastically shredding the series' earlier episodes to shreds. The common opinion seemed to be a bigger monarchy-related faux pas had hardly ever taken place than the much-discussed pretzel-bagging incident.
Presently, like a merry renegade master, she makes a comeback for another round with a "Holiday Celebration" (aka a Christmas special). But this time, things have shifted. The familiar ingredients audiences anticipate – meaningless jargon salads, overzealous entertaining – remain, but within the context of a Christmas special, it all clicks into place. The pieces have fallen together; it's a perfect snow storm.
At this stage, Meghan is like the eccentric aunt at Christmas celebrations everywhere – dispensing random tips, and supplying the occasional strange exclamation. ("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 unexpectedly soothing. And she looks content; she's inflicting a bit of damage.
She understands her each tiny facial movement, syllable and look will be picked apart and judged, but still appears unburdened and serenely untroubled.
It could be this is the only time in history where that well-worn saying – "Ignore them, they're just jealous" – might be true. Since, let's face it, everything in Meghan's Holiday Celebration truly is charming. Granted, it's all painfully excessive, silliness and over the top – but doesn't that represent precisely what the holiday season is for? And the talk she's talking might be absurd, but the life she leads seems authentically impeccably styled.
Anything she turns her beautifully manicured, diamond-adorned hand to, she pulls off with style. Her recipes looks scrumptious, the festive decoration she creates is gorgeous, her presents are almost too pretty to tear into. Not a single thing is ordinary or aesthetically displeasing – including the way she secures her apron is stylish and elegant. She doesn't throw a dish in the microwave, it "takes a twirl", and she creases gift paper like an origami guru. She also seems to be thoroughly enjoying herself throughout. How could any skeptical viewer not be convinced, overcome by festive joy and left with a intense desire for handmade crackers or a vegetable display where greens is organized in the form of a Christmas ring?
Meghan used to pretend for a living, of course, but even so, after the level of attention she has endured ever since she started dating Prince Harry, the love child of Meryl Streep and Judi Dench would find it hard to appear this naturally. Her refusal to change or even soften her persona, regardless of it being so relentlessly, internationally ridiculed, is strangely reassuring. In our volatile world, here is something we can count on: Meghan will remain herself, no matter what. We will forever know where we are with her.
If you're still not buying her brand, a thought that will certainly come as a comfort: you don't have to. The UK has abolished national service 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 overcome with longing about her idyllic Christmas, you can take solace either. If you are a royal or a data administrator, no kid fully understands the effort and hard work their mother expends in December. So you can find comfort by envisioning Archie and Lilibet's faces when they reveal a beautifully scripted letter that says, 'I love you because you are brave,' from a handcrafted holiday countdown, instead of a sweet treat.
