Admittedly, it's Brimming with Absurdity, Over-the-Top Hospitality and Self-Help Jargon. Yet I Truly Cherish Meghan's Festive Episode.
No concerned with the season, it's perpetually fair game for commentary on the Duchess of Sussex's televisual offering, With Love, Meghan. Commentators, both professional and armchair, have hardly ever agreed so completely as when eagerly tearing the series' earlier episodes to shreds. The prevailing view was that a bigger monarchy-related faux pas had hardly ever taken place than the notorious snack re-labeling incident.
Presently, like a merry renegade master, she is back once again with a "Holiday Celebration" (aka a yuletide episode). However on this occasion, it's different. The familiar ingredients audiences anticipate – meaningless jargon salads, intense hospitality – are still present, but set of a yuletide episode, suddenly it all makes sense. The elements have slid into place; it's a flawless festive blizzard.
Now, Meghan resembles the oddball family member at Christmas celebrations everywhere – providing unsolicited, unnecessary advice, and delivering 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 an interesting figure, but her presence is familiar and oddly reassuring. And she seems content; she's not doing the slightest hurt.
She is aware her each tiny facial movement, syllable and glance will be picked apart and judged, but manages to seem unburdened and serenely untroubled.
Perhaps this is the only time in history where that old chestnut – "Don't listen, it's pure jealousy" – may well be true. Because, you know what?, all aspects in Meghan's Holiday Celebration honestly feels charming. Granted, it's all painfully excessive, nonsense and flamboyant – but doesn't that represent precisely what Yuletide is for? And the advice she gives might be absurd, but the walk she's walking seems authentically shop-bought.
Whatever she sets her mind to, she pulls off with style. Her cooking looks delicious, the festive decoration she creates is stunning, her gifts are practically too exquisite to unwrap. Nothing is mediocre or aesthetically displeasing – even the way she secures her apron is stylish and elegant. She doesn't toss a dish in the microwave, it "goes for a spin", and she wraps gift paper like an craft master. She also seems to be thoroughly enjoying herself the entire time. How could any hate-watcher not be won over, bursting with festive joy and left with a intense desire for handmade crackers or a vegetable display where broccoli is organized in the shape of a wreath?
Meghan used to pretend for a living, naturally, but despite that, after the degree of scrutiny she has weathered since she started dating Prince Harry, a theoretical combination of Meryl Streep and Judi Dench would find it hard to appear this genuinely. Her refusal to alter or even tone down her routine, regardless of it being so relentlessly, internationally ridiculed, is weirdly comforting. In our uncertain world, here is something we can rely on: Meghan will stay true to form, whatever happens. We will consistently know our position with her.
If you're not yet convinced by her message, a point that will certainly come as a relief: you are not obligated to. The UK has abolished national service these days, and should it be reinstated, it would be unlikely to include streaming With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. If, on the other hand, you decide to tune in and are consumed by longing about her flawless Christmas, there is hope either. If you are a duchess or a everyday person, few children truly appreciates the time and energy their mum expends in the holiday season. So you can take heart by picturing Archie and Lilibet's faces when they open a calligraphy note that says, 'I love you because you are brave,' from a DIY festive calendar, instead of a chocolate.
