Admittedly, it's Brimming with Nonsense, Over-the-Top Hospitality and Self-Help Jargon. However, I Honestly Adore Meghan's Holiday Special.
No concerned with the season, it's constantly fair game for criticism 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 enthusiastically shredding the lifestyle show's earlier episodes to pieces. The prevailing view was that a bigger monarchy-related faux pas had never been witnessed than the notorious pretzel re-packaging incident.
Presently, as a festive rebel, she is back once again with a "Festive Special" (aka a yuletide episode). Yet now, the dynamic has changed. The familiar ingredients we've come to expect – meaningless jargon salads, intense hospitality – remain, but within the context of a yuletide episode, it all clicks into place. The pieces have fallen together; it's a flawless festive blizzard.
By this point, Meghan is like the eccentric aunt at the typical holiday get-together – offering unasked-for guidance, and contributing 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 appears content; she's inflicting any harm.
She knows her every micro expression, utterance and gaze will be analyzed and judged, but nonetheless looks unburdened and too blessed to be stressed.
Maybe this is the first occasion in history where that old chestnut – "Don't listen, it's pure jealousy" – might be true. Since, let's face it, everything in Meghan's Holiday Celebration is charming. Granted, it's all painfully excessive, silliness and over the top – but isn't that just what the holiday season is for? And the words she speaks might be ridiculous, but the walk she's walking appears to be impeccably styled.
Whatever she sets her mind to, she executes with panache. Her culinary efforts looks delicious, the holiday arrangement she creates is gorgeous, her gifts are almost too pretty to tear into. Not a single thing is mediocre or visually unappealing – including the way she fastens her kitchen garment is creative and fashionable. She doesn't toss a dish in the oven, it "takes a twirl", and she creases wrapping paper like an origami guru. She also seems to be completely savoring herself throughout. How could any cynical observer not be charmed, filled with seasonal cheer and left with a deep longing for personalized Christmas crackers or a vegetable display where broccoli is positioned in the likeness of a festive circle?
Meghan had a career in acting for a living, obviously, but even so, after the intensity of scrutiny she has endured ever since she started dating Prince Harry, the love child of two legendary actresses would find it hard to appear this naturally. Her decision to change or even tone down her persona, even though it being so relentlessly, globally mocked, is weirdly comforting. In our volatile world, here is one thing we can rely on: Meghan will stay true to form, whatever happens. We will forever know where we are with her.
If you're remaining skeptical of what she's selling, a reminder that will undoubtedly come as a comfort: you are not obligated to. There isn't mandatory conscription these days, and were it to return, it would be unlikely to include viewing With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. If, however, you willingly check it out and are consumed by longing about her picture-perfect Christmas, you can take solace either. Be you a royal or a office worker, no kid fully understands the dedication and labor their mother does in December. So you can find comfort by picturing Archie and Lilibet's faces when they open a calligraphy note that says, 'I love you because you are brave,' from a homemade Advent calendar, instead of a chocolate.
