Indeed, it's Full of Absurdity, Over-the-Top Hospitality and Self-Help Jargon. Yet I Truly Cherish Meghan's Festive Episode.
No concerned with the time of year, it's perpetually hunting season for commentary on the Meghan Markle's TV show, With Love, Meghan. Critics, both professional and armchair, have rarely been so united as when gleefully ripping the lifestyle show's earlier episodes to shreds. The prevailing view held that a more egregious regal scandal had hardly ever taken place than the much-discussed snack re-labeling incident.
Currently, like a merry renegade master, she makes a comeback once again with a "Holiday Celebration" (also known as a yuletide episode). But this time, the dynamic has changed. The familiar ingredients viewers are accustomed to – psychobabble word salads, intense hospitality – persist, but within the context of a holiday show, suddenly it all makes sense. The pieces have fallen into place; it's a flawless festive blizzard.
By this point, Meghan resembles the oddball family member at the typical holiday get-together – dispensing random tips, and supplying 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 a bit of a character, but her company is customary and strangely comforting. And she looks happy enough; she's inflicting the slightest hurt.
She is aware her each tiny facial movement, utterance and look will be picked apart and scrutinized, but nonetheless looks unburdened and too blessed to be stressed.
Maybe this is the first occasion in history where that old chestnut – "Ignore them, they're just jealous" – could actually be true. Because, in all honesty, all aspects in Meghan's Holiday Celebration is lovely. Yes, it's all painfully excessive, foolishness and extravagant – but doesn't that represent just what Yuletide is all about? And the words she speaks might be ridiculous, but the example she sets genuinely looks shop-bought.
Anything she turns her beautifully manicured, diamond-adorned hand to, she executes with panache. Her culinary efforts looks delicious, the holiday arrangement she makes is breathtaking, her gifts are practically too exquisite to unwrap. Not a single thing is average or ugly – including the way she ties her apron is artful and chic. She doesn't bung a dish in the oven, it "goes for a spin", and she creases wrapping paper like an origami guru. She also seems to be thoroughly enjoying herself throughout. How could any skeptical viewer not be won over, bursting with seasonal cheer and left with a powerful yearning for personalized Christmas crackers or a crudites platter where broccoli is positioned in the form of a wreath?
Meghan had a career in acting for a living, naturally, but despite that, after the degree of examination she has faced since she became involved with Prince Harry, even a hypothetical offspring of acting royalty would find it hard to appear this authentically. Her decision to alter or even tone down her shtick, despite it being so constantly, globally mocked, is weirdly comforting. In our volatile world, here is one thing we can rely on: Meghan will be like this, whatever happens. We will forever know where we are with her.
If you're not yet convinced by her message, a thought that will certainly come as a reassurance: you don't have to. We don't have national service in this country, and should it be reinstated, it would be doubtful to include watching With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. If, however, you choose to watch and are gripped with longing about her picture-perfect Christmas, there is hope either. Be you a royal or a everyday person, few children fully understands the effort and hard work their mother puts in in the holiday season. So you can find comfort by envisioning her children's faces when they unfold a beautifully scripted letter that says, 'I love you because you are brave,' from a homemade Advent calendar, in place of a candy.
