I Know Nothing About Meghan Markle. Here Are My Thoughts on With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration as a First-Time Viewer

I’m going to admit something: I don’t know anything about Meghan Markle or her Netflix show. I’ve managed to avoid any chatter about With Love, Meghan as much as I’ve avoided chatter about other things, like Wicked and Taylor Swift’s many concert films and whatever “Marvel” means. This is less to do with cultural snobbery, per se, than it is about me having a very specific sense of what I’m into (true crime, LA-based fiction from the ’90s, Bravo franchises), and an unwillingness to tread new ground if I feel it won’t appeal.

But maybe I’m missing out. Maybe I ought to open my mind and heart to With Love, Meghan, which may not be aimed towards audiences like me (renters who have never thought about baubles in their life beyond a passing acknowledgement of their existence), but which I could nonetheless glean something from. To that end, I decided to watch With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration, a one-off episode in which the Duchess of Sussex “shares her favorite holiday traditions, seasonal crafts and family recipes with friends old and new in this festive special” to see if I could learn—or even just feel—something.

The episode begins with Markle offering tips on how to string lights on a Christmas tree. “When I string the lights on a tree, I do it inside so it’s lit from within,” she says, smiling at her towering tree, which is adorned in dry fig slices. Okay! After this, she explains how she makes advent calendars for her kids made from cloth. In lieu of chocolate, she writes notes such as, “I love you because you’re so brave.” I don’t have children, but I try to imagine how I would have felt if my mother had done such a thing. Confused, probably, but hey, we can’t knock sustainable alternatives to festive traditions.

Next up Markle prepares cacio e pepe gougères for restaurateur Will Guidara. “Dab that gougère,” she says, before nudging them in the oven. Then Guidara is in the kitchen, and they’re chatting about hosting. “When I think about the great dinner parties I’ve been to over the years, I don’t think about what I ate,” says Guidara, as the two of them clink glasses. “I just remember whether or not I left with my heart…” They both finish the sentence in unison, smiling: “Feeling full!” Is this too American for me? I find myself wondering, not for the first time. “The perfect imperfection that comes from human connection,” he says. “Yes!” cries Markle, as if Guidara just said something impossibly profound. I look at the clock: we’re 10 minutes in.