Meghan Markel jumped right into 2025 with a resurgence on Instagram (under the @meghan handle) and a trailer for her new Netflix show, With Love, Meghan.
Let’s start with Instagram: it’s giving Tampax commercial but honestly, how is anyone going to make Instagram relevant or interesting in 2025? That’s nearly impossible. Add to that the blatant and unchecked manipulation of content, diving into the numbers is useless. With this post, the medium is the message and the message is clear: ARO (or whatever it is going to be called) is in full swing.
The Netflix trailer gives us a fuller picture of what being a multihyphenate lifestyle mogul looks like to Meghan. I’ll probably write a review when I’ve had a chance to watch a few episodes, but let’s talk about what we are seeing.
The production value is high – bright colours, lots of gliding around the grounds, Meghan clipping herbs and edible flowers and making “mistakes” that are charming and not messy. The vibe here is “heavily edited and controlled but meant to look casual.” It’s tight, almost claustrophobic in its framing. Meghan has star power and we can’t judge an entire series off of a short clip (that’s like judging a movie by paparazzi pictures on set) but the first impression is it is pretty run-of-the-mill lifestyle content.
Clearly she is not looking to reinvent her own wheel. There’s an 80% rule at play here: 10% of people despise her and 10% adore her. The Netflix audience is the other 80% - not obsessed with her. The “I don’t care one way or the other about these two” is the audience she wants to attract and she is doing that not by relatability, but by showing us how idealistic her world is.
We imprint our values onto celebrities and what “we” want Meghan to be can never be fulfilled; she represents too many things to too many people in too many worlds. In that way, she is a bit stuck. If she tried to make ordinary meals, then it’s fake. If there’s a philanthropic angle, she’d be accused of being exploitative. If she showed too much of her real life, she’d be accused of taking advantage of her family and title. All Meghan can really be is herself and I do think her interests are homemade jam and peonies. She’s been quite consistent about that.
She wants the audience to find joy by witnessing her joy in a Montecito mansion with unseen domestic help, with a camera crew, endless ingredients and abundance. This isn’t an “eat the rich” post but an observation that Meghan doesn’t budget for groceries and she isn’t pretending otherwise. This is something that her team must have discussed: how to perform beauty and leisure without leaning too much into luxury. She isn’t trying to be a gauche Real Housewife but she’s also not trying to act like a “normal” person either.
This setup is unabashed aspiration, which doesn’t match a lot of food shows. I’m focusing on her cooking but gardening, hosting and crafting will also be covered. (The Daily Mail gleefully pointed out that this is not their house and, yeah, duh. Filming a TV show in one’s home is chaotic, it would disrupt her kids and it would be a huge security risk for them. Most shows are filmed on a set, including “kitchen” cooking shows and even Instagram Reels. There is nothing new to this.)
Food hosts are not reality TV stars; they are part host, part teacher, and part friend. They speak directly into the camera and the best hosts have very identifiable styles. Ina Garten is comforting good taste, Martha Stewart is authoritarianism meets perfection, Guy Fieri is goofy enthusiasm, and Samin Nostrat is an endearing expert and teacher. Alison Roman is undone hosting for Millennials, Anthony Bourdain was an appreciator and cultural commentator. Each of these people have a deep resume; Ina Garten owned a renowned gourmet food shop in the Hamptons (which she bought in 1978!); Martha Stewart owned a catering company before starting her empire; the rest of them worked at kitchens. Samin Nostrat and Anthony Bourdain both worked as bussers and climbed the ranks to become authors of insightful and important books and beloved TV stars; Alison Roman worked at a bunch of hot restaurants and bakeries before becoming a Bon Appetit writer. Guy Fieri turned his unserious persona into a massive Food Network footprint with a very solid philanthropic arm. Pretty much every food personality, from Gordon Ramsay to Lidia Bastianich to David Chang, has a long career that started in the kitchen. Meghan lacks a key ingredient in this field: work experience.
A lack of professional experience isn’t impossible to overcome: Selena Gomez’s cooking show has done quite well for Max. Chrissy Teigen went from model to food influencer, with a robust product line and several cookbooks. Cooking shows have a wide range of categories, from competition to teaching novices. There’s always room. But what category does With Love, Meghan fall into: are we meant to just admire and observe her, or are we supposed to learn from her?
Is this a lesson on how to present an “elevated” (her word, not mine!) veggie platter or should we just marvel at her garden? Meghan is beautiful and has a very calming, comfortable aura on camera, the set is airy and the dishes and flowers are pretty. This will certainly be enough for some viewers to comfort-watch this show. But will there be a story? Polo is not a hit, not in any way that matters to Netflix. Her podcast was not a hit. Harry & Meghan did well, but that still had the remnants of family drama. If we look at it without emotion or bias, Harry and Meghan have yet to make an impactful piece of media that does not involve the Royal Family.
But what about the Tig! I understand the need to defend her (as the backlash is unrelenting) but the way some people talk as if the Tig was this mega-famous lifestyle blog is delulu, as the kids say. It was her hobby and maybe she was good at it, but it wasn’t a blip on the media landscape. It’s the same as people who rage in my inbox that Meghan was a famous actress before Harry; she was a solid working actress (which is an accomplishment) but not a big star by any metric. To quote David Beckham, BE HONEST.
This isn’t to say this show is her only shot. Meghan generates enough interest to power a nuclear plant – people love talking about her. She is a headline generator all over the world and if this show doesn’t quite take, it will not be her last chance to do whatever she wants.
With Love, Meghan premieres January 15 and she will need to do some press. My guess? February Vogue cover – US and the UK double edition.
What do you think of the trailer? Let us know at The Squawk! (App link here)
