Let’s start with Pamela. Her show, airing on Canada’s Flavour Network, is a love letter to her vegan roots, filmed in her Vancouver Island home—a place she’s tied to through family and personal history. She’s not just posing for the cameras; she’s collaborating with world-class chefs, learning from them, and sharing a lifestyle she’s lived for over 30 years. It’s genuine.
Then there’s Meghan. “With Love, Meghan,” dropped on Netflix like a carefully curated PR stunt, reeks of imitation. The parallels with Pamela’s show are too blatant to ignore—cooking with celebrity pals, the airy “relatable” vibes, even the high-fives in the kitchen. It’s as if Meghan scrolled through Pamela’s trailer, jotted down the highlights, and said, “I’ll have what she’s having.” But where Pamela’s authenticity shines, Meghan’s attempt lands with a thud. Filmed in a rented Montecito mansion—not even her own home—it’s a staged fantasy of domestic bliss that feels about as real as a reality TV script. She’s not a passionate cook with a story to tell; she’s a former Z list actress desperately trying to rebrand, borrowing from others to pad out her thin resume. Her show’s trailer screams control-freak perfectionism, every flower arrangement and frittata meticulously placed to scream “look at me,” but it’s hollow. No soul, no originality—just a pale echo of better ideas.
Meghan Markle‘s upcoming show has been brutally mocked by the Pointless star Richard Osman and Guardian columnist Marina Hyde.
The duo mocked the trailer of the show for its inauthentic ‘farm to table bull****’ on the latest episode of their The Rest is Entertainment podcast.
They derided the highly-produced trailer for the show, which showed Meghan, 43, inviting friends and famous guests to a California estate where she shares cooking, gardening and hosting tips.
Meghan’s cringeworthy phrase to ‘find joy in every moment’ was also laughed at, with Marina joking ‘she is the godhead, you are supposed to be the worshipper’.
The culture writer said the show, titled With Love, Meghan, ‘looked like Instagram’ and had an expensive aesthetic similar to ‘trad wife’ and ‘luxury would-be mogul’.
Richard and Marina even jested that the show might change halfway through into a ‘brilliant satire’ or be used to launch a ‘sitcom’.
But despite their reservations, both media experts believe the show could be successful, with Marina claiming it would attract people wanting to ‘hate-watch’ it while hungover.
They said it was the ‘last throw of the dice’ for Meghan’s $100million Netflix deal, as her and Harry’s recent shows had not brought in the required number of viewers.
Due to be released on March 4, the new series will see the Duchess and her guests roll ‘up their sleeves in the kitchen, the garden, and beyond, and invite you to do the same’, according to Netflix promotional material.
Guests include Roy Choi, Mindy Kaling, Alice Waters, ‘with additional acclaimed chefs and special friends’ – and there will be eight episodes, each lasting 33 minutes.
Discussing the show, Marina said: ‘There appears to be what I would call a lot of farm to table bull*****. It is the kind of rosemary cocktail garnish of it all.’
Richard then quips: ‘They should have called it that.’
Marina said: ‘You know, that slightly religious way of talking about laying the table, tablescaping, in the parlance of the naff. The aesthetic is somewhat trad wife, somewhat luxury would-be mogul because it is very expensive.
‘By the way, we should say maybe it turns into brilliant satire half-way through, it hasn’t fully dropped and we don’t know, maybe it becomes an absolutely groundbreaking programme.’
Richard jokes: ‘A sitcom. That would be a hell of a way to launch a sitcom. She is an actor, it could be. That would be great.’
Marina said: ‘That would be absolutely brilliant, if it became a sort of Curb Your Enthusiasm style ripping the whole format apart. You could never make proper sitcoms after this.’
Meghan Markle introduces her new Netflix series ‘With Love, Meghan’
Richard added: ‘Yeah and Prince Harry plays Jeff.’
Marina laughed and said ‘Prince Jeff. Which is a great idea. But anyway I don’t think we are going to see that.’
It is understood Meghan will use the show to launch her new brand ‘As Ever’, which will sell lifestyle goods to her fans.
The Duchess said on February 18 that the venture was replacing the old name of American Riviera Orchard because that name limited her to locally-produced goods.
Discussing the trailer, which released in January, Marina said: ‘She says she wants to create joy in every moment, what would create joy for me is that if people stop talking about creating joy. There is just something so extreme and religious about that.’
The House of Games star Richard then joked: ‘But also in every moment? Honestly you can have too much joy. Don’t you think?
Marina Hyde said: ‘She says she has always loved the idea of taking something ordinary and elevating it.’
Richard interrupts her by quipping, ‘like Harry’.
Marina responds with a laugh saying ‘you beat me to it’, before clarifying ‘we don’t actually think that we’re joking.’
The two media experts discussed the Duchess’ show on their smash hit podcast The Rest Is Entertainment.
Produced by Gary Lineker’s podcasting company Goalhanger, it pulls back the curtain on television, film, journalism and more, with the pair using their years of knowledge, enviable contact book and wit to bring alive the world of entertainment.
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On the episode Marina said: ‘But Netflix says this is “going to reimagine lifestyle programming”. At this point they just have to say anything because they are $100million dollars in the hole to these people.’
Richard said: ‘The prize is enormous. If you can become a [Gweneth] Paltrow or a Martha Stewart, the money is sort of endless. And it is possible she can do certainly everything you see looks great.
Marina said: ‘It looks like Instagram’, with Richard quickly replying ‘but yeah that’s what people like’.
She continued: ‘The TV they have made is the TV they think people should be watching, rather than what people want to watch. All of that has been a washout.
‘The story is themselves, and that is all it ever has been. But they can’t continue to complain about their terrible treatment at the hands of the Royal Family because they don’t appear to have any contact with them to speak of.
‘They live in the lap of luxury, they have got Netflix money, so they cannot winge anymore so they have got to find a new thing to do.’
Richard then continues to mock the show and Meghan’s motto, cattily replying: ‘I think they have got to find joy in every moment.’
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Marina replies: ‘No create, they didn’t just find it. She is the presiding intelligence.
Richard says with a smile: ‘She is not foraging for joy.’
Marina said: ‘She is the godhead, you are supposed to be the worshipper.’
Marina continued: ‘This is the last throw of the dice from Netflix with these two. They are coming to the end of the deal, this is it. We don’t want to do any more documentaries.’
Richard said: ‘It doesn’t feel unreasonable though as a throw of the dice.’ Marina replies: ‘I also agree.’
When discussing Meghan’s polarising nature on the episode, Richard said: ‘But she is not polarising if you like her.
‘The lovely thing about TV ratings is that it doesn’t matter if people don’t like you because they just don’t watch. You don’t need most people to watch a TV show.’
Marina disagreed, replying: ‘Untrue and I’m gonna come to that at the end of this whole thing because I really wanna talk about “hate-watching”.
Richard said: ‘You know what I would be fascinated because I don’t buy that “hate-watching” thing apart from the first half an hour of something and apart from the odd Instagram clip.
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‘I don’t buy it in terms of if Meghan wants to have that show running for 10 seasons, that’s not a “hate-watch” thing, that is “a lot of people like it thing”.
Since the release of the trailer in January, Meghan has come under criticism for its close similarity to other cooking shows.
But Richard and Marina reject this, arguing that all cooking and lifestyle shows share similar recipes and themes.
The series was announced the day after she returned to Instagram for the first time since 2020.
Meghan wrote: ‘I have been so excited to share this with you! I hope you love the show as much as I loved making it.
‘Wishing you all a fantastic new year! Thanks to our amazing crew and the team @netflix. Beyond grateful for the support – and fun!’
The new website for the ‘As Ever’ brand features a picture of the Duchess and her three-year-old daughter Lilibet photographed from a distance, walking hand-in-hand across a sunny lawn with palm trees in the background.
A promotional synopsis of the show says: ‘This inspiring series, produced by Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, reimagines the genre of lifestyle programming, blending practical how-tos and candid conversation with friends, new and old.
‘Meghan shares personal tips and tricks, embracing playfulness over perfection and highlights how easy it can be to create beauty, even in the unexpected.
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‘She and her guests roll up their sleeves in the kitchen, the garden, and beyond, and invite you to do the same.’
Harry and Meghan’s Archewell Productions helped to make the series and she also gets a credit as one of its executive producers.
The couple have an £80million five-year deal with Netflix which they signed in 2020 – and the Sussexes are executive producers of Polo which aired recently.
The documentary was the couple’s first since Heart Of Invictus, which aired some 16 months earlier and followed a group of service members on their road to the Invictus Games, the Paralympic-style sporting competition set up by Harry in 2014 for injured and sick military personnel and veterans.
It followed Live To Lead, about leaders who have dedicated themselves to social justice, in 2022, and before that, the couple’s controversial six-part Harry & Meghan documentary.
The Sussexes stepped down as working royals in 2020 and later moved to the celebrity enclave of Montecito, where they have established a new life for themselves and their children.
‘With Love, Meghan’ begins streaming on Netflix on Tuesday, March 4.
