On August 26th, season two of Meghan Markle’s cooking and lifestyle show, “With Love, Meghan” dropped on Netflix. In its first week on Netflix, season one received ~2.6 million views. Season two, which aired within the same year, only managed to pull in fewer than ~2.1 million views in its first week. The show received mostly negative reviews from critics and its audience alike, with What’s On Netflix even calling it, “toe-curlingly unlovable TV,” “a tone-deaf lifestyle show,” and “an ego trip.” Personally, while I always take reviews and ratings into account when choosing a show to watch, they don’t dictate my decision, which is why I chose to give the series a chance.
Meghan has been a controversial figure in the media since she first announced her engagement to Prince Harry in 2018. Some people view her as a modern day Princess Diana, others see her as a brat and grifter who took advantage of her royal status. Since leaving the royal family in 2020, haters and online trolls have only gotten more vitriolic. I started off as a fan of Meghan’s. How much chicer can one get than being an American Hollywood actress turned British Royal? Unfortunately, as the years went on, she lost me. Her consistent whining to the media in her interviews and Netflix docuseries made her appear out-of-touch and conceited. After a while, every time she appeared on my phone or TV, she seemed more dedicated to her self-promotion and persecution complex than the family or charity she claimed to prioritize. Despite what I’ve implied in the last couple sentences, Meghan isn’t irredeemable in my mind and when starting her show I was really hoping that she would win me back. Sadly, she didn’t.
“With Love, Meghan” is the worst thing a TV show can be…boring. Meghan doesn’t have Pam Anderson’s charisma or Rachel Ray’s cooking expertise, and she’s as far as you can get from Martha Stewart who’s able to combine both personality and top-notch culinary skills. The most entertaining moments throughout the show are either one-liners supplied by guests or cringe moments that are so awkward they keep you locked onto the screen. In season one, Meghan went viral for passively-aggressively correcting her “friend” (whom she seemed to have no rapport or history with) Mindy Kaling on her name, becoming visibly annoyed when Mindy called her “Meghan Markle” instead of “Meghan Sussex” which was the title she gained when marrying into the British Royal family. After her and husband Prince Harry stepped back from their royal duties, people have debated whether or not Meghan is still entitled to introduce herself as the region of England that she was once Duchess of. In season two, Meghan mis-identifies a flower, calling hawthorn “honsworth” which some netizens labeled as cringeworthy and embarrassing for the hostess.
The show comes across as overly scripted. Her tips and tricks to being a good hostess seem performative, and like things she found on Pinterest in 2014, not things she watched her family members do or came up with on her own, as she frequently claims they are. In season two, episode three, fashion expert and gay icon, Tan France comes on the show and calls Meghan sprinkling dried flower petals on a dish, “the gayest s— I’ve seen in a long time,” which is probably the best description of her aesthetic life-hacks I’ve heard so far. This is also the funniest line to be muttered throughout the entire series. The best example of Meghan’s inauthenticity seeping through is when she and Mindy Kaling prepare for a kid’s birthday party without any kids or anything that would truly appeal to them. The two prepare large platters of fruit and appetizers (which most children would not be interested in) that the two only nibble at and put together party favors filled with seeds, which, again, seems more like something Meghan would like to get than something her children’s young friends would want. At different points, Meghan also mispronounces “Ricotta” and touches raw chicken with her fingers and her hair down.
Season two, episode two, may just be the worst episode to date. Meghan has botched cyberbullying Chrissy Teigen, as her guest. Chrissy is the only guest so far to make Meghan appear as kind, down-to-earth, and authentic. The two reflect on how similar their paths were, as they were both once briefcase girls on “The Price is Right”. While an overfilled Chrissy and Meghan make sourdough, Chrissy confesses that she had to get her kid’s birthdays tattooed on her arm in order to remember them. She proceeds to attempt to read them out, but when she comes across a tattoo that is somewhat blurry, Chrissy has to resort to consulting her husband (who is off-screen), singer John Legend, to remind her what their son, Miles’s, birthday is. The episode is so exceptionally hard to watch. At one point, the two make rosewater from scratch, and Meghan says, “Now I sound like Bill Nye the Science Guy” when explaining how steam is used in the making of rosewater. The only thing that saves the viewers from dying from boredom is the second-hand embarrassment that never ceases.
I acknowledge that I’m being harsh, so here are the show’s redeeming qualities: the show is very visually captivating. The views of Montecito mansions and gilded gardens invoke a sense of relaxation. The cozy but opulent aesthetic launches the viewer to an aspirational, escapist setting. In season two, episode seven, Meghan is shown packing for a girls’ trip where she gives genuinely pretty good style advice, which is something that she is likely much more suited to advise on than cooking. The show is also great for fans of Meghan and Prince Harry, while Harry doesn’t guest star (he only appears in a cameo in the season one finale), Meghan drops anecdotes regarding him and their two children, Archie and Lilibet, in every episode.
Is “With Love, Meghan” the worst thing to ever appear on Netflix? No, but keep in mind Sharknado (2013) (it’s exactly what it sounds like) was also once on Netflix. If you’re looking for some calming white noise to keep on in the background while you clean your house or laundry, then “With Love, Meghan” is a good choice. If you want to learn cooking and hosting tips or be thoroughly entertained, it’s not a good choice. Seasons one and two of the show were shot at the same time, so the producers weren’t able to take constructive criticism into consideration before filming the latest season. If “With Love, Meghan” is renewed for a third season, maybe Meghan and her team will be able to learn from their mistakes and improve upon the show in order to make it more entertaining.