Admittedly, it's Packed with Absurdity, Extreme Hosting and Psychobabble. Yet I Truly Adore Meghan's Festive Episode.
No concerned with the time of year, it's constantly hunting season for scrutiny on the Meghan Markle's TV show, With Love, Meghan. Commentators, expert and amateur alike, have hardly ever agreed so completely as when enthusiastically shredding the lifestyle show's initial installments to pieces. The prevailing view was that a greater royal outrage had hardly ever taken place than the notorious pretzel-bagging incident.
Currently, in the spirit of a holiday maverick, she makes a comeback for another round with a "Christmas Special" (or a Christmas special). Yet now, it's different. The familiar ingredients viewers are accustomed to – meaningless jargon salads, intense hospitality – are still present, but framed of a Christmas special, suddenly it all makes sense. The puzzle has come perfectly; it's a ideal seasonal storm.
Now, Meghan is like the quirky relative at Christmas celebrations everywhere – offering unsolicited, unnecessary advice, and supplying 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 appears happy enough; she's not doing the slightest hurt.
She knows her every micro expression, utterance and look will be picked apart and criticised, but still appears relaxed and remarkably at ease.
It could be this is the initial instance in history where that clichéd phrase – "Pay no mind, it's only envy" – might be true. Because, in all honesty, each element in Meghan's Holiday Celebration honestly feels lovely. Granted, it's all painfully excessive, silliness and over the top – but is that not just what Yuletide is for? And the words she speaks might be absurd, but the example she sets genuinely looks shop-bought.
Whatever she turns her beautifully manicured, diamond-adorned hand to, she pulls off with panache. Her culinary efforts looks scrumptious, the festive decoration she crafts is stunning, her gifts are practically too exquisite to open. Nothing is mediocre or ugly – including the way she fastens her apron is artful and chic. She doesn't toss a meal in the microwave, it "takes a twirl", and she folds wrapping paper like an craft master. She also seems to be completely savoring herself from start to finish. How could any hate-watcher not be charmed, bursting with festive joy and left with a deep longing for personalized Christmas crackers or a crudites platter where greens is arranged in the shape of a festive circle?
Meghan had a career in acting for a living, obviously, but even so, after the level of scrutiny she has faced since she became involved with Prince Harry, a theoretical combination of two legendary actresses would have difficulty behaving this authentically. Her unwillingness to modify or even tone down her persona, regardless of it being so relentlessly, widely parodied, is weirdly comforting. In our uncertain world, here is something we can count on: Meghan will stay true to form, whatever happens. We will forever know where we are with her.
If you're not yet convinced by what she's selling, a reminder that will surely come as a relief: you don't have to. There isn't the draft in this country, and should it be reinstated, it would be doubtful to include viewing With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. If, however, you willingly check it out and are consumed by longing about her idyllic Christmas, you can take solace either. Be you a duchess or a office worker, no kid fully understands the dedication and labor their mother does in the holiday season. So you can find comfort by imagining Archie and Lilibet's faces when they reveal a handwritten message that says, 'I love you because you are brave,' from a handcrafted holiday countdown, in place of a candy.
