Season 2 of With Love, Meghan premiered on Netflix on Tuesday, August 26, 2025, and halfway through, the impression is already clear: everything looks perfect, everything tastes 'amazing,' but very little feels genuine.
Meghan Markle’s glossy lifestyle series is part cooking, part crafting, part celebrity catch-up, but more often than not, it reminds me of a corporate team-building retreat where everyone smiles, laughs, and says “oh my gosh” on repeat, without ever going deeper.
All Frosting, No Cake
The food moments are styled to perfection. A caramelized onion tart with store-bought puff pastry? Clever and affordable, good start to the show. David Chang’s tip for frying eggs under a lid? Actually useful. Homemade graham crackers turned into s’mores, brown-butter marshmallows, or warm, easy apple hand pies with puff pastry? Approachable ideas that could inspire home cooks.
But even when the recipes are solid, the production bends them into lifestyle fantasies: salads hand-tossed with manicured fingers, leftovers styled with edible flowers, and even simple desserts staged like they belong in a showroom. It’s sugarcoating all the way down. Pretty to look at, but oddly hollow.
The same goes for the conversations. Guests laugh constantly, but not much is actually funny. Moments of supposed spontaneity; “I’ve never done this before!” or “Let’s see what’s in the pantry!” — ring false when you know a Netflix crew has been planning the shoot for months. The result feels staged, like watching paid actors play at friendship rather than people connecting over food.
Episode 1
In Episode 1, Meghan welcomes chef David Chang and Milk Bar founder Christina Tosi, along with her friend Daniel Martin. On the menu: a caramelized onion tart, a flower arrangement staged like an art exhibit, and s’mores made entirely from scratch, down to the graham crackers and marshmallows.
But beneath the gloss, the atmosphere feels shallow. This is a friend group you wouldn’t actually want to be a part of. The laughter is constant but rarely genuine, the conversations skim the surface, and the dynamic comes across more like a staged dinner party than a real connection.
Episode 2
In episode 2, Chrissy Teigen arrives with star power, but also proves the show’s Achilles’ heel: the “friendship” isn’t real. Meghan admits they hadn’t seen each other in nearly 20 years, and their dynamic feels less like old friends reconnecting and more like two celebrities making small talk.
The most shocking moment isn’t the food, but Chrissy joking that she had to tattoo her kids’ birthdays on her arm, and still struggles to remember which is which. There are endless “oh my gosh” reactions and staged spontaneity, but very little depth. It’s glossy, forced, and, to be fair, painful to watch. I definitely would have stopped here if I weren't on a mission to watch it all.
Episode 3
Episode 3 finally brings some warmth. Tan France’s charm lifts the entire episode, and his husband’s gift of homemade bread feels more heartfelt than anything that’s come before. Tan takes charge of the cooking, teaching Meghan how to dry bread in a toaster before making French toast, then adding a coconut twist. It’s practical, fun, and genuinely engaging.
The conversation drifts into parenting, marriage, and even Meghan’s early dates with Harry. For once, the banter feels real. Together, they make puff-pastry apple hand pies, inspired by Meghan’s love of McDonald’s drive-thru pies during her acting days, and craft aprons for their kids using vegetable stamps. The episode ends with a thoughtful gift exchange: Meghan gives Tan a masala dabba spice box, wrapped furoshiki-style, which he finds truly meaningful. It’s the first episode where the show feels watchable, even touching.
Episode 4
I got up to episode 4 as of now. In there, chef and author Samin Nosrat brings credibility and a rare spark of authenticity. Meghan greets her with sourdough toast topped with homemade apple butter (her grandma's recipe) and ricotta, and offers a gift of lavashak, Persian fruit leather. Samin’s emotional reaction (“only my mom and grandma ever made this”) is one of the most genuine moments of the season so far.
They talk about Samin’s 15-year dinner group, and wander through Meghan’s garden for herbs and produce. In the kitchen, Meghan roasts a chicken. The same dish, Meghan says, she was cooking the night Harry proposed, joking that it turned out “terrible.” That honesty is refreshing after all the "oh my gosh, I love it".
The Problem of Timing
But here’s the larger issue: tone-deaf escapism, the disconnect between glossy abundance and what real audiences are going through in the world right now. I wish there were more connection, not consumption, because that’s the ingredient that would finally make this show feel real.
Recent protests against billionaire excess (remember the protest against Jeff Bezos’ wedding in Venice?) demonstrate that people are growing increasingly impatient with displays of privilege. Against that backdrop, With Love, Meghan’s sugarcoated lifestyle feels out of step.
A Cake Too Pretty to Eat
Half a season in, With Love, Meghan Season 2 is still exactly what its critics said the first time: a cake too pretty to eat. The sets are styled, the food is photogenic, the laughter is constant, and yet it leaves you hungry for something real. When the show leans into genuine moments, like some of the conversations with Tan France or Samin Nosrat, it works. But most of the time, it feels like frosting without substance, a glossy fantasy in a world that craves authenticity.
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