Yes, it's Full of Absurdity, Over-the-Top Hospitality and Self-Help Jargon. Yet I Truly Love Meghan's Christmas Special.
No concerned with the season, it's perpetually open season for criticism on the Duchess of Sussex's televisual offering, With Love, Meghan. Commentators, both professional and armchair, have rarely been so united as when gleefully ripping the series' earlier episodes to pieces. The common opinion was that a more egregious regal scandal had never been witnessed than the notorious snack re-labeling incident.
Now, as a festive rebel, she is back with a new offering with a "Festive Special" (also known as a Christmas special). But this time, things have shifted. The familiar ingredients viewers are accustomed to – psychobabble word salads, overzealous entertaining – remain, but within the context of a Christmas special, it all clicks into place. The puzzle has come perfectly; it's a flawless festive blizzard.
Now, Meghan is like the eccentric aunt at Christmas celebrations everywhere – dispensing 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 appears content; she's not doing the slightest hurt.
She understands her all subtle gestures, utterance and gaze will be picked apart and criticised, but manages to seem unburdened and remarkably at ease.
Perhaps this is the initial instance in history where that well-worn saying – "Ignore them, they're just jealous" – might be true. The reason is, in all honesty, each element in Meghan's Holiday Celebration truly is charming. Admittedly, it's all painfully excessive, foolishness and flamboyant – but doesn't that represent precisely what the holiday season is about? And the advice she gives might be ridiculous, but the life she leads genuinely looks impeccably styled.
Whatever she turns her beautifully manicured, diamond-adorned hand to, she pulls off with panache. Her cooking looks delicious, the holiday arrangement she crafts is gorgeous, her presents are nearly too beautiful to unwrap. Not a single thing is ordinary or visually unappealing – including the way she ties her kitchen garment is creative and fashionable. She doesn't bung a meal in the microwave, it "goes for a spin", and she wraps wrapping paper like an craft master. She also seems to be genuinely relishing herself throughout. How could any cynical observer not be charmed, filled with festive joy and left with a powerful yearning for handmade crackers or a vegetable display where broccoli is organized in the form of a festive circle?
Meghan used to pretend for a living, of course, but nonetheless, after the intensity of examination she has endured ever since she started dating Prince Harry, even a hypothetical offspring of Meryl Streep and Judi Dench would find it hard to appear this naturally. Her decision to change or even moderate her persona, regardless of it being so constantly, globally mocked, is strangely reassuring. In our uncertain world, here is one thing we can rely on: Meghan will be like this, no matter what. We will forever know our position with her.
If you're not yet convinced by her brand, a point that will certainly come as a comfort: you don't have to. There isn't the draft anymore, and were it to return, it would be unlikely to include viewing With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. If, however, you choose to watch and are consumed by envy about her flawless Christmas, all is not lost either. If you are a duchess or a data administrator, no kid truly appreciates the effort and hard work their mother puts in in December. So you can find comfort by envisioning her children's faces when they unfold a handwritten message that says, 'I love you because you are brave,' from a DIY festive calendar, instead of a candy.
