Transcription
Hello, this is Dr. Grande. Today I will analyze season two of Megan Markle's TV series titled With Love Megan. I'll start with the background of this case, move to the timeline of the incident, then offer my analysis.
In May 2018, Megan Markle married Prince Harry, who is the younger son of King Charles III, and Diana, Princess of Wales. Megan, who had worked as an actress, struggled to fit into the British royal family and ultimately accused them of racism and of being unsupportive. In January 2020, Harry and Megan announced that they were going to step back as senior members of the royal family. Eventually, they ended up moving into a mansion in Monteito, California. The couple engaged in various business ventures, including signing an agreement with Netflix to develop documentaries and other shows. The contract, which had a 5-year duration, was estimated to be worth $100 million.
On March 4, 2025, as part of this arrangement with Netflix, a cooking and gardening series titled With Love Megan premiered with eight episodes. The filming for the series took place in a rented 4,500 ft mansion, not far from the 13,500 ft mansion where Harry and Megan live. 4,500 ft must have felt like a broom closet. How did they manage in such a small space? I covered season 1 of the series in a separate video. In summary, it was unbearable. Even though Megan's show was pointless and nonsensical, it was unbelievably successful. The show ranked in the top 10 TV shows on Netflix as far as viewership.
Now, moving to the timeline of the incident. On August 26, 2025, the second season of With Love Megan premiered with eight episodes. The formula from season 1 carried over into season 2. Various people, including celebrity guests, joined Megan for a delightful, educational, and inspiring culinary and artistic journey. Megan would start by preparing a gift for her guests. She would then cook them some type of food item. When the guests arrived, Megan would greet them and they would work together on a larger meal as well as complete various arts and crafts which often involved plant life. It is not surprising that the second season was very similar to the first season. There was no opportunity to get feedback and make adjustments to season 2 because filming completed before season 1 premiered. They were just hoping for the best. Presumably, there must have been a high level of confidence that the show had stumbled upon a winning formula.
In season two, Megan Markle hosted a few different chefs, a few of her friends, as well as the celebrities Chrissy Tegan, John Legend, Tan France, and disgraced self-help guru J. Shetty. I have a separate video about J. Shetty. His story is fascinating and worrisome at the same time. Here's a summary of season 2 of With Love Megan.
Episode 1 featured Megan hosting one friend and two professional chefs. She made onion tarts, graham crackers, and marshmallows. Megan also arranged flowers and did something called water marbling. Megan told her guests that she wanted them to be in and out of their comfort zone. I don't know if she achieved that, but watching the episode certainly pushed me out of my comfort zone. There was no in, it was all out.
Episode two featured the model Chrissy Tegan and her husband, singer John Legend. Megan prepared sourdough cheese crackers and did something where she pressed flowers and put them into jewelry.
In episode 3, fashion designer Tan France stopped by. Megan made apple pie and lavender gray latte. She told him that she fell in love with Prince Harry on their third date in Batswana. Harry said, "I love you first."
Episode 4 featured a professional chef. Megan made apple butter and roast chicken and worked on a bookbinding project. Jay Shetty and his wife visited the mansion for episode 5. Apparently, they are vegan, so all the food was vegan. This episode was even harder to watch than usual.
Episode 6 featured a chef. Megan made salt and vinegar potato chips, compound butter, and halibet. When she bought the halibit, she was surprised that a dead fish would be cold.
The seventh episode featured a field trip to Malibu, California, where Megan met up with a friend. They worked on some pottery and learned how to prepare alcoholic beverages from an expert.
The final episode number eight, involved a professional chef. Megan cooked something involving sea urchins and had a big party at the end with the crew members. They were celebrating the end of the season. This really resonated with me because I was also happy when the show was over.
Now, moving to my analysis. Here are my thoughts on a few areas that stood out to me in this case.
Item number one, for the video I recorded on season 1 of With Love Megan, I watched the first two episodes and 10 minutes from each of the remaining six episodes. For season 2, I used a different strategy. I watched about 15 to 20 minutes from each episode starting at various points. Both strategies ended up with the same amount of viewing time, 2 hours and 20 minutes. As it turns out, my new method failed to ease the agony of watching this excruciatingly boring show, but it was worth a try.
Item number two. Unlike the first season where Prince Harry appeared in the final episode, he did not make an appearance in season two. Perhaps this indicates that Megan was ready to break free, to escape from his shadow, and to shine on her own. Maybe she didn't want Harry stealing the spotlight for even a second. There's no way to know.
Item number three, one theme that emerged in the show was toxic positivity. Everybody was terminally happy. Their idea of a good time was stilted and awkward conversations with Megan Markle. Compliments were frequently exchanged during season 2 in all directions, although many of them seemed to flow toward Megan. Guests repeatedly reminded Megan how great she is, called her food impressive, said that she was beautiful, and expressed that being in her presence resulted in such a special day. This was like a hostage situation where the ransom demand had to be paid in compliments. I felt as though there was an overuse of the word chic during this season, perhaps out of some desperate effort to seem stylish and trend setting.
Item number four, the first season of the show received a strong negative reaction from the critics. As I mentioned in my video about that season, the show was referred to as contrived, insufferable, cringe-worthy, half-baked, inauthentic, bland, detached from reality, lacking useful guidance, not relatable, lacking any clarity of purpose, pointless, vacuous, out of touch, and desperate. Based on the reviews so far, the second season has not fared any better. Critics said the show was staged, fake, dull, insincere, needy, narcissistic, impersonal, self-indulgent, and lacked substance. They suggested that it made viewers feel inadequate, like they would never be welcome in a mansion like that unless they were also wealthy and famous.
On August 26, 2025, the same day that season 2 premiered, Megan gave an interview where she reacted to the terrible reviews for season 1. Megan said, quote, "And so if you know your audience, you know your demographic. Well, they love the show and my partners love the show and that's why we have a season two and why we have more fun coming." Megan continued by saying, quote, "I think often times the negative voices are saying negative things and then secretly go home and making single skillet spaghetti possibly." And that's all right. they're trying to pay their bills, and that's for them to sort out if they're comfortable doing it at someone else's detriment."
I find Megan's assessment of her critics to be curious. First of all, the terrible reviews of her show are fully warranted. Megan is getting poor reviews because her show is horrible. The critics are warning viewers, or as I would call them, victims, in order to prevent more unnecessary exposure. Second of all, Megan is implying that the critics are desperate and just trying to make a living. Here she is living in a mansion and renting a separate mansion for her show while her critics are struggling to pay their bills. This is the kind of elitism that has led to Megan being referred to as tonedeaf.
Item number five, what do I think about season two of Megan's lifestyle show with love Megan? This is just a theory, my opinion. As I said in my review of season number one, my PhD is in counselor education and supervision, not in cooking. I don't know if Megan did a good job preparing the food or not. I felt as though in the episodes that featured chefs, some interesting meals were put together. Those chefs did seem confident and they acted with purpose. Some people may be able to get decent culinary ideas from season 2. That's certainly possible. Again, I would have no way of knowing. As far as the arts and crafts often related to gardening that were included by Megan, they seemed okay. I guess it's not the kind of content that interests me, but I can appreciate that someone may look at it and think that pressing a flower and putting it into jewelry would be a fun craft to try out. The problem for Megan is that a lot of people have good cooking and gardening ideas. The question becomes, is Megan doing enough to establish a meaningful brand in this domain? In my opinion, probably not. The show just doesn't seem that interesting or novel. It's very well produced as far as framing the shots and the editing, but there's not much to it outside of that. The show really doesn't have a heart or a soul. I mentioned what some of the critics had to say. I agree with many of their characterizations. I would describe season 2 as painful, clueless, agonizingly boring, uninspired, tedious, monotonous, lackluster, soporrific, pompous, overblown, artificial, awkward, sanctimonious, exhausting, aimless, forgettable, hollow, hopeless, absurd, abysmal, tense, and uncomfortable. Megan wanted to push people out of their comfort zone. Mission completed. Season two, just like season 1, failed to create a warm and natural environment. It felt forced and disjointed.
Megan is trying to break free of this negative image that many people have of her, like a whining quasi royal who is only able to take on awful media projects because she married a prince. The show represented an opportunity for Megan to course correct her big chance to prove that she is likable. Megan is an executive producer on the show. She has the power to make important decisions about the direction that the series takes. If the show is not any good, then Megan is to blame. Even so, it's not all bad news for Megan. One could argue that being famous for something positive is what Megan desires. But from a financial perspective, negative will work just as well. I think a lot of people watch the show because Megan is such a polarizing figure. They don't necessarily care about her recipe for sourdough cheese crackers. They just want to see her. There is something fascinating about Megan's extremely unusual position in life and her utter obliviousness as to how arrogant she appears. There is no one else like her and that is intriguing. When Megan maintains this fake and stale persona like she does in her show, she only generates more interest. More people watch so they can assess her negative traits. They want to see her dig herself deeper into this hole of being unrelatable, offering further proof that she has no insight, no self-awareness. In a sense, I'm not sure there is any show involving Megan that would fail financially, no matter how bad it was. One could argue that the worse the show, the more views it would get. In that respect, with Love, Megan is on the right track. Maybe it is awful by design. Megan Markle may be a genius after all. She wins no matter what happens. The only people who lose consistently are the viewers.
Now, moving to my final thoughts. Season two of With Love Megan further reinforces the aspects of Megan that irritate people. There is a phoniness to the show that reflects the phoniness of Megan. She married into the British royal family, a system she did not understand, did not respect, and ultimately rejected. Despite this, she was using her quasi royal status to launch a lifestyle brand. This is like a soldier going to war, dropping his rifle in the first seconds of combat, and wanting to be regarded as a war hero. Megan wants people to connect with her amazing story of success. But what is the moral of her story? If you marry a person who is famous, you can become famous, too, and lecture people about pressing flowers while living in a mansion. Does this marriage really grant Megan special abilities or authority in the areas of cooking or gardening? Does it truly make her special? Should people now desire to emulate her? Is she an inspiration? Arguably, Megan believes that she is, and her persistent and disturbing lack of insight has led people to view her as a villain. Both Megan and her show can be summed up accurately with just one word, undigestible.
Those are my thoughts on season 2 of With Love. Megan, thank you so much for watching.