Yes, it's Full of Absurdity, Over-the-Top Hospitality and Self-Help Jargon. Yet I Truly Cherish Meghan's Festive Episode.
No matter the time of year, it's constantly open season for scrutiny on the Meghan Markle's televisual offering, With Love, Meghan. Commentators, from seasoned journalists to online pundits, have rarely been so united as when enthusiastically shredding the series' initial installments to pieces. The common opinion was that a more egregious regal scandal had seldom occurred than the now-infamous snack re-labeling incident.
Currently, like a merry renegade master, she is back once again with a "Holiday Celebration" (also known as a yuletide episode). But this time, it's different. The familiar ingredients we've come to expect – vague self-help platitudes, overzealous entertaining – persist, but framed of a yuletide episode, suddenly it all makes sense. The puzzle has come perfectly; it's a flawless festive blizzard.
At this stage, Meghan has become the oddball family member at most festive family gatherings – offering unsolicited, unnecessary advice, 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 a bit of a character, but her presence is familiar and oddly reassuring. And she looks pleased; she's causing any harm.
She is aware her each tiny facial movement, utterance and glance will be analyzed and scrutinized, but still appears carefree and too blessed to be stressed.
It could be this is the initial instance in history where that old chestnut – "Don't listen, it's pure jealousy" – may well be true. Because, you know what?, all aspects in Meghan's Holiday Celebration honestly feels lovely. Admittedly, it's all painfully excessive, silliness and over the top – but isn't that just what Yuletide is for? And the words she speaks might be laughable, but the example she sets genuinely looks impeccably styled.
Anything she sets her mind to, she executes with flair. Her culinary efforts looks delicious, the festive decoration she crafts is gorgeous, her presents are practically too exquisite to open. Not a single thing is average or ugly – including the way she ties her kitchen garment is stylish and elegant. She doesn't toss a meal in the microwave, it "has a moment", and she folds wrapping paper like an origami guru. She also seems to be thoroughly enjoying herself from start to finish. How could any hate-watcher not be convinced, filled with holiday spirit and left with a powerful yearning for handmade crackers or a crudites platter where greens is positioned in the shape of a festive circle?
Meghan used to pretend for a living, naturally, but despite that, after the level of attention she has weathered ever since she started dating Prince Harry, a theoretical combination of two legendary actresses would struggle to act this naturally. Her decision to alter or even moderate her routine, despite it being so relentlessly, internationally ridiculed, is weirdly comforting. In our volatile world, here is one thing we can depend on: Meghan will be like this, come what may. We will forever know where we are with her.
If you're still not buying what she's selling, a thought that will certainly come as a comfort: you are not obligated to. The UK has abolished the draft these days, and should it be reinstated, it would be unlikely to include streaming With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. If, conversely, you willingly check it out and are overcome with envy about her flawless Christmas, there is hope either. Whether you're a duchess or a data administrator, no kid completely grasps the dedication and labor their parent puts in in December. So you can console yourself by envisioning Archie and Lilibet's faces when they unfold a handwritten message that says, 'I love you because you are brave,' from a homemade Advent calendar, instead of a sweet treat.
