Admittedly, it's Brimming with Gibberish, Extreme Hosting and Self-Help Jargon. However, I Honestly Adore Meghan's Holiday Special.
No concerned with the season, it's constantly open season for commentary on the Duchess of Sussex's Netflix series, With Love, Meghan. Critics, expert and amateur alike, have hardly ever agreed so completely as when eagerly tearing the series' first and second seasons to pieces. The common opinion held that a bigger monarchy-related faux pas had never been witnessed than the notorious snack re-labeling incident.
Now, as a festive rebel, she makes a comeback with a new offering with a "Festive Special" (or a yuletide episode). Yet now, the dynamic has changed. The familiar ingredients viewers are accustomed to – vague self-help platitudes, overzealous entertaining – remain, but set of a holiday show, the purpose becomes clear. The pieces have fallen together; it's a perfect snow storm.
By this point, Meghan resembles the quirky relative at most festive family gatherings – dispensing random tips, and supplying the odd random outburst. ("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 strangely comforting. And she seems happy enough; she's inflicting the slightest hurt.
She knows her every micro expression, word and glance will be picked apart and scrutinized, but still appears unburdened and serenely untroubled.
It could be this is the first occasion 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 lovely. Granted, it's all awkwardly over-the-top, nonsense and flamboyant – but is that not just what Christmas is for? And the talk she's talking might be ridiculous, but the example she sets seems authentically beautifully curated.
Anything she sets her mind to, she accomplishes with style. Her recipes looks tasty, the festive decoration she makes is breathtaking, her gifts are practically too exquisite to unwrap. Nothing is average or visually unappealing – even the way she ties her apron is artful and chic. She doesn't toss a meal in the microwave, it "has a moment", and she folds gift paper like an paper-folding expert. She also seems to be thoroughly enjoying herself throughout. How could any hate-watcher not be charmed, bursting with festive joy and left with a deep longing for crafted festive snaps or a vegetable display where broccoli is positioned in the likeness of a Christmas ring?
Meghan used to pretend for a living, obviously, but even so, after the level of scrutiny she has weathered 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 unwillingness to alter or even tone down her persona, even though it being so persistently, internationally ridiculed, is oddly heartening. In our volatile world, here is something we can rely on: Meghan will stay true to form, come what may. We will always know what to expect with her.
If you're still not buying her brand, a reminder that will certainly come as a comfort: you don't have to. There isn't mandatory conscription anymore, and if there were, it would be unlikely to include watching With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. If, however, you decide to tune in and are overcome with longing about her flawless Christmas, all is not lost either. Be you a duchess or a everyday person, no kid fully understands the effort and hard work their mum does in the holiday season. So you can console yourself by picturing her children's faces when they reveal a handwritten message that says, 'I love you because you are brave,' from a homemade Advent calendar, instead of a sweet treat.
