Indeed, it's Full of Nonsense, Over-the-Top Hospitality and Self-Help Jargon. Yet I Truly Love Meghan's Christmas Special.
No concerned with the season, it's constantly hunting season for commentary on the Duchess of Sussex's TV show, With Love, Meghan. Critics, from seasoned journalists to online pundits, have rarely been so united as when enthusiastically shredding the lifestyle show's earlier episodes apart. The common opinion held that a bigger monarchy-related faux pas had never been witnessed than the now-infamous pretzel-bagging incident.
Presently, in the spirit of a holiday maverick, she makes a comeback with a new offering with a "Christmas Special" (or a Christmas special). But this time, the dynamic has changed. The usual elements we've come to expect – meaningless jargon salads, intense hospitality – persist, but set of a holiday show, it all clicks into place. The pieces have fallen together; it's a flawless festive blizzard.
At this stage, Meghan is like the quirky relative at Christmas celebrations everywhere – offering unsolicited, unnecessary advice, 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 aura is known and unexpectedly soothing. And she looks pleased; she's causing any harm.
She is aware her each tiny facial movement, utterance and glance will be analyzed and scrutinized, but still appears unburdened and too blessed to be stressed.
Maybe this is the first occasion in history where that well-worn saying – "Pay no mind, it's only envy" – may well be true. The reason is, you know what?, each element in Meghan's Holiday Celebration honestly feels lovely. Admittedly, it's all painfully excessive, foolishness and over the top – but doesn't that represent precisely what Christmas is all about? And the talk she's talking might be absurd, but the life she leads seems authentically impeccably styled.
Anything she sets her mind to, she pulls off with panache. Her culinary efforts looks delicious, the wreath she makes is breathtaking, her gifts are almost too pretty to unwrap. Nothing is mediocre or aesthetically displeasing – even the way she ties her kitchen garment is stylish and elegant. She doesn't toss a meal in the oven, it "has a moment", and she wraps wrapping paper like an origami guru. She also seems to be completely savoring herself from start to finish. How could any hate-watcher not be convinced, bursting with seasonal cheer and left with a deep longing for personalized Christmas crackers or a vegetable display where greens is organized in the likeness of a wreath?
Meghan used to pretend for a living, obviously, but despite that, after the level of scrutiny she has weathered since she met Prince Harry, a theoretical combination of acting royalty would find it hard to appear this authentically. Her refusal to alter or even soften her shtick, despite it being so persistently, widely parodied, is weirdly comforting. In our uncertain world, here is one thing we can depend on: Meghan will be like this, no matter what. We will forever know what to expect with her.
If you're not yet convinced by what she's selling, a point that will surely come as a relief: you aren't required to. We don't have mandatory conscription these days, and should it be reinstated, it would be doubtful to include watching With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. If, however, you willingly check it out and are consumed by envy about her picture-perfect Christmas, you can take solace either. If you are a royal or a office worker, hardly any child truly appreciates the dedication and labor their parent does in the holiday season. So you can find comfort by envisioning her children's faces when they reveal a calligraphy note that says, 'I love you because you are brave,' from a handcrafted holiday countdown, instead of a chocolate.
