Indeed, it's Brimming with Nonsense, Extreme Hosting and Self-Help Jargon. Yet I Truly Love Meghan's Holiday Special.
No considering the time of year, it's perpetually fair game for commentary on the Meghan Markle's Netflix series, With Love, Meghan. Commentators, expert and amateur alike, have seldom found such common ground as when eagerly tearing the program's initial installments to pieces. The prevailing view held that a bigger monarchy-related faux pas had hardly ever taken place than the now-infamous pretzel re-packaging incident.
Presently, in the spirit of a holiday maverick, she has returned for another round with a "Festive Special" (aka a Christmas special). But this time, things have shifted. The standard components audiences anticipate – meaningless jargon salads, overzealous entertaining – persist, but set of a Christmas special, the purpose becomes clear. The elements have slid into place; it's a perfect snow storm.
By this point, Meghan is like the oddball family member at most festive family gatherings – providing unsolicited, unnecessary advice, and contributing 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 quite a personality, but her aura is known and unexpectedly soothing. And she looks content; she's inflicting a bit of damage.
She understands her every micro expression, utterance and look will be analyzed and scrutinized, but still appears unburdened and too blessed to be stressed.
Perhaps this is the initial instance in history where that old chestnut – "Ignore them, they're just jealous" – might be true. Since, let's face it, everything in Meghan's Holiday Celebration truly is delightful. Admittedly, it's all awkwardly over-the-top, silliness and flamboyant – but is that not precisely what Christmas is for? And the talk she's talking might be laughable, but the walk she's walking seems authentically shop-bought.
Anything she turns her beautifully manicured, diamond-adorned hand to, she pulls off with style. Her culinary efforts looks tasty, the holiday arrangement she makes is breathtaking, her gifts are almost too pretty to tear into. Nothing is mediocre or aesthetically displeasing – including the way she secures her kitchen garment is creative and fashionable. She doesn't toss a meal in the microwave, it "goes for a spin", and she folds wrapping paper like an craft master. She also seems to be genuinely relishing herself throughout. How could any skeptical viewer not be charmed, overcome by holiday spirit and left with a powerful yearning for crafted festive snaps or a vegetable display where greens is organized in the likeness of a Christmas ring?
Meghan used to pretend for a living, naturally, but despite that, after the degree of examination she has endured from the moment she met Prince Harry, even a hypothetical offspring of acting royalty would struggle to act this naturally. Her refusal to change or even moderate her shtick, regardless of it being so relentlessly, globally mocked, is oddly heartening. In our volatile world, here is one thing we can rely on: Meghan will remain herself, come what may. We will forever know where we are with her.
If you're remaining skeptical of what she's selling, a reminder that will surely come as a reassurance: you aren't required to. The UK has abolished the draft anymore, and were it to return, it would be unlikely to include watching With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. If, however, you willingly check it out and are gripped with jealousy about her picture-perfect Christmas, all is not lost either. Whether you're a duchess or a everyday person, hardly any child fully understands the effort and hard work their parent does in December. So you can console yourself by picturing the young royals' faces when they open a handwritten message that says, 'I love you because you are brave,' from a homemade Advent calendar, in place of a chocolate.