Skip it or stream it: A verdict on Meghan Markle’s Netflix show
Less than a week after its debut on Netflix, the lifestyle series “With Love, Meghan” starring Meghan Markle, aka the Duchess of Sussex, is getting a second season. The eight-part series from Archewell Productions was designed to show that the former TV actress is also a young mom who enjoys cooking for her family and entertaining guests.
She invites friends, former coworkers, and even a couple of chefs to help her whip up dishes like Korean-style fried chicken complete with three kinds of glazes, potstickers, and a Victoria sponge. That last item is a “naked” or unfrosted cake she and her makeup artist-turned-friend assemble using three layers of sponge cake sandwiching spirals of cream and fruit preserves.
Business deal
Those preserves are mentioned several times throughout the series as they are obviously part of Markle’s new business venture dubbed As Ever, and that will be rolled out later this year. In fact, actress and director Mindy Kaling mock-laments in episode 2 how she ranked 50th among the 50 people to whom Markle sent a jar.
Each episode follows a blueprint that opens with Markle—or Sussex, as she points out to Kaling—talking a bit about her guest, preparing a dish or drink for them for when they arrive, and the guest’s actual arrival. They then proceed to whatever activity she has planned, whether it’s prepping crudités, arranging a rainbow-colored fruit platter, or making poured candles using “leftover” beeswax—you know, after you’ve harvested the honey from the hive (which she does).
The reviews of “With Love, Megan” have been far from kind, but you have to hand it to Markle because she is able to do what she wants on her own terms. It certainly helps that Archewell Productions is a company she founded in 2020 with her husband, Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex. On the production company’s website, one reads that Markle is “dedicated to illuminating thought-provoking and diverse narratives that underscore common humanity and celebrate community—through scripted and nonscripted TV, film, documentaries, and podcasting.”
Guest chefs
There are a number of interesting bits and pieces scattered throughout the eight episodes, namely the ones with actual chefs like Roy Choi and Alice Waters. While Choi puts Markle to work, making her dice onions and placing the ingredients in sequential order into the blender, Waters is a keen observer, watching quietly as Markle makes a quiche topped with sliced heirloom tomatoes.
The 80-year-old chef who opened Chez Panisse in Berkley, California, in 1971, still retains a childlike interest that is truly endearing. When she and Markle step out to pick lettuce leaves from the vegetable garden where the series was filmed, Waters spots a lush rosemary bush and hugs it. A bowl of eggs laid by Markle’s rescue chickens catches Waters’ eye for their beautiful earth-toned hues. Even a bright orange egg yolk is reason enough to for her to be enthused.
The Korean-style fried chicken and the “quickles” (quick pickles) in the episode with Choi looked deliciously doable. But when she and another guest fail to successfully flip a pan of potstickers on to a serving plate, there’s no take two—they simply laugh about it and then dig in.
Markle also tries her hand at arts and crafts like a balloon arch and the aforementioned candles, but the one she seems to do rather well is arranging flowers. She may not know what a floral frog is, but she is well aware that it helps keep flowers in place.
After a trip to the flower market where she chooses blooms for an alfresco lunch with friends, she proceeds to arrange them in a low, footed container. The resulting arrangement—although a bit messy—is actually pretty good.
“We’re not in the pursuit of perfection. We’re in the pursuit of joy,” she says several times in different ways.
She may not be everyone’s cup of sun tea, but with a few floral sprinkles—her favorite embellishment on cookies, in ice, over salads—she just might grow on you.
“With Love, Meghan” is streaming on Netflix.
