Everything that happens on Meghan Markle’s inane new Netflix show
With Love, Meghan is a lifestyle fever dream
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It takes a special mix of qualities to become a true cultural lightning rod. You need to be admirable and aspirational in some ways and absolutely insufferable in others. Taylor Swift has it. Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni are getting there. And perhaps queen of them all is Meghan née Markle, the Duchess of Sussex—the best/worst thing to happen to the British monarchy this century.
On the one hand, Meghan seems to have a commendable passion for women’s rights and social justice issues. She was, objectively, horribly mistreated by the racist British press and the British royal family. And I generally find her and Prince Harry to be a very sweet couple. On the other hand, she suffers from the personal downfall of many a Millennial woman: the irrepressible urge to be a lifestyle influencer—something she’s now channeling into her new eight-episode Netflix series, With Love, Meghan.
As someone who also came of age during the rise of the Food Network, HGTV, and Martha Stewart and the dawn of Instagram and YouTube tutorials, I get it. I dabbled in this kind of thing myself in a photo blog I ran right after college. And Meghan actually hit it at its sweet spot with her 2014 lifestyle blog, The Tig, which she ran while starring on Suits but had to shut down when she married Prince Harry and took on official royal duties.
Since leaving royal life, however, she’s got the bug again. After a failed podcast and a lifestyle brand that started and ended with sending out 50 jars of jam she personally made, With Love, Meghan is her latest attempt to reharness her mid-2010s influencer impulses. The difference is she now exists in a firestorm of the public eye, the world is burning, and America is slipping further into fascism every day. What more could we need than an “inspiring” series where a rich celebrity royal “reimagines the genre of lifestyle programming” by teaching us to be perfect hosts in our giant Montecito homes?
To be honest, even as someone who expected this series to be sunny and vapid, I was actually kind of shocked by just how inane it is. (Beautiful, watchable, but still inane.) So whether you immediately binged all eight episodes or can’t imagine ever watching this kind of thing, here’s a recap of the low lows and barely higher highs of the series:
Episode 1: “Hello, Honey!”
In a shameless effort to get people to start this show because they think Prince Harry is going to be in it, the first episode is titled “Hello, Honey!” It’s actually about honey bees and we get a riveting scene where Meghan, a year into raising bees, asks, “What’s the lifespan of a bee?”
Instead of opening with a famous guest, the first episode features her makeup artist friend Daniel Martin. I’m sure he’s a great makeup artist, but he’s less competent at cooking and crafting than anyone I’ve ever seen in my life.
Meghan puts together a fancy crudités platter for Daniel (“It’s just chopping veggies!”), who earnestly gushes, “Why doesn’t anyone ever present peas like this?!?”
To her credit, Meghan makes a one-pan pasta dish that does look absolutely delicious.
Meghan helpfully suggests that you can anchor decorative raspberries to the top of a cake with a little bit of extra frosting. Daniel is shocked and awed by this revelation.
Like Meghan, I also studied theater at Northwestern and there are times where she reminds me so much of people I went to school with, it’s eerie.
Episode 2: “Welcome to the Party”
While prepping a frittata for Mindy Kaling, Meghan stops to make her behind-the-camera producer a cup of coffee, which is genuinely quite charming.
Mindy was one of the 50 recipients of the homemade jam! She apparently immediately worried about the hierarchy of where she sat on the list of 50, which, again, is both relatable and insufferable.
In fact, it’s kind of fascinating to watch Mindy’s self-deprecating brand of celebrity clash with Meghan’s almost painful level of earnestness. Mindy jokes that she just hires a woman to go “all out” planning her kids’ birthday parties. Meghan reassures her she can do it herself—but that wouldn’t want that woman to be out of a job, of course.
We can buy a balloon pump for just $20 to make assembling our homemade balloon arches even easier!
Meghan reveals she was a latchkey kid who lived on fast food and microwaved dinners, which is actually a fascinating insight into her current obsession with lifestyle perfection.
She corrects Mindy that she’s Meghan Sussex (technically Meghan, Duchess of Sussex) rather than Meghan Markle, but for clarity and SEO purposes, we must do what we can.
Meghan teaches us how to make goodie bags for a kid’s party by putting small, cheap treats into cute paper bags—a true innovator in the birthday party space!
She also reveals that the UK calls ladybugs “ladybirds.” Mindy jokes that the US is objectively correct, since they’re bugs, not birds. Meghan refuses to weigh in on the issue.
To Meghan’s credit, she makes a rainbow out of fruit that is genuinely very cute (as seen on her newly relauched Instagram). Also, Mindy is so bad at cutting banana slices that Meghan now genuinely seems like a domestic goddess in comparison.
Meghan reassures us it’s okay not to be too fussy with our place settings at our kids’ birthday parties. A simple flower on the cloth napkins is fine.
Mindy has graduated from calling her “Meghan Markle” to just calling her “Meg.” Now that’s a character arc.
Episode 3: “Two Kids from LA”
The show is scored with 1960s pop songs like The Archies’ “Sugar, Sugar” and Marvin Gaye’s “What You Gave Me,” which adds to the feeling that it’s ported over from some kind of frozen alternate reality—like The Village but for open concept kitchens with farmhouse sinks.
This episode features Roy Choi teaching Meghan how to make Korean fried chicken, which is maybe a better premise for this show than her teaching incompetent celebrity friends how to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
While making “quickles” (quick pickles) and kimchi, Meghan and Roy bond over being from LA, appreciating Korean culture, and being so clean they make the bed before they check out of a hotel room. They actually have a very cute dynamic together.
Meghan gives Roy a chance to call out the anti-Asian racism that branded MSG a “bad” flavor enhancer, which I appreciate.
There’s a different, much more endearing vibe to Meghan when she’s trying to make a good impression on an expert stranger than when she’s positioning herself as the lifestyle expert.
Meghan’s crudités obsession is back in full force. In fact, Roy realizes he’s inadvertently offended her when he says “crudités are everywhere but they’re kind of boring.” They laugh it off. This is both the best and the most boring episode yet.
Episode 4: “Love Is in the Details”
This episode features Meghan’s friend/tall girl representative Delfina Figueras. Meghan explains they met through their husbands, who play polo together. By which she means Delfina’s husband Nacho Figueras is the most famous polo player in the world and Delfina herself is a socialite born into one of the richest families in Argentina!
To her credit, Delfina is much more confident in the kitchen than the random American celebrities have been.
So far Prince Harry has only appeared via his voice in the background of little home movie clips. He’s like the Thanos of this show. When will he arrive?!?
Meghan reveals she interned at the U.S. Embassy in Argentina for several months during college, which is kind of wild. She was also a lifelong Girl Scout, which tracks.
While on a hike (“It feels so good to be outside, it’s grounding”), Delfina tells a story about how she didn’t have Legos growing up so she had to build her play cities with twigs and rocks instead. According to Wikipedia, she also grew up on a 500-acre estate!
If you don’t have fresh lavender for your lavender-scented hand towels don’t worry, dried lavender is great too.
We’ve fallen from the delicious looking pasta dish of the premiere to Meghan dumping a big pile of gloopy, overcooked plain noodles into a bowl. It’s the most relatable thing she’s done so far.
It took us four episodes to get to a charcuterie board, which is pretty impressive for a 2020s lifestyle series. Crudités is definitely king here.
Episode 5: “Surprise and Delight”
In a shocking shift of format, this episode opens with Meghan driving around Montecito to do some flower shopping, Barefoot Contessa-style.
Meghan says she wants her life to feel like a Nancy Meyers movie, which, again, is very telling.
Meghan actually has some genuine wisdom to impart about flower arranging, which seems like it should’ve come up sooner. She apparently learned the skill at the baby shower for her son Archie, which I remember being a huge source of drama in her 2022 Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan. (Yes, I will watch as much Harry and Meghan content as Netflix wants to give me.)
Meghan reveals that her favorite music is ’70s soft rock, yacht rock, soul, and “French dinner party music.” The jokes write themselves.
This episode features two of Meghan’s longtime friends: Suits star Abigail “Abbie” Spencer and entrepreneur Kelly Zajfen. Abigail is the ideal guest for this show because she’s funny and self-deprecating, but also has a genuine love and affection for Meghan, who she says was “head of morale” on Suits. Kelly is also there.
Meghan makes a “more beautiful mimosa” by freezing orange juice into rose-shaped ice cubes and pouring champagne over them, which, in fact, is not a mimosa.
We have an entire segment on how to style crudités! I thought we already did that, but I guess you can never have too much crudités. Meghan commiserates with us normies by reassuring us that she, too, doesn’t always have time to make hummus from scratch.
Meghan and her friends salt-bake a whole branzino, which is unrelatable to me, but not in a “she’s rich way” more in a “that’s too much effort in the kitchen for me” way.
The premise of this show is that with attention to detail and some simple swaps, you can easily elevate your hostess game without any extra hassle. I kind of wish she would just say, “This takes a lot of extra effort and time, but I really enjoy doing it!” which would be a much more honest pitch.
Episode 6: “The Juice Is Worth the Squeeze”
It’s game night with the girls! They’re playing American mah-jong because “the mah-jong becomes the background of the expansion of friendship.”
Chef Ramon Velazquez is also there to help Meghan make a taco bar.
We now get a random segment where Meghan dehydrates the excess citrus she collects from her garden. It gives this episode its title, but it’s such a tangent why not just name the episode after the game night theme instead? These are the things I ponder while Megan and Ramon make ceviche.
There’s drama within the group about whose mah-jong tiles they use. Honestly, that is the life I aspire to.
Meghan and her friend Tracy Robbins make customized margaritas in mason jars with name tags tied with twine. The 2010s really are back.
Episode 7: “Elevating the Everyday”
Meghan makes a “harvest basket” for her neighbor Vicky Tsai. It features vegetables from her garden and eggs from her chickens, which come in a carton printed with the label “Archie’s Chick Inn.” I know she’s relaunching her lifestyle store with this series, and now I need to know if the eggs will be for sale. How many chickens does she have?!?
Since Vicky loves coffee creamer, Meghan decides to make a homemade coffee creamer, which I think we can all agree is a bridge too far.
On the other hand, Meghan suggests decanting condiments rather than having “a large jar sitting in the middle of a beautiful tablescape,” which I must reluctantly admit I agree with.
On the other other hand, she starts talking about her croissant presentation having “a strawberry story” and she’s lost me again.
While making Vicky’s family’s potsticker recipe, Meghan gushes, “Oh my gosh, I love hearing the meaningful stories behind things!” Don’t we all, Meghan? Don’t we all.
Vicky gives Meghan an “A++++” for her dumpling making skills and I know Megan will be riding that high for weeks.
Meghan has never heard the word “slurry" before, which is maybe the most shocking thing that’s happened on this series yet.
I broke down and looked at the As Ever website to see what products Meghan is going to start selling this spring. You can’t buy the chili oil she makes in this episode, but you can buy the “flower sprinkles” she’s been putting on everything this season.
There’s some physical comedy hijinks as Vicky and Meghan try to flip their potsticker creation out of the pan! Meghan makes a funny face to the camera that reminds me she used to have a whole entire acting career before all of this.
Vicky won me over during the cooking segment but has lost me now that she’s hawking her skincare line. “When I’m cleansing my skin at night, I think about things that I’m holding onto that are not in service to me anymore.” Living in California is a trip, man.
Episode 8: “Feels Like Home”
For the series finale, Meghan throws a celebratory brunch featuring all the products from her As Ever brand. To be fair, they don’t have labels on them, but now that I looked up the product line, I can’t unsee the synergy.
We get the most revealing bit of Meghan lore yet: She used to teach gift wrapping classes back when she was a struggling actor! At least she’s stayed true to her Type A self, I guess.
Famed farm-to-table restaurateur Alice Waters joins Meghan to make a quiche and lightly judge us all for not eating seasonal produce from our gardens.
We finally get to see the chickens! There are at least seven of them. Meghan apparently rescued most of them from factory farms and spent six months rehabilitating them. You know, as you do.
We get a whole new workroom set for Meghan to write out her brunch menu on a sketch pad she personally lines using a giant plastic template. “No matter how straight you believe that you write, it’s always helpful to have a template!”
It sounds like I’m exaggerating when I say that Meghan writes in perfect calligraphy, but it literally looks like a professional font. She informs us that she got an A- in penmanship class in school but that she would “take the minus for a little bit of character.” I don’t believe her.
Meghan makes homemade shortbread cookies, but notes, “If you just wanted to buy one of those mixes, do it! Make your life easy.” Which seems harmless enough until you realize she does, indeed, sell a shortbread mix (with flower sprinkles!) on her site. Ditto the crepes with raspberry preserves she makes next
Megan notes, “We’re not in the pursuit of perfection, we’re in the pursuit of joy,” which I can tell you with absolute certainty is not how she actually feels inside. (See the paper lining template.)
Prince Harry finally makes a cameo! Let the Infinity Saga begin.
Other stuff I’ve worked on lately: I’m writing weekly reviews of Dardevil: Born Again over on Episodic Medium, and I also reviewed Denise Richards’ new Bravo reality show for The Daily Beast.
The scenery is so gorgeous that I'm somehow not bothered by how twee it is. I like Meghan but can see how it's a bit much for people. I've watched 5 episodes just as a de-stresser and it's working on me!
A little harsh. It’s no different than any other cooking show