Reviewers rap Meghan Markle's new TV lifestyle series
Meghan Markle's new TV lifestyle series was slammed by reviewers on Tuesday as 'gormless lifestyle filler' with a 'tangible desperation' after it premiered on Netflix, Dailymail reported.
The Duchess of Sussex launched 'With Love, Meghan' earlier in the morning in what is being seen as a make-or-break moment for the couple's $100million streaming deal.
It comes five years after Meghan and Harry acrimoniously stepped down as senior members of the Royal Family and began a new life in California, which has been followed by a series of barbs about other royals and the struggles they had in the UK.
The new series 'With Love, Meghan' has come out, with eight episodes timed at about half an hour each launching at 8am in the UK and midnight in California.
In Amanda Platell's Mail+ column, she said the show is 'so awful it is almost compelling', while Prince Harry would be as 'desperate' as Meghan for it to be successful so they can continue their 'millionaire LA lifestyles'.
Others have warned this could be the last show Meghan and her husband Prince Harry ever make for Netflix if it is not a ratings success - describing it as 'pointless'.
One said it shows the Duchess is 'attempting to cling to fame by any means possible', while another described how she was 'joylessly filling kids' party bags with seeds'.
The eight episodes, which are each 33 minutes long, see Meghan inviting famous friends to a California estate where she shares cooking, gardening and hosting tips.
It comes after the 43-year-old former actress renamed her lifestyle brand As Ever, switching from the name American Riviera Orchard just weeks before the launch after facing trademarking setbacks – with Netflix now a partner in her business.
The couple hopes the new show will be a hit for Netflix and, therefore, secure the long-term future of their bumper deal, but reception in Britain has been poor so far.
In Platell's column, she writes: 'Even if social media explodes with criticism of the show, it could be a win-win - it is so awful it is almost compelling and sources within Netflix hope it will prove irresistible to a 'hate-watch' audience of those who don't like Meghan.'
Guardian TV writer Stuart Heritage said the series was 'so pointless it might be the Sussexes' last TV show' and 'might also be the final thing she makes for Netflix'.
He said: “After Harry's dud polo docuseries, the couple need to get back to giving people the dramatic monarchy revelations they crave – not a Duchess joylessly filling kids' party bags with seeds.”
This was a reference to episode two when she offered tips on packing party bags to hand out at the end of a celebration, suggesting parents add 'seeds that they can plant' - and that it would 'give them something to do on the car ride home'.
Mr Heritage wrote: “Nobody wants to see Meghan making decorative ladybird crostini with Mindy Kaling. With Love, Meghan is the sort of gormless lifestyle filler that, had it been made by the BBC, would be used to bulk out episodes of Saturday Kitchen.
“There is a version of Meghan that people want to see on screen. But it isn't the joylessly joy-filled rictus version of With Love, Meghan.
“'No, they want to see the furious, righteous Meghan from Harry & Meghan. In other words, what they want is a proper Meghan reality show.”
In the Guardian, Marina Hyde writes: “The mildest way to describe this show is as a ghastly artefact of a particular cultural era that recently met its apocalypse.”
She adds that for Meghan it was 'supposed to assist her transformation into domestic guru', adding: 'If you don't mind arching an eyebrow at the lifestyle lunacies of fellow Montecito resident Gwyneth Paltrow, then at least have some consistency and give yourself a pass on this one. This show is sensationally absurd and trite, and if you watch it, you know it.'
In the Radio Times, columnist Caroline Frost cast doubt on claims in the Netflix blurb that Meghan would 'reimagine the genre of lifestyle programming' with her series.
She wrote: “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.”
Anita Singh, the Telegraph's arts and entertainment editor, gave the show a two-star review and said it was an 'exercise in narcissism, filled with extravagant brunches, celebrity pals and business plugs’.
She wrote: “The format is this: Meghan invites people to her pretend house – the show is filmed in an $8million farmhouse down the road from her $14million home – and they tell her how amazing she is. This happens for eight episodes.
“It is all about 'the joy of hostessing' because Meghan is extremely welcoming to everyone, which you will know unless you are her father, her siblings, her father-in-law, her stepmother-in-law, her brother-in-law, her sister-in-law, 99 per cent of her husband's old friends or Piers Morgan.”
Katie Rosseinsky, senior culture and lifestyle writer at The Independent, gave the show a one-star review and said it was 'queasy and exhausting'.
She wrote: “The heady blend of aesthetic curation, inspiring truisms and those inescapable edible flowers might well leave you feeling a bit queasy – or simply worn out at the prospect of having to adequately perform gratitude for all the thoughtful touches involved in Meghan’s “guest experience” (“You filled this cellophane bag with peanut butter pretzels for me? How lovely!”).
“After a few episodes, I need a lie down. Please don’t feel the need to pop a care package by the bed.”
The Spectator's Alexander Larman said the show was 'Brand Sussex's final hope' and described it as an 'undistinguished thing' that he had hoped would never be aired after it was delayed due to the Californian wildfires in January.
He wrote: “There is a tangible desperation here, a visceral sense of need and desire for this show to bring Meghan back into the spotlight, not as the wounded victim of a thousand negative headlines, but as the perky, all-American tradwife that her advisors have doubtless told her the public are receptive to.
“So she will cajole her children on screen, and rent a £5million house to do the filming in, and produce Instagram content by the truckload.
“With Love, Meghan is less a lifestyle show and more an unintentionally revealing insight into an intelligent and ambitious woman attempting to cling to fame by any means possible.”
Irish Times TV writer Ed Power was also unimpressed and said: 'Her crudités are crude, her home-made candles look like something from the homeware aisle in Dealz [Ireland's Poundland], and the 'banter' between host and guests has all the spark of a dead battery on a frosty morning.
“Lustreless and bland, it doesn't even rise to the status of a hate-watch. With Love, Meghan may well grab enough eyeballs to justify all that cash Netflix has stumped up – but this is nonetheless a moribund addition to the lifestyle TV genre.”
Meanwhile BBC News royal correspondent Sean Coughlan pondered whether the show marks a 'final departure from any prospect of a return to palace life' for Meghan.
He wrote: “The whole breezy, commercial charm of the show is a world away from the royals. This feels like looking forwards to a new future, without any more haggling over the past.
“Everything that Meghan does gets intense attention. That's partly because of how she polarises opinion. People who think she's wonderful and people who can't stand her are all interested in watching more.
“This series will inevitably get attention because of Meghan's involvement. But will there be enough for either her fans or her detractors to get their teeth into? How strongly can you feel about a cake with a few raspberries on top? Opinions will be divided. As Ever.”
And in a tongue-in-cheek review in The Standard, writer Melanie McDonagh said: “The great thing about With Love, Meghan – the Duchess of Sussex's latest Netflix show - is that it's all so simple!
“What you really need are lots of rustic brown labels so you can make your special guests feel special by personalising their very own bath salts or pot of raspberry and peach preserve (her latest!), any amount of rustic ribbon and glass teapots so you can see your very own freshly snipped mint or ginger with cayenne brewing prettily, and large flat bottomed fruit baskets for gathering your own blackberries from thornless bushes.”
She added: “So, will this series fly? For laughs perhaps. But if you're the kind of person who wants to be shown how to make a daisy chain or who gets a thrill from seeing the home life of our Duchess as she wants us to see it, or who wants tips on making pasta the way no Italian ever did (sitting on veg, in a frying pan cooked with water from a kettle), why it'll be just your cup of tea. In a glass pot, natch.”
However, there was praise in Harper's Bazaar from Bianca Betancourt, who previously joined the Sussexes for their Colombia tour last August as the pool reporter.
She wrote: “Meghan really does a strike a fine balance of giving audiences what they want to see (like gorgeous Montecito views along with a peek into the duchess's personality) while still servicing the viewer.
“All the recipes do look quite good without being unobtainable for the regular person at home—and now all I can think about is officially attempting to make my first salt-baked whole branzino or a fluffy honey lemon naked layered cake later this spring.”
At the end of her new show, Meghan seemingly made a subtle dig at the Royal Family, saying her 'new chapter' was 'part of that creativity that I've missed so much'.
The Duchess of Sussex also spoke about 'healing' something 'broken' after she previously accused royal aides of preventing her from expressing her true self during her time in Britain.
She closed the last of eight episodes with a speech to guests including her husband Prince Harry and mother Doria Ragland , saying: “I just want to raise a glass to you guys.
“This feels like a new chapter that I'm so excited that I'm able to share and I've been able to learn from all of you. So I just thank you for all the love and support.
“And here we go, there's a business! All of that is part of that creativity that I've missed so much, so thank you for loving me so much and celebrating with me.”
Meghan is also seen speaking to Harry about the party she organised for the show: “It's good, right?' He says: 'Well done. You did a great job.' Meghan adds: 'Thank you.' And Harry then says: 'I love it.'