Admittedly, it's Brimming with Gibberish, Extreme Hosting and Psychobabble. Yet I Truly Love Meghan's Holiday Special.
No concerned with the season, it's always fair game for criticism on the Duchess of Sussex's Netflix series, With Love, Meghan. Critics, both professional and armchair, have rarely been so united as when enthusiastically shredding the program's earlier episodes to pieces. The common opinion was that a greater royal outrage had hardly ever taken place than the now-infamous pretzel re-packaging incident.
Now, like a merry renegade master, she is back once again with a "Christmas Special" (also known as a yuletide episode). Yet now, it's different. The usual elements we've come to expect – meaningless jargon salads, intense hospitality – remain, but set of a holiday show, the purpose becomes clear. The elements have slid perfectly; it's a flawless festive blizzard.
By this point, Meghan has become the oddball family member at Christmas celebrations everywhere – dispensing random tips, and supplying 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 quite a personality, but her presence is familiar and strangely comforting. And she seems happy enough; she's not doing any harm.
She is aware her every micro expression, utterance and look will be picked apart and judged, but nonetheless looks carefree and too blessed to be stressed.
It could be this is the first occasion in history where that old chestnut – "Don't listen, it's pure jealousy" – may well be true. The reason is, let's face it, everything in Meghan's Holiday Celebration truly is lovely. Yes, it's all painfully excessive, silliness and flamboyant – but isn't that exactly what Christmas is for? And the talk she's talking might be laughable, but the example she sets genuinely looks beautifully curated.
Anything she sets her mind to, she executes with flair. Her cooking looks tasty, the holiday arrangement she makes is stunning, her gifts are almost too pretty to open. Nothing is ordinary or visually unappealing – even the way she secures her apron is stylish and elegant. She doesn't toss a meal in the microwave, it "takes a twirl", and she creases wrapping paper like an craft master. She also seems to be thoroughly enjoying herself from start to finish. How could any hate-watcher not be convinced, bursting with seasonal cheer and left with a powerful yearning for personalized Christmas crackers or a vegetable display where greens is arranged in the likeness of a festive circle?
Meghan used to pretend for a living, obviously, but nonetheless, after the level of examination she has faced ever since she met Prince Harry, the love child of two legendary actresses would struggle to act this authentically. Her unwillingness to change or even tone down her shtick, regardless of it being so relentlessly, widely parodied, is weirdly comforting. In our volatile world, here is one thing we can depend on: Meghan will stay true to form, whatever happens. We will always know our position with her.
If you're still not buying what she's selling, a point that will surely come as a comfort: you are not obligated to. We don't have the draft these days, and if there were, it would be unlikely to include streaming With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. If, on the other hand, you choose to watch and are gripped with envy about her flawless Christmas, there is hope either. Be you a duchess or a everyday person, no kid fully understands the time and energy their mother does in the holiday season. So you can take heart by imagining the young royals' faces when they unfold a handwritten message that says, 'I love you because you are brave,' from a DIY festive calendar, instead of a sweet treat.
