Yes, it's Brimming with Gibberish, Over-the-Top Hospitality and Self-Help Jargon. However, I Honestly Adore Meghan's Festive Episode.
No concerned with the season, it's constantly fair game for commentary on the Duchess of Sussex's Netflix series, With Love, Meghan. Critics, from seasoned journalists to online pundits, have hardly ever agreed so completely as when gleefully ripping the series' earlier episodes apart. The general consensus held that a more egregious regal scandal had hardly ever taken place than the now-infamous pretzel-bagging incident.
Now, like a merry renegade master, she has returned once again with a "Christmas Special" (also known as a yuletide episode). Yet now, the dynamic has changed. The usual elements we've come to expect – meaningless jargon salads, extreme hosting – remain, but set of a holiday show, suddenly it all makes sense. The elements have slid together; it's a perfect snow storm.
Now, Meghan is like the eccentric aunt at Christmas celebrations everywhere – offering random tips, and contributing 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 presence is familiar and strangely comforting. And she appears pleased; she's inflicting any harm.
She knows her every micro expression, word and glance will be picked apart and criticised, but still appears unburdened and remarkably at ease.
Maybe this is the initial instance in history where that old chestnut – "Ignore them, they're just jealous" – could actually be true. Because, let's face it, each element in Meghan's Holiday Celebration is delightful. Admittedly, it's all cringily ultra-extra, silliness and over the top – but isn't that just what Christmas is about? And the words she speaks might be absurd, but the example she sets seems authentically shop-bought.
Whatever she attempts, she pulls off with panache. Her cooking looks scrumptious, the festive decoration she creates is gorgeous, her gifts are practically too exquisite to tear into. Not a single thing is ordinary or ugly – even the way she fastens her kitchen garment is creative and fashionable. She doesn't throw a meal in the microwave, it "has a moment", and she folds wrapping paper like an craft master. She also seems to be completely savoring herself the entire time. How could any hate-watcher not be convinced, filled with holiday spirit and left with a powerful yearning for personalized Christmas crackers or a crudites platter where broccoli is arranged in the form of a wreath?
Meghan had a career in acting for a living, of course, but nonetheless, after the degree of scrutiny she has faced from the moment she became involved with Prince Harry, the love child of two legendary actresses would find it hard to appear this authentically. Her unwillingness to change or even moderate her shtick, despite it being so relentlessly, internationally ridiculed, is oddly heartening. In our volatile world, here is something we can count on: Meghan will be like this, whatever happens. We will consistently know our position with her.
If you're remaining skeptical of what she's selling, a thought that will surely come as a comfort: you don't have to. The UK has abolished national service these days, and were it to return, it would be doubtful to include streaming With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. If, conversely, you choose to watch and are gripped with envy about her flawless Christmas, you can take solace either. Be you a royal or a everyday person, hardly any child completely grasps the dedication and labor their mother does in December. So you can console yourself by imagining the young royals' faces when they reveal a calligraphy note that says, 'I love you because you are brave,' from a homemade Advent calendar, rather than a sweet treat.
