Yes, it's Brimming with Gibberish, Over-the-Top Hospitality and Psychobabble. But I Do Love Meghan's Festive Episode.
No matter the season, it's perpetually open season for commentary on the Duchess of Sussex's televisual offering, With Love, Meghan. Commentators, from seasoned journalists to online pundits, have seldom found such common ground as when enthusiastically shredding the program's earlier episodes to shreds. The prevailing view held that a more egregious regal scandal had seldom occurred than the notorious pretzel re-packaging incident.
Presently, in the spirit of a holiday maverick, she has returned with a new offering with a "Holiday Celebration" (aka a yuletide episode). However on this occasion, it's different. The usual elements we've come to expect – vague self-help platitudes, overzealous entertaining – are still present, but framed of a holiday show, suddenly it all makes sense. The pieces have fallen perfectly; it's a flawless festive blizzard.
Now, Meghan has become the quirky relative at the typical holiday get-together – dispensing random tips, 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 an interesting figure, but her aura is known and oddly reassuring. And she appears content; she's inflicting a bit of damage.
She is aware her all subtle gestures, word and look will be picked apart and judged, but nonetheless looks unburdened and serenely untroubled.
It could be this is the first occasion in history where that well-worn saying – "Ignore them, they're just jealous" – might be true. Because, you know what?, each element in Meghan's Holiday Celebration is charming. Yes, it's all painfully excessive, silliness and over the top – but doesn't that represent precisely what Yuletide is for? And the words she speaks might be ridiculous, but the example she sets genuinely looks beautifully curated.
Whatever she attempts, she executes with style. Her recipes looks tasty, the festive decoration she crafts is stunning, her gifts are practically too exquisite to open. Not a single thing is average or aesthetically displeasing – even the way she secures her apron is stylish and elegant. She doesn't throw a meal in the microwave, it "has a moment", and she folds gift paper like an paper-folding expert. She also seems to be genuinely relishing herself throughout. How could any skeptical viewer not be charmed, filled with festive joy and left with a powerful yearning for handmade crackers or a crudites platter where broccoli is organized in the likeness of a wreath?
Meghan was once an actress for a living, naturally, but nonetheless, after the degree of examination she has faced since she became involved with Prince Harry, a theoretical combination of Meryl Streep and Judi Dench would struggle to act this authentically. Her refusal to change or even tone down her shtick, even though it being so persistently, globally mocked, is oddly heartening. In our uncertain world, here is one thing we can depend on: Meghan will be like this, come what may. We will always know what to expect with her.
If you're not yet convinced by her message, a reminder that will undoubtedly come as a reassurance: you aren't required to. There isn't national service these days, and were it to return, it would be doubtful to include viewing With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. If, however, you choose to watch and are overcome with envy about her flawless Christmas, all is not lost either. If you are a royal or a office worker, hardly any child fully understands the time and energy their mother puts in in the holiday season. So you can take heart by imagining Archie and Lilibet's 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.
