Yes, it's Brimming with Nonsense, Over-the-Top Hospitality and Self-Help Jargon. Yet I Truly Cherish Meghan's Festive Episode.
No concerned with the season, it's always fair game for scrutiny on the Duchess of Sussex's Netflix series, With Love, Meghan. Commentators, from seasoned journalists to online pundits, have seldom found such common ground as when gleefully ripping the series' first and second seasons apart. The prevailing view held that a more egregious regal scandal had seldom occurred than the now-infamous snack re-labeling incident.
Now, like a merry renegade master, she makes a comeback for another round with a "Festive Special" (aka a holiday episode). However on this occasion, the dynamic has changed. The standard components we've come to expect – meaningless jargon salads, intense hospitality – persist, but within the context of a holiday show, the purpose becomes clear. The elements have slid together; it's a perfect snow storm.
By this point, Meghan is like the quirky relative at most festive family gatherings – dispensing unasked-for guidance, and delivering 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 aura is known and oddly reassuring. And she looks happy enough; she's causing the slightest hurt.
She understands her each tiny facial movement, utterance and look will be picked apart and scrutinized, but manages to seem relaxed and too blessed to be stressed.
It could be this is the only time in history where that old chestnut – "Pay no mind, it's only envy" – may well be true. Since, in all honesty, each element in Meghan's Holiday Celebration truly is charming. Granted, it's all awkwardly over-the-top, foolishness and over the top – but isn't that exactly what Yuletide is about? And the advice she gives might be ridiculous, but the life she leads appears to be impeccably styled.
Whatever she sets her mind to, she pulls off with panache. Her cooking looks scrumptious, the wreath she makes is stunning, her presents are almost too pretty to tear into. Not a single thing is ordinary or visually unappealing – including the way she secures her apron is creative and fashionable. She doesn't throw a dish in the microwave, it "goes for a spin", and she creases wrapping paper like an craft master. She also seems to be completely savoring herself throughout. How could any skeptical viewer not be won over, filled with holiday spirit and left with a intense desire for handmade crackers or a crudites platter where greens is positioned in the likeness of a Christmas ring?
Meghan had a career in acting for a living, of course, but nonetheless, after the intensity of attention she has faced since she became involved with Prince Harry, the love child of Meryl Streep and Judi Dench would struggle to act this authentically. Her unwillingness to change or even tone down her persona, regardless of it being so persistently, widely parodied, is oddly heartening. In our unpredictable world, here is one thing we can rely on: Meghan will remain herself, no matter what. We will consistently know where we are with her.
If you're not yet convinced by what she's selling, a reminder that will surely come as a reassurance: you don't have to. We don't have the draft in this country, and were it to return, it would be improbable to include watching With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. If, however, you willingly check it out and are gripped with envy about her picture-perfect Christmas, all is not lost either. Whether you're a duchess or a data administrator, no kid fully understands the dedication and labor their mother expends in the holiday season. So you can take heart by imagining 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, rather than a candy.
