With Love, Meghan

Some of her enthusiasm might rub off on you. Some, or all, may rub you the wrong way. But if you embrace lifestyle programming as a soothing agent, you may be just as content to put the haters on mute and flop on the couch like a collapsed meringue as these four-plus new hours float on by.

Markle is clearly able to bond and connect with people – and there’s no doubt about her hosting capabilities – so had these been the focus this could have made a very good food programme. But they are outweighed by the focus on aspirational, good living that is otherwise so parodically behind the times it actually features a scene of Markle eating avocado toast.

For some, With Love, Meghan may hit the spot as an escapist irony watch. Others may balk at the interminable lifestyle churn (homemade bath salts, herb picking with trugs).

With Love, Meghan is a dusting of flower sprinkles that can’t hide the blandness of the cookie—a polite but distant dispatch from a rented kitchen down the road in lieu of truly welcoming us into her life.

It is all the relentless smiling, the desperate upbeatness of this high-spec, lavish production, that jars. At least I suspect it will with a more cynical British audience. Americans may feel differently.

There isn’t enough here to justify the running time, nor its star’s belief we’ll keep watching. The show plays out like a forced march, one in which Meghan’s guests must, as the price of getting to share an afternoon in a made-for-TV kitchen with her, praise her first.

The show simultaneously strains for aspiration and relatability in a way that never gels.

Fantastic. Light, calm, relaxing, informative, uplifting. A perfect antidote to the hellscape currently being created in America by traitorous would-be oligarchs. Thank you, Meghan and friends, for sharing some beautiful aspirational content that gives me a breath of much-needed happiness.

A great escape from the crazies of the world. Very engaging and relatable. For any woman or man who loves food, hosting and is thrilled about showing love and kindness, this series will add to your arsenal of practical ways of fostering relationships and diving into your passion and creativity. A wonder and a freshness to our screen. We have choices with what we feed our souls, I choose, love, kindness and life.

I'm not a Meghan hater but she comes across as pretty unlikeable in this show. She hosts a different friend each episode and basically she spends the whole time trying really hard to impress them with her decor, cooking, crafts, gardening, etc. I didn't find it fun to watch, like lifestyles of the rich and famous. Instead of feeling aspirational or escapist, it just feels exhausting because she is trying so hard and so obviously to make everything seem perfect. I gave it 3 stars because the production is pretty and I might watch it to try to fall asleep. On the other hand, I'm not sure it would work because it might just make me tense and anxious for her. Part of what makes Martha Stewart fun to watch, by comparison, is that although she is also a perfectionist, it comes across as intrinsically motivated and that she has no f's to give what you think of her.

Imagine having an entire army of PR people, as good as money can buy, and they STILL fail to make you look remotely good.

See you next tuesday, Meghan. Who wants to watch this person do *anything*, let alone try to be the next Martha Stewart? Martha Stewart doesn't even want to be Martha Stewart.