Admittedly, it's Packed with Nonsense, Extreme Hosting and Self-Help Jargon. Yet I Truly Cherish Meghan's Christmas Special.
No concerned with the season, it's always open season for commentary on the Meghan Markle's televisual offering, With Love, Meghan. Reviewers, from seasoned journalists to online pundits, have seldom found such common ground as when enthusiastically shredding the lifestyle show's earlier episodes apart. The general consensus was that a more egregious regal scandal had hardly ever taken place than the much-discussed snack re-labeling incident.
Presently, as a festive rebel, she is back once again with a "Christmas Special" (also known as a yuletide episode). But this time, things have shifted. The familiar ingredients viewers are accustomed to – meaningless jargon salads, intense hospitality – persist, but framed of a holiday show, suddenly it all makes sense. The puzzle has come perfectly; it's a flawless festive blizzard.
At this stage, Meghan is like the quirky relative at Christmas celebrations everywhere – providing unsolicited, unnecessary advice, and contributing 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 quite a personality, but her aura is known and oddly reassuring. And she seems happy enough; she's inflicting a bit of damage.
She understands her every micro expression, word and glance will be analyzed and scrutinized, but nonetheless looks relaxed and too blessed to be stressed.
It could be this is the first occasion in history where that clichéd phrase – "Pay no mind, it's only envy" – might be true. Since, in all honesty, each element in Meghan's Holiday Celebration is delightful. Admittedly, it's all painfully excessive, silliness and extravagant – but is that not exactly what Christmas is for? And the talk she's talking might be laughable, but the life she leads seems authentically shop-bought.
Anything she turns her beautifully manicured, diamond-adorned hand to, she accomplishes with style. Her cooking looks delicious, the wreath she crafts is breathtaking, her gifts are nearly too beautiful to open. Not a single thing is ordinary or visually unappealing – including the way she fastens her kitchen garment is artful and chic. She doesn't toss a meal in the microwave, it "goes for a spin", and she creases wrapping paper like an paper-folding expert. She also seems to be genuinely relishing herself throughout. How could any skeptical viewer not be won over, overcome by festive joy and left with a intense desire for personalized Christmas crackers or a vegetable display where broccoli is positioned in the likeness of a festive circle?
Meghan used to pretend for a living, naturally, but despite that, after the intensity of examination she has endured from the moment she met Prince Harry, the love child of Meryl Streep and Judi Dench would find it hard to appear this naturally. Her unwillingness to alter or even soften her persona, despite it being so persistently, widely parodied, is oddly heartening. In our volatile world, here is one thing we can depend on: Meghan will remain herself, come what may. We will consistently know our position with her.
If you're still not buying her brand, a thought that will surely come as a reassurance: you aren't required to. There isn't the draft in this country, and should it be reinstated, it would be unlikely to include watching With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. If, however, you decide to tune in and are consumed by longing about her picture-perfect Christmas, you can take solace either. Be you a royal or a everyday person, few children fully understands the dedication and labor their mum puts in in December. So you can console yourself by imagining the young royals' faces when they open a beautifully scripted letter that says, 'I love you because you are brave,' from a DIY festive calendar, in place of a chocolate.
