Indeed, it's Packed with Absurdity, Over-the-Top Hospitality and Self-Help Jargon. But I Do Love Meghan's Holiday Special.
No considering the time of year, it's perpetually open season for commentary on the Duchess of Sussex's Netflix series, With Love, Meghan. Critics, from seasoned journalists to online pundits, have seldom found such common ground as when gleefully ripping the lifestyle show's first and second seasons to pieces. The common opinion held that a more egregious regal scandal had seldom occurred than the now-infamous pretzel re-packaging incident.
Currently, as a festive rebel, she is back once again with a "Christmas Special" (aka a Christmas special). Yet now, it's different. The usual elements viewers are accustomed to – meaningless jargon salads, extreme hosting – remain, but framed of a holiday show, suddenly it all makes sense. The pieces have fallen perfectly; it's a flawless festive blizzard.
At this stage, Meghan is like the eccentric aunt at Christmas celebrations everywhere – providing random tips, and supplying 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 aura is known and unexpectedly soothing. And she seems pleased; she's causing any harm.
She understands her each tiny facial movement, syllable and gaze will be analyzed and scrutinized, but manages to seem unburdened and remarkably at ease.
Maybe this is the initial instance 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 honestly feels lovely. Granted, it's all awkwardly over-the-top, nonsense and over the top – but isn't that exactly what Christmas is all about? And the words she speaks might be absurd, but the life she leads genuinely looks shop-bought.
Anything she attempts, she executes with flair. Her cooking looks tasty, the holiday arrangement she makes is stunning, her gifts are almost too pretty to unwrap. Not a single thing is average or aesthetically displeasing – even the way she fastens her apron is creative and fashionable. She doesn't toss a meal in the microwave, it "has a moment", and she wraps gift paper like an origami guru. She also seems to be completely savoring herself the entire time. How could any hate-watcher not be won over, filled with holiday spirit and left with a powerful yearning for crafted festive snaps or a crudites platter where greens is positioned in the form of a wreath?
Meghan was once an actress for a living, naturally, but despite that, after the intensity of examination she has faced ever since she became involved with Prince Harry, even a hypothetical offspring of Meryl Streep and Judi Dench would find it hard to appear this authentically. Her refusal to change or even tone down her routine, even though it being so persistently, internationally ridiculed, is strangely reassuring. In our volatile world, here is one thing we can rely on: Meghan will be like this, come what may. We will consistently know where we are with her.
If you're not yet convinced by her brand, a reminder that will surely come as a relief: you are not obligated to. There isn't mandatory conscription these days, and if there were, it would be doubtful to include streaming With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. If, however, you choose to watch and are gripped with jealousy about her picture-perfect Christmas, you can take solace either. If you are a royal or a data administrator, few children completely grasps the effort and hard work their parent puts in in the holiday season. So you can console yourself by picturing the young royals' faces when they reveal a beautifully scripted letter that says, 'I love you because you are brave,' from a DIY festive calendar, rather than a candy.
