Admittedly, it's Full of Absurdity, Extreme Hosting and Self-Help Jargon. Yet I Truly Love Meghan's Holiday Special.
No concerned with the season, it's always open season for commentary on the Meghan Markle's Netflix series, With Love, Meghan. Commentators, expert and amateur alike, have hardly ever agreed so completely as when enthusiastically shredding the program's earlier episodes apart. The general consensus seemed to be a greater royal outrage had never been witnessed than the much-discussed pretzel re-packaging incident.
Currently, in the spirit of a holiday maverick, she is back once again with a "Christmas Special" (or a Christmas special). However on this occasion, things have shifted. The usual elements audiences anticipate – vague self-help platitudes, extreme hosting – persist, but within the context of a yuletide episode, suddenly it all makes sense. The pieces have fallen into place; it's a ideal seasonal storm.
Now, Meghan has become the oddball family member at most festive family gatherings – providing unasked-for guidance, and contributing 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 an interesting figure, but her company is customary and unexpectedly soothing. And she appears happy enough; she's not doing any harm.
She understands her every micro expression, utterance and gaze will be dissected and criticised, but manages to seem relaxed and serenely untroubled.
Perhaps this is the first occasion in history where that well-worn saying – "Don't listen, it's pure jealousy" – could actually be true. Since, let's face it, all aspects in Meghan's Holiday Celebration truly is lovely. Admittedly, it's all awkwardly over-the-top, silliness and flamboyant – but doesn't that represent precisely what the holiday season is about? And the words she speaks might be absurd, but the walk she's walking seems authentically shop-bought.
Whatever she attempts, she pulls off with style. Her cooking looks delicious, the wreath she creates is breathtaking, her presents are almost too pretty to unwrap. Not a single thing is mediocre or aesthetically displeasing – even the way she secures her kitchen garment is artful and chic. She doesn't toss a dish in the microwave, it "takes a twirl", and she creases gift paper like an origami guru. She also seems to be thoroughly enjoying herself the entire time. How could any hate-watcher not be charmed, bursting with seasonal cheer and left with a powerful yearning for handmade crackers or a vegetable display where greens is organized in the likeness of a wreath?
Meghan was once an actress for a living, naturally, but even so, after the intensity of scrutiny she has endured ever since she met Prince Harry, even a hypothetical offspring of Meryl Streep and Judi Dench would struggle to act this naturally. Her refusal to change or even moderate her shtick, regardless of it being so persistently, widely parodied, is strangely reassuring. In our uncertain world, here is one thing we can rely on: Meghan will stay true to form, whatever happens. We will forever know our position with her.
If you're not yet convinced by her message, a reminder that will surely come as a comfort: you don't have to. We don't have mandatory conscription anymore, and should it be reinstated, it would be improbable to include streaming With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. If, conversely, you willingly check it out and are gripped with longing about her flawless Christmas, all is not lost either. Be you a royal or a office worker, few children fully understands the effort and hard work their parent does in the holiday season. So you can console yourself by envisioning her children'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 candy.
