With Love, Meghan review: Has the Duchess reimagined the lifestyle genre?
The eight-part series is available to stream on Netflix now.
After all the hype - but strangely not much marketing in recent weeks - the Duchess of Sussex’s lifestyle show has arrived on Netflix. The blurb promises us that she’ll be “reimagining the genre” - which is a tall order when you consider she walks in the footsteps of house and home gurus like Martha Stewart, Gwyneth Paltrow and, recently, Pamela Anderson.
Each of these have their unique selling powers turned into mega-brands - Martha’s all-round expertise, Gwyneth’s willingness to visit women’s parts previously ignored, Pamela’s swapping of bathing suit for buckets of chicken feed. Meghan’s previous USP was feuding with the royal family from exile. With such discussion put firmly to one side, what fresh does her show offer?
Because the Duchess is now a beekeeper at her beautiful California home, the focus of episode one is all about honey. Cue lots of shots of her grinning while an unnamed minion - presumably a veteran beekeeping professional - does the gritty work of extracting the honey. Meanwhile, Meghan murmurs various witticisms like “good hives for good vibes” and “busy bees”. And a lot of things are incredible.
Then we’re into the house (not her house, a technicality she bats away like a pro, but something that renders the loving shots of seeds and nuts in jars on shelves about as personal as a John Lewis ad). For Meghan, we hear it’s all about creating moments to let her guests know she was thinking of them - by inviting them to this strange house to help her prep? It’s a funny old fudge.
For episode 1 it’s her dear friend, formerly Suits makeup artist, Daniel - who is suitably thrilled when he gets to zest the lemon over some pasta, and reminds us that for Meghan, “you’ve always shown your love through food,” which is fortunate for the premise of the show.
Finally, they sit down to take cake and marvel at their surroundings - pool, trees, blue sky, mountains. “What is this view?” they ask. Nobody knows because nobody’s been to this house before.
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This isn’t the most offensive TV show in the world, and useful for those who need to know how to pour Epsom salts into a jar, pour boiling water over pasta and daisies on a plate, but Brooklyn Beckham needn’t worry about giving up his chef’s hat just yet.
Meghan says she’s hoping to make magic out of “elevating ordinary things”. But this ordinary? Will enough people find basic sufficiently beautiful to get the hordes buying the merchandise as is the plan? Time will tell. Has Meghan reimagined the genre as promised? Not so much, but I’ll keep watching.
With Love, Meghan will be released on Netflix on Tuesday 4th March. Sign up for Netflix from £5.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.
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