There’s a scene in the first episode of With Love, Meghan, Meghan Markle’s new Netflix homemaking series, that I rewatched immediately. The clip has been shared—and reshared, commented on, and shared again—on my social feed this week, and I watch it each time I encounter it. What I met at first with disbelief I now greet as a balm each time I see it; this scene has become a bewildered comfort-watch.
The moment in question comes as Meghan preps a welcome tray for an imminent house guest. She prepares her own recipe of bath salts. She puts flowers in vases. (So, so many flowers.) And then, there’s the moment I can’t get enough of. It’s announced as a major hosting tip with great fanfare—or at least as much bombast as Meghan’s muted presence ever delivers in the show.
She then proceeds to grab a bag of what appears to be Trader Joe’s peanut butter pretzels, take the pretzels out of the bag, and put them in another bag, which she then labels “peanut butter pretzels.” That’s it. That’s the big party trick, the secret of a royal millionaire and one of the most famous people in the world for hosting, the glimpse into what it would be like to be the houseguest of a person of such glamour, stature, and mystery: Take things out of one labeled bag and put them in another.
On the one hand, I could watch Meghan take pretzels out of one bag and put them in another bag all day. On the other hand, I’m mystified how this is what I’m watching at all.
When it comes to With Love, Meghan, how could a show that would undoubtedly be greeted with such scrutiny be so utterly innocuous? In an age of TikTok tutorials and personality-driven cooking shows, it’s a failure at both being particularly instructive and at giving us any glimpse into the “real” Meghan—let alone any sort of personableness or starpower that we’ve, for whatever reason, been deprived of.
It’s not entertaining or revelatory. The series is as sanitized and low energy as just about every other entertainment product—be it a podcast or docuseries—that we’ve had from the Sussexes thus far. It is, essentially, taking the same Meghan from one bag and putting it in another.
It’s important to clarify that I don’t harbor the intrinsic, sometimes baseless hate that so many do when it comes to Meghan, whose every career move or appearance seems to be met with thundering global ire. I find her generally likable and, often, serene as a celebrity presence; she’s hardly a fireworks show of charisma, but that’s not a mortal sin in showbusiness. The transgression here, and with so many other projects, is that, each time, we’re being sold that we’re about to witness Meghan and her family be “real”—and it never rings as anything beyond woefully inauthentic.
This is a homemaking series in which Meghan talks constantly about the things she loves to do when hosting in her home, the gardening she loves to do at her own home, the fruits and vegetables and herbs she loves to pick at her home—and it is not filmed at her own home.
Each episode begins with Meghan hyping how thrilled she is to cook and craft and throw parties with her friends, with her busily making tea and food for them to eat when they visit. She and the show are open about the fact that they’re filming on a set, but there’s a strange tension between her desire to show-off how she’d do things at home… and not being at home.
There’s also never been a sense that Martha Stewart levels of cooking and hosting have ever been a passion of Meghan’s—at least not one that’s previously been telegraphed to the public. Combined with her somewhat insecure camera presence and clear discomfort with having to babble narration over every task, you’re never convinced that arranging pieces of fruit into the shape of a rainbow for a kids’ party or making candles out of local beeswax for her friend are things that she is enthusiastic enough about to merit an entire TV show.
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Some of the projects are objectively cute. She has gorgeous handwriting. Netflix owes Mindy Kaling a bonus for injecting the show with sorely needed humor and a hunger for gossip in her episode—leading to the headline-making news that Meghan has adopted the last name Sussex, the same as her children’s. But around what seems like the 45th time she makes an egg dish or garnishes yet another dessert with edible flowers, you can’t help but think, “What’s the point of all of this?”
We learn few new things about Mrs. Sussex and, frankly, even fewer homemaking tips that I’ll try on my own. However, Meghan’s much-talked-about homemade jam is given a special guest star spot in many episodes, and it looks legitimately delicious.
Meghan, you couldn’t convince me to be a fan of your show. But you’ve earned a new jam customer.
