Yes, it's Full of Gibberish, Over-the-Top Hospitality and Psychobabble. Yet I Truly Love Meghan's Holiday Special.
No concerned with the time of year, it's always fair game for scrutiny on the Meghan Markle's Netflix series, With Love, Meghan. Critics, expert and amateur alike, have hardly ever agreed so completely as when gleefully ripping the series' initial installments to pieces. The prevailing view was that a more egregious regal scandal had hardly ever taken place than the now-infamous pretzel-bagging incident.
Now, like a merry renegade master, she has returned for another round with a "Festive Special" (or a holiday episode). However on this occasion, things have shifted. The familiar ingredients viewers are accustomed to – psychobabble word salads, overzealous entertaining – are still present, but within the context of a holiday show, suddenly it all makes sense. The pieces have fallen perfectly; it's a ideal seasonal storm.
Now, Meghan has become the oddball family member at the typical holiday get-together – dispensing unasked-for guidance, and supplying 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 quite a personality, but her company is customary and unexpectedly soothing. And she seems happy enough; she's not doing any harm.
She is aware her each tiny facial movement, word and glance will be analyzed and scrutinized, but nonetheless looks relaxed and serenely untroubled.
Maybe this is the only time in history where that clichéd phrase – "Ignore them, they're just jealous" – may well be true. Since, let's face it, all aspects in Meghan's Holiday Celebration honestly feels delightful. Yes, it's all painfully excessive, nonsense and flamboyant – but is that not just what the holiday season is about? And the words she speaks might be ridiculous, but the walk she's walking genuinely looks beautifully curated.
Anything she sets her mind to, she executes with flair. Her cooking looks scrumptious, the holiday arrangement she makes is gorgeous, her presents are nearly too beautiful to unwrap. Not a single thing is mediocre or aesthetically displeasing – even the way she secures her kitchen garment is creative and fashionable. She doesn't throw a meal in the microwave, it "has a moment", and she folds gift paper like an craft master. She also seems to be genuinely relishing herself throughout. How could any hate-watcher not be charmed, overcome by holiday spirit and left with a powerful yearning for personalized Christmas crackers or a crudites platter where broccoli is arranged in the shape of a festive circle?
Meghan was once an actress for a living, of course, but even so, after the intensity of attention she has weathered since she started dating Prince Harry, a theoretical combination of acting royalty would find it hard to appear this authentically. Her decision to change or even soften her persona, even though it being so persistently, internationally ridiculed, is oddly heartening. In our unpredictable world, here is one thing we can depend on: Meghan will be like this, whatever happens. We will consistently know what to expect with her.
If you're remaining skeptical of her message, a thought that will undoubtedly come as a reassurance: you don't have to. There isn't the draft in this country, and were it to return, it would be improbable to include watching With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. If, however, you decide to tune in and are overcome with envy about her idyllic Christmas, you can take solace either. If you are a duchess or a data administrator, no kid fully understands the time and energy their mum does in December. So you can console yourself by envisioning Archie and Lilibet's faces when they open a beautifully scripted letter that says, 'I love you because you are brave,' from a homemade Advent calendar, in place of a candy.
