Indeed, it's Brimming with Gibberish, Over-the-Top Hospitality and Self-Help Jargon. However, I Honestly Love Meghan's Holiday Special.
No considering the season, it's always fair game for criticism on the Duchess of Sussex's TV show, With Love, Meghan. Critics, both professional and armchair, have seldom found such common ground as when enthusiastically shredding the lifestyle show's earlier episodes to shreds. The general consensus was that a greater royal outrage had never been witnessed than the much-discussed pretzel-bagging incident.
Now, as a festive rebel, she is back with a new offering with a "Festive Special" (also known as a holiday episode). However on this occasion, things have shifted. The usual elements viewers are accustomed to – psychobabble word salads, overzealous entertaining – persist, but within the context of a holiday show, suddenly it all makes sense. The pieces have fallen together; it's a flawless festive blizzard.
Now, Meghan resembles the quirky relative at Christmas celebrations everywhere – providing 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 a bit of a character, but her company is customary and strangely comforting. And she looks happy enough; she's not doing the slightest hurt.
She knows her every micro expression, syllable and glance will be analyzed and scrutinized, but nonetheless looks unburdened and too blessed to be stressed.
Perhaps this is the initial instance in history where that old chestnut – "Don't listen, it's pure jealousy" – might be true. Because, let's face it, everything in Meghan's Holiday Celebration is lovely. Admittedly, it's all awkwardly over-the-top, foolishness and extravagant – but doesn't that represent precisely what the holiday season is about? And the words she speaks might be laughable, but the life she leads genuinely looks impeccably styled.
Whatever she turns her beautifully manicured, diamond-adorned hand to, she executes with panache. Her culinary efforts looks tasty, the festive decoration she crafts is breathtaking, her presents are almost too pretty to open. Not a single thing is ordinary or ugly – including the way she ties her apron is stylish and elegant. She doesn't throw 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 throughout. How could any cynical observer not be won over, bursting with festive joy and left with a intense desire for crafted festive snaps or a crudites platter where greens is positioned in the shape of a wreath?
Meghan used to pretend for a living, of course, but nonetheless, after the degree of scrutiny she has faced from the moment she started dating Prince Harry, even a hypothetical offspring of Meryl Streep and Judi Dench would struggle to act this genuinely. Her refusal to alter or even moderate her shtick, regardless of it being so constantly, widely parodied, is strangely reassuring. In our uncertain world, here is one thing we can count on: Meghan will be like this, no matter what. We will consistently know our position with her.
If you're still not buying her message, a reminder that will certainly come as a reassurance: you don't have to. There isn't the draft these days, and were it to return, it would be improbable to include watching With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. If, conversely, you willingly check it out and are overcome with longing about her flawless Christmas, you can take solace either. Be you a royal or a everyday person, few children truly appreciates the time and energy their mum expends in the holiday season. So you can console yourself by imagining her children's faces when they open a beautifully scripted letter that says, 'I love you because you are brave,' from a handcrafted holiday countdown, rather than a candy.
