Admittedly, it's Brimming with Nonsense, Extreme Hosting and Psychobabble. However, I Honestly Cherish Meghan's Festive Episode.
No matter the season, it's perpetually open season for commentary on the Meghan Markle's televisual offering, With Love, Meghan. Critics, from seasoned journalists to online pundits, have hardly ever agreed so completely as when eagerly tearing the series' earlier episodes apart. The general consensus held that a more egregious regal scandal had hardly ever taken place than the notorious pretzel re-packaging incident.
Now, like a merry renegade master, she makes a comeback once again with a "Festive Special" (or a holiday episode). Yet now, the dynamic has changed. The standard components we've come to expect – vague self-help platitudes, overzealous entertaining – are still present, but framed of a yuletide episode, it all clicks into place. The elements have slid together; it's a ideal seasonal storm.
By this point, Meghan is like the eccentric aunt at the typical holiday get-together – offering unasked-for guidance, 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 a bit of a character, but her company is customary and strangely comforting. And she appears happy enough; she's causing the slightest hurt.
She understands her every micro expression, word and look will be analyzed and criticised, but nonetheless looks unburdened and remarkably at ease.
Maybe this is the initial instance in history where that old chestnut – "Ignore them, they're just jealous" – might be true. Since, let's face it, all aspects in Meghan's Holiday Celebration truly is charming. Admittedly, it's all painfully excessive, foolishness and extravagant – but isn't that just what Yuletide is about? And the talk she's talking might be ridiculous, but the example she sets seems authentically beautifully curated.
Anything she attempts, she executes with style. Her recipes looks delicious, the holiday arrangement she creates is gorgeous, her presents are practically too exquisite to unwrap. Nothing is ordinary or ugly – including the way she ties her apron is creative and fashionable. She doesn't throw a dish in the microwave, it "takes a twirl", and she folds wrapping paper like an craft master. She also seems to be genuinely relishing herself throughout. How could any skeptical viewer not be won over, bursting with holiday spirit and left with a intense desire for crafted festive snaps or a crudites platter where broccoli is arranged in the likeness of a festive circle?
Meghan used to pretend for a living, obviously, but even so, after the degree of examination she has endured from the moment she became involved with Prince Harry, a theoretical combination of Meryl Streep and Judi Dench would have difficulty behaving this naturally. Her unwillingness to modify or even tone down her shtick, even though it being so persistently, globally mocked, is weirdly comforting. In our volatile world, here is one thing we can depend on: Meghan will be like this, no matter what. We will consistently know where we are with her.
If you're not yet convinced by what she's selling, a thought that will undoubtedly come as a reassurance: you don't have to. We don't have mandatory conscription these days, and should it be reinstated, it would be improbable to include viewing With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. If, however, you willingly check it out and are overcome with longing about her flawless Christmas, there is hope either. If you are a duchess or a office worker, no kid truly appreciates the effort and hard work their mother puts in in the holiday season. So you can find comfort by picturing her children's faces when they reveal a handwritten message that says, 'I love you because you are brave,' from a handcrafted holiday countdown, in place of a sweet treat.
