Admittedly, it's Brimming with Absurdity, Over-the-Top Hospitality and Self-Help Jargon. Yet I Truly Adore Meghan's Festive Episode.
No concerned with the time of year, it's always hunting season for commentary on the Duchess of Sussex's TV show, With Love, Meghan. Critics, both professional and armchair, have seldom found such common ground as when gleefully ripping the series' first and second seasons to pieces. The prevailing view seemed to be a bigger monarchy-related faux pas had never been witnessed than the now-infamous snack re-labeling incident.
Currently, like a merry renegade master, she is back with a new offering with a "Festive Special" (aka a holiday episode). However on this occasion, the dynamic has changed. The standard components audiences anticipate – psychobabble word salads, overzealous entertaining – persist, but within the context of a yuletide episode, suddenly it all makes sense. The pieces have fallen together; it's a perfect snow storm.
By this point, Meghan is like the quirky relative at Christmas celebrations everywhere – providing random tips, 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 strangely comforting. And she looks happy enough; she's causing a bit of damage.
She knows her each tiny facial movement, word and look will be analyzed and judged, but nonetheless looks relaxed and remarkably at ease.
Maybe this is the initial instance in history where that old chestnut – "Don't listen, it's pure jealousy" – could actually be true. Because, you know what?, each element in Meghan's Holiday Celebration truly is delightful. Granted, it's all awkwardly over-the-top, foolishness and extravagant – but isn't that just what Christmas is for? And the talk she's talking might be ridiculous, but the walk she's walking appears to be impeccably styled.
Anything she turns her beautifully manicured, diamond-adorned hand to, she executes with style. Her culinary efforts looks scrumptious, the festive decoration she crafts is stunning, her presents are almost too pretty to open. Not a single thing is ordinary or ugly – even the way she fastens her kitchen garment is creative and fashionable. She doesn't toss a meal in the oven, it "has a moment", and she creases gift paper like an craft master. She also seems to be completely savoring herself the entire time. How could any skeptical viewer not be won over, overcome by holiday spirit and left with a intense desire for handmade crackers or a vegetable display where greens is positioned in the form of a festive circle?
Meghan used to pretend for a living, naturally, but despite that, after the intensity of scrutiny she has endured from the moment she met Prince Harry, a theoretical combination of two legendary actresses would have difficulty behaving this naturally. Her unwillingness to change or even moderate her routine, even though it being so constantly, internationally ridiculed, is weirdly comforting. In our volatile world, here is something we can depend on: Meghan will remain herself, come what may. We will forever know our position with her.
If you're remaining skeptical of her brand, a thought that will undoubtedly come as a reassurance: you are not obligated to. We don't have mandatory conscription these days, and were it to return, it would be unlikely to include streaming With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. If, on the other hand, you decide to tune in and are gripped with longing about her picture-perfect Christmas, you can take solace either. Whether you're a duchess or a data administrator, hardly any child fully understands the time and energy their mother puts in in the holiday season. So you can find comfort by imagining her children's faces when they reveal a calligraphy note that says, 'I love you because you are brave,' from a homemade Advent calendar, rather than a candy.
