Meghan Markle is back on Netflix.
This time, the Duchess of Sussex is harvesting backyard honey, loading a wicker basket with berries, making bath salts for her house guests and preparing backyard parties all while wearing a pastel linen set.
Even beneath the surface, Meghan’s new series, “With Love, Meghan,” is innocent — especially when weighed against her previous Netflix project, “Harry & Meghan.”
In the 2022 docuseries, Meghan got candid about her experience as a royal and her controversial departure. But “With Love, Meghan,” has no similar confessions.
“If you are looking for tea about the British monarchy, you won’t find it here,” Vogue told potential viewers.
Still, critics are unhappy with the series.
“Unless it becomes a ratings smash (and that isn’t impossible), ‘With Love, Meghan’ doesn’t just represent the hard launch of Duchess of Sussex’s new career as a Martha Stewart-style lifestyle inspo guru; it might also be the final thing she makes for Netflix,” wrote Stuart Heritage, of The Guardian.
Meghan and her husband, Prince Harry, reportedly signed a $100 million deal with Netflix to create an undisclosed number of documentaries, TV series and other content, according to Elle Magazine.
“With Love, Meghan” is the fifth Netflix series from the couple, but it’s not expected to meet the success of the couple’s docuseries, “Meghan & Harry” — which became Netflix’s most-watched documentary debut ever, per CNN.
Despite attempts to rebrand in the years following her royal exit, Meghan has found herself in a lose-lose situation. Her staunch critics will find ways to condemn her whether she is dropping bombshells or making jams.
Here are critic and public reactions to Meghan’s new Netflix series, “With Love, Meghan.”
Reviews
Critics — particularly those from U.K. outlets — slammed Meghan’s lifestyle series as “pointless” and “thirsty,” per The Guardian.
A marginal number of outlets gave semi-positive to positive reviews, most of which note the series puts Meghan back in her element.
Here is what critics are saying about “With Love, Meghan.”
- “If you thought ‘With Love, Meghan,’ the Duchess of Sussex’s new lifestyle show, would be a smug, syrupy endurance watch, and that you would rather fry your eyeballs than sit through it, I have news for you. It is so much worse than that,” wrote Carol Midgley of The London Times.
- Anita Singh, with The Telegraph, slammed the series as “an exercise in narcissism, filled with extravagant brunches, celebrity pals and business plugs.”
- “This show is sensationally absurd and trite, and if you watch it, you know it,” wrote Marina Hyde for The Guardian.
- In a more positive review from Harper’s Bazaar, Bianca Betancourt said the series “proves” Meghan “is right where she belongs.” She added, “Thoughtful, intentional content is truly where the duchess has always thrived.”
- “‘With Love, Meghan’ is queasy and exhausting,” wrote Katie Rosseinsky for the Independent. She continued, “Visiting the Sussexes might not be a fun experience.”
- “This perfectly pleasant and unchallenging show about hanging out with your friends and being a good hostess is the last thing that should be viewed as offensive or, heaven forbid, important,” wrote Kayleigh Donaldson for The Wrap.
- “The show casts the duchess as a perfectly groomed domestic goddess, cooking and entertaining for friends at home in coastal California, a role to which she has seemingly aspired for more than a decade,” noted Steven Kurutz in his review for The New York Times.
- Pat Stacey, from the Irish Independent called the series “bland, tedious and empty.”
Public reactions
“With Love, Meghan” elicited mixed reactions from audiences.
Viewer responses on social media range from extremely critical to praiseworthy.
Here are some public reactions to “With Love, Meghan.”