Indeed, it's Brimming with Gibberish, Over-the-Top Hospitality and Self-Help Jargon. However, I Honestly Love Meghan's Festive Episode.
No matter the time of year, it's constantly fair game for scrutiny on the Meghan Markle's televisual offering, With Love, Meghan. Reviewers, from seasoned journalists to online pundits, have rarely been so united as when gleefully ripping the program's initial installments to shreds. The prevailing view was that a greater royal outrage had hardly ever taken place than the notorious pretzel-bagging incident.
Currently, like a merry renegade master, she is back for another round with a "Holiday Celebration" (also known as a holiday episode). But this time, the dynamic has changed. The standard components we've come to expect – psychobabble word salads, overzealous entertaining – remain, but set of a yuletide episode, it all clicks into place. The elements have slid together; it's a flawless festive blizzard.
Now, Meghan resembles the quirky relative at the typical holiday get-together – dispensing unasked-for guidance, and supplying the occasional strange exclamation. ("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 oddly reassuring. And she looks content; she's not doing a bit of damage.
She is aware her each tiny facial movement, word and look will be dissected and criticised, but still appears carefree and remarkably at ease.
Perhaps this is the initial instance in history where that old chestnut – "Pay no mind, it's only envy" – could actually be true. Because, you know what?, all aspects in Meghan's Holiday Celebration truly is charming. Yes, it's all painfully excessive, foolishness and extravagant – but isn't that just what Christmas is for? And the words she speaks might be laughable, but the walk she's walking seems authentically impeccably styled.
Anything she sets her mind to, she pulls off with flair. Her cooking looks tasty, the holiday arrangement she creates is breathtaking, her presents are almost too pretty to open. Nothing is ordinary or aesthetically displeasing – even the way she secures her apron is creative and fashionable. She doesn't throw a meal in the oven, it "goes for a spin", and she wraps gift paper like an paper-folding expert. She also seems to be completely savoring herself from start to finish. How could any skeptical viewer not be won over, filled with seasonal cheer and left with a intense desire for crafted festive snaps or a crudites platter where greens is organized in the shape of a Christmas ring?
Meghan was once an actress for a living, of course, but even so, after the degree of scrutiny she has weathered since she started dating Prince Harry, the love child of acting royalty would have difficulty behaving this authentically. Her refusal to alter or even soften her shtick, even though it being so persistently, widely parodied, is weirdly comforting. In our unpredictable world, here is one thing we can depend on: Meghan will remain herself, no matter what. We will always know where we are with her.
If you're still not buying what she's selling, a thought that will surely come as a relief: you aren't required to. We don't have mandatory conscription in this country, and if there were, it would be doubtful to include viewing With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. If, on the other hand, you decide to tune in and are consumed by envy about her picture-perfect Christmas, there is hope either. Be you a duchess or a office worker, no kid completely grasps the dedication and labor their mother puts in in December. So you can find comfort by envisioning Archie and Lilibet's faces when they unfold a calligraphy note that says, 'I love you because you are brave,' from a homemade Advent calendar, in place of a candy.
