Indeed, it's Brimming with Nonsense, Extreme Hosting and Psychobabble. Yet I Truly Adore Meghan's Holiday Special.
No considering the time of year, it's always fair game for commentary on the Duchess of Sussex's televisual offering, With Love, Meghan. Commentators, from seasoned journalists to online pundits, have rarely been so united as when gleefully ripping the lifestyle show's initial installments to shreds. The common opinion was that a greater royal outrage had never been witnessed than the now-infamous pretzel-bagging incident.
Now, like a merry renegade master, she is back once again with a "Holiday Celebration" (or a holiday episode). Yet now, it's different. The familiar ingredients viewers are accustomed to – vague self-help platitudes, intense hospitality – are still present, but within the context of a holiday show, it all clicks into place. The pieces have fallen perfectly; it's a ideal seasonal storm.
At this stage, Meghan has become the oddball family member at most festive family gatherings – providing random tips, and delivering 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 company is customary and strangely comforting. And she seems happy enough; she's causing any harm.
She is aware her each tiny facial movement, utterance and gaze will be analyzed and judged, but manages to seem carefree and too blessed to be stressed.
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, you know what?, each element in Meghan's Holiday Celebration is charming. Granted, it's all awkwardly over-the-top, silliness and flamboyant – but is that not exactly what Yuletide is all about? And the words she speaks might be ridiculous, but the walk she's walking seems authentically beautifully curated.
Anything she turns her beautifully manicured, diamond-adorned hand to, she accomplishes with panache. Her cooking looks delicious, the holiday arrangement she crafts is breathtaking, her gifts are almost too pretty to unwrap. Not a single thing is ordinary or visually unappealing – including the way she secures her kitchen garment is creative and fashionable. She doesn't bung a meal in the oven, it "goes for a spin", and she creases gift paper like an craft master. She also seems to be genuinely relishing herself from start to finish. How could any skeptical viewer not be convinced, overcome by holiday spirit and left with a intense desire for crafted festive snaps or a vegetable display where broccoli is positioned in the shape of a wreath?
Meghan had a career in acting for a living, of course, but nonetheless, after the intensity of attention she has faced from the moment she started dating Prince Harry, the love child of two legendary actresses would find it hard to appear this authentically. Her unwillingness to modify or even moderate her routine, regardless of it being so relentlessly, globally mocked, is strangely reassuring. In our uncertain world, here is something we can depend on: Meghan will stay true to form, come what may. We will always know our position with her.
If you're still not buying what she's selling, a point that will certainly come as a relief: you don't have to. We don't have national service these days, and were it to return, it would be doubtful to include viewing With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. If, conversely, you willingly check it out and are overcome with longing about her flawless Christmas, there is hope either. Be you a royal or a everyday person, hardly any child truly appreciates the effort and hard work their mum puts in in December. So you can take heart by envisioning the young royals' faces when they unfold a handwritten message that says, 'I love you because you are brave,' from a handcrafted holiday countdown, in place of a candy.
