Yes, it's Full of Nonsense, Over-the-Top Hospitality and Psychobabble. However, I Honestly Love Meghan's Festive Episode.
No matter the time of year, it's perpetually fair game for scrutiny on the Meghan Markle's televisual offering, With Love, Meghan. Commentators, both professional and armchair, have hardly ever agreed so completely as when eagerly tearing the series' initial installments to pieces. The common opinion was that a more egregious regal scandal had never been witnessed than the now-infamous pretzel re-packaging incident.
Currently, like a merry renegade master, she is back for another round with a "Holiday Celebration" (aka a Christmas special). But this time, it's different. The standard components audiences anticipate – vague self-help platitudes, extreme hosting – persist, but within the context of a yuletide episode, suddenly it all makes sense. The puzzle has come together; it's a ideal seasonal storm.
By this point, Meghan is like the eccentric aunt at most festive family gatherings – offering random tips, and supplying 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 a bit of a character, but her presence is familiar and strangely comforting. And she appears content; she's causing any harm.
She is aware her every micro expression, utterance and look will be dissected and scrutinized, but still appears relaxed and serenely untroubled.
Maybe this is the first occasion in history where that clichéd phrase – "Pay no mind, it's only envy" – might be true. The reason is, you know what?, all aspects in Meghan's Holiday Celebration is delightful. Admittedly, it's all painfully excessive, nonsense and extravagant – but doesn't that represent precisely what the holiday season is all about? And the talk she's talking might be ridiculous, but the example she sets appears to be shop-bought.
Whatever she sets her mind to, she executes with panache. Her cooking looks scrumptious, the wreath she makes is gorgeous, her presents are practically too exquisite to unwrap. Nothing is mediocre or ugly – even the way she fastens her apron is creative and fashionable. She doesn't throw a dish in the oven, it "has a moment", and she folds wrapping paper like an origami guru. She also seems to be genuinely relishing herself from start to finish. How could any hate-watcher not be convinced, filled with festive joy and left with a powerful yearning for personalized Christmas crackers or a vegetable display where broccoli is organized in the likeness of a Christmas ring?
Meghan was once an actress for a living, obviously, but nonetheless, after the intensity of examination she has faced ever since she met Prince Harry, even a hypothetical offspring of acting royalty would find it hard to appear this naturally. Her decision to modify or even soften her shtick, even though it being so persistently, internationally ridiculed, is weirdly comforting. In our unpredictable world, here is something we can depend on: Meghan will remain herself, come what may. We will forever know where we are with her.
If you're remaining skeptical of her brand, a point that will certainly come as a comfort: you are not obligated to. The UK has abolished the draft these days, and if there were, it would be unlikely to include watching With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. If, on the other hand, you willingly check it out and are consumed by longing about her flawless Christmas, all is not lost either. If you are a royal or a data administrator, no kid fully understands the time and energy their mother expends in the holiday season. So you can find comfort by picturing the young royals' faces when they unfold a calligraphy note that says, 'I love you because you are brave,' from a homemade Advent calendar, instead of a chocolate.
