Admittedly, it's Brimming with Gibberish, Extreme Hosting and Psychobabble. However, I Honestly Cherish Meghan's Holiday Special.
No concerned with the season, it's perpetually hunting season for criticism on the Duchess of Sussex's Netflix series, With Love, Meghan. Reviewers, both professional and armchair, have rarely been so united as when gleefully ripping the program's initial installments to shreds. The general consensus seemed to be a more egregious regal scandal had never been witnessed than the much-discussed pretzel re-packaging incident.
Currently, like a merry renegade master, she has returned once again with a "Holiday Celebration" (or a holiday episode). But this time, things have shifted. The usual elements we've come to expect – psychobabble word salads, overzealous entertaining – are still present, but set of a yuletide episode, the purpose becomes clear. The elements have slid together; it's a flawless festive blizzard.
By this point, Meghan resembles the quirky relative at Christmas celebrations everywhere – providing unsolicited, unnecessary advice, and contributing 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 unexpectedly soothing. And she looks content; she's inflicting a bit of damage.
She knows her each tiny facial movement, utterance and look will be picked apart and scrutinized, but manages to seem carefree and serenely untroubled.
Maybe this is the initial instance in history where that clichéd phrase – "Ignore them, they're just jealous" – could actually be true. Because, you know what?, everything in Meghan's Holiday Celebration truly is delightful. Granted, it's all awkwardly over-the-top, silliness and over the top – but doesn't that represent precisely what Yuletide is all about? And the words she speaks might be absurd, but the life she leads genuinely looks impeccably styled.
Anything she attempts, she accomplishes with flair. Her recipes looks delicious, the holiday arrangement she makes is breathtaking, her gifts are nearly too beautiful to open. Nothing is mediocre or visually unappealing – including the way she fastens her kitchen garment is stylish and elegant. She doesn't throw a dish in the oven, it "has a moment", and she wraps gift paper like an origami guru. She also seems to be genuinely relishing herself throughout. How could any skeptical viewer not be charmed, bursting with festive joy and left with a intense desire for handmade crackers or a vegetable display where broccoli is organized in the form of a Christmas ring?
Meghan used to pretend for a living, obviously, but even so, after the level of scrutiny she has weathered since she started dating Prince Harry, a theoretical combination of Meryl Streep and Judi Dench would have difficulty behaving this genuinely. Her unwillingness to modify or even tone down her persona, despite it being so relentlessly, globally mocked, is strangely reassuring. In our uncertain world, here is something we can count on: Meghan will stay true to form, whatever happens. We will always know our position with her.
If you're remaining skeptical of what she's selling, a reminder that will undoubtedly come as a reassurance: you aren't required to. We don't have mandatory conscription in this country, and if there were, it would be unlikely to include viewing With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. If, conversely, you willingly check it out and are overcome with jealousy about her picture-perfect Christmas, there is hope either. Be you a royal or a everyday person, no kid completely grasps the time and energy their mum does in the holiday season. So you can take heart by imagining her children's faces when they unfold a calligraphy note that says, 'I love you because you are brave,' from a homemade Advent calendar, rather than a candy.