Indeed, it's Full of Nonsense, Extreme Hosting and Psychobabble. However, I Honestly Love Meghan's Festive Episode.
No considering the season, it's constantly fair game for commentary on the Duchess of Sussex's TV show, With Love, Meghan. Critics, expert and amateur alike, have rarely been so united as when eagerly tearing the lifestyle show's initial installments to pieces. The general consensus seemed to be a more egregious regal scandal had seldom occurred than the notorious pretzel-bagging incident.
Currently, like a merry renegade master, she is back once again with a "Festive Special" (also known as a holiday episode). Yet now, the dynamic has changed. The standard components viewers are accustomed to – vague self-help platitudes, extreme hosting – are still present, but set of a Christmas special, it all clicks into place. The pieces have fallen perfectly; it's a ideal seasonal storm.
By this point, Meghan is like the eccentric aunt at most festive family gatherings – dispensing unsolicited, unnecessary advice, 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 an interesting figure, but her presence is familiar and strangely comforting. And she looks pleased; she's inflicting a bit of damage.
She understands her each tiny facial movement, utterance and gaze will be analyzed and judged, but nonetheless looks carefree and remarkably at ease.
Perhaps this is the only time in history where that clichéd phrase – "Ignore them, they're just jealous" – may well be true. Since, in all honesty, everything in Meghan's Holiday Celebration truly is charming. Granted, it's all cringily ultra-extra, foolishness and flamboyant – but is that not exactly what the holiday season is for? And the advice she gives might be absurd, but the life she leads appears to be impeccably styled.
Anything she turns her beautifully manicured, diamond-adorned hand to, she executes with panache. Her culinary efforts looks scrumptious, the wreath she makes is breathtaking, her presents are nearly too beautiful to tear into. Not a single thing is average or visually unappealing – including the way she ties her kitchen garment is stylish and elegant. She doesn't throw a meal in the oven, it "takes a twirl", and she folds wrapping paper like an paper-folding expert. She also seems to be completely savoring herself throughout. How could any cynical observer not be won over, bursting with seasonal cheer and left with a powerful yearning for handmade crackers or a vegetable display where broccoli is organized in the form of a festive circle?
Meghan had a career in acting for a living, naturally, but despite that, after the intensity of scrutiny she has faced from the moment she started dating Prince Harry, a theoretical combination of acting royalty would find it hard to appear this authentically. Her refusal to alter or even moderate her routine, even though it being so relentlessly, internationally ridiculed, is weirdly comforting. In our volatile world, here is something we can rely on: Meghan will remain herself, come what may. We will always know where we are with her.
If you're still not buying her brand, a point that will certainly come as a relief: you aren't required to. The UK has abolished the draft these days, and if there were, it would be improbable to include watching With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. If, on the other hand, you choose to watch and are gripped with envy about her idyllic Christmas, all is not lost either. Be you a duchess or a everyday person, no kid truly appreciates the time and energy their mother expends in the holiday season. So you can console yourself by envisioning the young royals' faces when they reveal a calligraphy note that says, 'I love you because you are brave,' from a DIY festive calendar, instead of a sweet treat.
