As we discussed, it feels like With Love, Meghan is being purposefully review-bombed. It actually reminds me of the recent glee from music critics when they got their hands on Drake’s latest album – they already had their knives sharpened for Drizzy and they really tore that album to shreds (to be fair, the album was garbage). In the case of WLM, it’s different in the sense that there will always be a large and very vocal contingent of people who despise Meghan and hold her to an impossible standard, that she must be all things all at once. And when she does portray herself as a glossy homemaker who stays in her lifestyle lane, they hate that too. I wanted to highlight this part of the Hollywood Reporter’s review/analysis of WLM, which was originally called “Why ‘With Love, Meghan’ Doesn’t Land With Viewers.” They changed it to “‘With Love, Meghan’ Lacks a Key Ingredient.” Probably because WLM is landing with viewers – it’s already a top-ten Netflix show in dozens of countries, including the US.
Immediately upon the show’s March 4 debut, criticisms roared in from both American and British press, categorizing the series as “an ego trip not worth taking” and an “exercise in narcissism,” adding that long-standing assessments of the former actress and Suits star turned American princess likely underscored Meghan’s reticence to share more of herself with her audience. To an already leery viewer, Meghan lacking the openness and vulnerability that would allow a naysayer to connect with and change their opinion of her doesn’t help. And while it’s unfair to ask Meghan to apologize for her wealth or the world she and her friends who join the show live in, the attempts at being aspirational, like remarking how sweet it is to build a balloon arch by hand for her kids’ parties rather than hire someone else to do it, fall flat when there’s no honest conversation about the difficulties of motherhood with fellow mom guests — an element that would better ground the series for viewers than the overuse of edible flower sprinkles.
Media and public scrutiny of Meghan has been both lengthy and unwarranted since she first became romantically tied to Prince Harry in 2016. Unfortunately, unlike her 2022 Archetypes podcast, which gave listeners a greater understanding of both who she and her guests were outside of the personas placed on them, With Love, Meghan, no doubt in its attempt to protect its host from greater critique, presents her as nothing more than a stereotype of a perfect wife and mother. Without the ingredient of relatability, which audiences crave more than anything, the series doesn’t serve up much more than fancy recipes that, according to the latest data on the price of eggs, most viewers can’t afford to make anyway.
I do think there’s a nugget of truth here, which is that Meghan is reticent to reveal too much or show anything other than a glossy, stylized version of her life. This was a complaint with Archetypes as well – that Meghan at times has difficulty letting her guard down and being a flawed human on Main. Here’s my thing – I’m watching a cooking/lifestyle show to see the lifestyle and the cooking, I don’t need Meghan to sit with an economist and talk about working motherhood and the plight of Millennial women. I just want recipes and fun ideas.
Speaking of recipes, Netflix has all of Meghan’s recipes on their site – go here to see. In the Abigail Spencer episode, she even says “when’s the cookbook coming” or something like that, and Meghan was like, oh, I’m not even thinking about that right now. But this was filmed a year ago – surely, she’s thinking about it now? Especially with Netflix publishing the recipes… hm.
Photos courtesy of Netflix.
