CANCELLEDMeghan Markle’s new lifestyle series dropped on Netflix this week, sparking a series of conversations about her real name, her celebrity friendships, her motivations and the appropriate voice to use when in the presence of bees.
Now we’re here to cut through the noise and talk about the wildest, funniest and cringiest moments from the show, along with what the real fallout has been.
From the real reason she showed her camera crew to the emotional moments a lot of people missed, there’s so much to unpack when it comes to With Love, Meghan.
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Hosts: Laura Brodnik & Em Vernem
Executive Producer: Kimberley Braddish
Audio Producer: Scott Stronach
Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.
So much. You're listening to a MoMA Mia podcast. Mama Maya acknowledges the traditional owners of land and waters that this podcast is recorded on.
Hello and Vernon Here from Mamma MIA's pop culture podcast, The Spill. If you've watched with love Meghan, you'll have a lot to say and look, so do we, and we had to do a brutally honest review of the entire show. Let's get straight into it. Enjoy this episode and see the link in our show notes for more from us.
From Mamma Mia. Welcome to The Spill, your daily pop culture fix. I'm Laura Brodnick and I'm m Vernon. And to say we are excited for this episode is an understatement.
My eyes hurt from watching so much.
I mean we both watched all in one night, right.
Yeah, Like, I watched six episodes one night, I woke up at six thirty in the next morning to watch another three, and then I watched the last episode during worktime. Sorry, Momma, I think it's okay. It definitely was for work.
I had to watch it all in one night because they wouldn't give us screeners and now we know why, because they were so worried about that we're talking about with love mege. They know they know they read the title It's okay Megan Markles or Meg Sussex's new Netflix show. Yes, they wouldn't give anyone's screen access because normally they'll just pop the screeners right into our Netflix accounts and we can watch it before everyone else to write our reviews. But I think they were so worried about the backlash, which predictably came. Yeah, so I watched it till three am, and then I woke up with nightmares of bees and sun tea and floral arrangements dancing in my.
Head flower sprinkles and Mindy Kayling.
I know, no, I never have a nightmament. Mindy Kaling, I love her.
I've always loved taking something pretty ordinary and elevating it, surprising people with moments that let them know I was really thinking of them.
What this is probably one of the most glamorous moments of my life.
I'm going to share some little tips and tricks. I see what color I gravitate too, and everything goes from there, And how you can incorporate these practices every day.
That's what you want? You want that sheepe and texture.
This is about connecting with friends. I love that we're doing this together for the first time, making new friends.
That is so good.
We're family now.
I'm just learning how much honey we have.
So today we are going to do a brutally honest review of Megan Michael's new Netflix show. If you're new to our Brilli honest reviews, don't know how you found us, but welcome. But this is where we break down every element of the biggest new TV show or movie that everyone's talking about. We always have spoilers that seems less important right now, I don't think that a spoilers in this show. I don't know. You might be like, how does the garden party at the end go? She pull it off? We are going to spoil that for you. She able to flip that dumpling, Yes, you know, she able to sprinkle those last few flowers and put that bake on the tray. We won't leave you hanging. We will touch on that. So jumping right in with the opening moment. So there's a lot of build up to this show. It was obviously meant to come out over a month ago. They had to push back the date because of the los Angeles fires, which is very fair enough. She didn't do a lot of press leading up into it, interestingly, just People magazine pretty much interesting.
I also understand now watching the show exactly why she pushed it back. Yeah, because I remember we were like, it's a lifestyle show. It's not like a big glam thing. It is a big glad it was a big Land thing.
So what do you do you think of those opening moments where we see her about the bee, the bee costume. We're getting straight into bees. Yes, I am a big fan of bees, so I loved that opening sequence. I thought it was brilliant.
I love her voice, so she really sets the tone of the whole show, which I think she successfully succeeded.
Throughout the show.
It's a very I guess, quite luxury. It's one of those shows that I don't think you really need to sit in front of your TV and pay really close attention to unless you're us and.
Doing this for a job.
But it's something that you could probably put on the background while you're cooking or like cleaning your house or doing your laundry, so.
It'll make you feel bad about cooking and what your house looks like.
Yes, you're you're gonna feel shit about your life, so be prepared.
I like the bee.
Section because of like she talks about how she's like, it's nice to be calm and it's nice to be connected with nature.
And she talks like this because if you.
Talk too loudly, the bees get spooked.
Even though I did see and because I follow a lot of beer accounts and really they smoke the bees with like this relaxant cut them down. Otherwise that situation could have been a bit more chaotic.
Exactly. Let's talk about that because that's the scene that a lot of people are giving her hate for, which are coming down the bees for using a bee voice they think, I mean, which is it is funny, but you find we're.
Drugging the bees when she talked.
Justice for the bees canin id of say, she's also getting a lot of hate for wearing the full bee outfit. But I would be totally on her side for that because yes, there's not that many bees. But I don't know, maybe she's allergic. I'm allergic to me?
Did you say she was still scared about?
Yeah?
And also like I'm sorry, but she was your bee reservoir, Like she's literally.
Saving the planet by having the bees extinct. I know, Morgan Freeman are winning at life right now. My mum gave me a b donation a few years ago for Christmas, Like this is really cute, but I'm really allergic to be So you're trying to say the thing that's gonna kill me. I love the bees.
I don't love.
I don't. I don't know if you've seen my girl, but I'm like the little boy who gets stuck and dies instantly. That's me the bees. So Meghan Michael is just being really safe. I feel also for all the haters out there. You actually are supposed to talk softly around bees. I looked it up. I went to a dot gov site, the American be Association dot gov site, and I read the rules for bees. They did say loud noises like a chainsaw will spook them, so probably not the human voice, but you can't be too careful. And also who would want that.
They live for four weeks. They're working from like twenty four hours. Imagine trying to make honey, and.
It's like ratchet, what's next to you? Just screaming? Obviously I'm going to sting you. Yeah, yeah, given my life to keep you Okay, just was just so besy that home to look at that and they're like, oh my god, and we're out of town. We only covered the bees. Sorry everyone, Okay, So getting into the first guest, all the guests except for the Mindy episode and the last episode, all of the guests for me just kind of blended together in this like different fusion of like people coming in and out and her sharing her secrets and all that sort of thing.
Like those kind of like really rich people but like quiet luxury right. Oh yes, yes, yeah, so Mindy Kelly's the only loud, luxury rich.
Yes. I think the choosing the guests would have been a huge part of the production of this.
There were a few that she had never met before, yeah.
Which was interesting, and then also bringing in like some of her closest friends. And I wonder if there are a few calls that went out I'm going to say Serena Williams said no, I'm going to say Beyonce said no. Even though Beyonce got any she gets a name check in every Megan Markle situation. But I think that was actually a very conscious choice on Meghan's behalf of not sort of having like packed with celebrities, because she got a bit of backlash for that for archetypes, and she's got a lot of backlash around being like a fame chaser. So I think she like dotted in Mindy Kaling, who doesn't do a lot of press. And then the only other big name there apart from Roy Choi, who I only know because he does a lot of TV appearances and he like does guests spots like he was in the Gilwore Girls reboot loves a TV show that man, the only other name that I knew was Abigail Spencer, the actress.
Yeah, even though a lot of them aren't like celebrities, I quite uncread celebrities. I feel like they are all media and camera facing trained, yes, like even all the friends and stuff like that, so they just got it.
Yeah, And the few who weren't sort of camera facing were just kind of in the background, and Meghan kept saying like, isn't this lovely? Aren't we good friends?
And you can tell with the cuts that they would have been very much like had their handheld and guided on what to ask her, yeah, to say and.
Stuff ever record like look into the camera.
The scene that made me realize like what the actual show, like that set the scene for like the whole show was right in the beginning where she did admit that.
This is in her house, thank you very much. We had that before her.
I don't think she was ever trying to hide that because we've seen so many photos of her house. Also, that was clearly she'd.
Have to say it right because like otherwise you get people like me writing reviews.
I think she was also just a bit like, guys, this is in my house. My house is nicer than this.
Stupid mother articles.
A few times she was a bit like at my house, I'd have more of this in my house. I have more citrus trees, So she was kind of alluding to the fact that her house is better.
Yeah, and which is the first episode she was talking about how to prepare for when you have a guest staying over, and she was saying that I'm going to be taking this back to my house.
Obviously I'm not going to get.
The guest ready.
And she was talking about like what what should be on the guests which makes me realize I'm a horrible host.
What should be on the guests side tables when they wake up, go to sleep to have a nighttime experience and then a morning experience.
Yeah, my guest experience is waking up to my alarm clock. That's like the most they get out of me. But what I found really interesting was when she was like, I'd love to like have bart salts out so they can like relax in the bath. And then she goes, so we're going to be making the bath salts, and I was like, oh, so we're going to make.
Back to basics. I know it was some TikTok child wife shit, but can I just say I was quite I was quite here for it. And one thing that I'm really seeing is a lot of hate about her from this show, which is to be expected. And I think a lot of people also haven't watched it. Well, they definitely didn't watch all in one night the first night like we did, but had a big opinion the next day. And people just are finding her so cringe, so annoying, saying I never want to be around her. Can I just say I'm desperate to be her friend? Now? None of my friends do shit for me? Have any of them made me a love? And to tell no, have anyone made me custom bath salts? No? Have they given me a nighttime morning experience and snow. Because no one has real estate, because we're in a rental crisis, no one has a guest room.
Well I know how to do those.
Now. Okay, I'll come over to your stewer apartment and we'll have a sleepover.
I don't have a guest room, but i'll definitely have your little bedside table already.
I'll take my little custom salts that you make into your shower and just dump them over.
Don't forget the flower sprinkles.
Yes, I just think that she would just be a lovely friend to have high maintenance, Like my heart would be beating on my chest the whole way in case I put the wrong ice cube in the wrong cup. And she tries so hard not to look high maintenance.
Like everything she does, it's always the underlining line is like it doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be personal.
I'm like, it's perfect and personal.
Well, she does always say like you eat with your eyes first, which I'm actually a big believer of. Yeah, but my biggest kind of tech like if you can afford it with your first grades, you can eat what we have. No, but you can make don't you dress up your meal? I always dress up my meal each night, and know it's just me at home. Absolutely.
I mean I do have flower sprinkles at home. I didn't know I could use them for everything and not just my margeritas.
Kind to say the most basic bitch thing I've ever said. I made flower ice cubes the other day, not even knowing they were gonna be on the show, but just for me to have a load in my apartment. Not for the thing is it's like she makes flower ice cube for chickens. There's like another level. When Megan Barkle's chickens are doing better at life than you are should not be shown. I did not need to see that on my table. You're sitting in your cramps the little Sydney apartment. The air quality is terrible, there's street that the internet won't work, the trains have stopped running, and you see those chickens having flower ice cubes with a view of the Montecito Hills and Oprah coming over to visit. Anyway, she'll probably cook them so that the little chicenic Remember the chicken table, I don't even have that a time table. That's the thing this show, My biggest takeaway from it is that this show has been made one because this is what she's always wanted to do. She dabbled in acting, and I think she obviously liked like the fame and the creativity. She says, yeah, but she's got it. Like she's got it, some roles will, to be fair to her, we never.
Really got to prices, right.
No, she was really offended by that, Just so you know, I thought she was great in that she hated that she felt very used sexually is the whole point of those girls. No, but she was good on suits. We just never really got a chance to I think see her in many roles. She did other roles, but she was basically on suits and then she left acting. But I think you're seeing in this show what she's always wanted, which is that very lifestyle brand, Like that's all the whole point of the Tig, which she talked about a lot, which her face always lights up talking about the Tig more so than it did about any kind of acting or performance or anything like that. And so you can see she's always wanted this like really whimsy lifestyle brand, but to look like she's creating like a better space in the world and the detour into being a duchess just didn't sit right with her because none of the elements that she loved were in that role. And so you can see she's so happy. But this underlying thing through the show that makes it hard to enjoy except when you're seeing all the ridiculous, is that she's just so desperate for us to like her. I really relate to that. But she's so desperate for us to like her that she can't relax, she can't lean into a joke, like a few times, like you saw it in the Mindy Kaling episode.
Oh God, where Mindy was the biggest creative role to take on, like so hard.
She's trying to have some fun little jokes and some fun little sides, and Megan always had to bring it back Like It's like she'd start to laugh at Mindy, but then this cloud would fall over her face and she'd be like, anyway, this is very affordable, or isn't this nice? You could do this for your children? Like she gets very robotic, and sometimes when she tried to be fun, like in one scene with one of the guests, she was like, oh, what did you say? Open some champagne? And just like went to the and she was trying to be a little bit like a like I'm a loose party girl, but like so rigid, Yeah, so worldly? Right.
She wants to like to show that she has all these really different, interesting experiences, which I think are so fair to show.
But I also think like she did come across quite likely.
I'm not saying that as a hater. I'm just saying like, I think she's just so aware after all the hate that followed her when she got together with Prince Harry and like all the articles in the front pages and so many people now just like I just hate her. I can't put my finger on it. I just think she's so aware of that.
Like we'll never after all of that. I feel like we'll never get an authentic representation.
Yeah, because she's so guarded in what she has to say, especially in this And I was like, you know what, Megan Michael, I would just love to see you float through that house in your beige little cashmere When she was like this is Zara I like to do high low? Yeah, And I was like, wait, this Zara high or low? Because I don't know the others. I'm no, that was he low. I mean to be relatable, but you're not also Zara, notoriously, I guess not. Also not great for the environment, which I'm not saying that that I'm calling her around that I'm not, but I'm just saying I can see people. I feel like, once you have bees, you're good, Like you're good with environment. She's like, have you seen my chicken? Any luxury? How to take questions? But even though yeah, every time she said something, she'd be like, this is my cake and I spent all these ingredients on it, and these are all the pieces they put together. But we call it the Beautiful on the inside cake because we're all beautiful on the inside. It's like, Megan, I just want to see the cake.
Yeah, she's really pushing that right, Like when she's like spreading her vegetables and he's like, we need a space and mouse so they can breathe, and she's like, we all need to breathe. And I'm scribbling my notes on the floor of my apartment trying so hard to borrow.
That's the other thing that didn't land was the affordability side of it. I understand tried not one to talk.
You can hear it in that Mindy Kaling voice where she was just like, and you could.
Do this on a budget. Some off screen said to her, Hey, Mindy, why don't you say you can do some budget and mind He was like, okay, I mean, fuck man, you already made me correct her name, and now you want me to do this. They're like, it's either that or go and make more daisy crowns. Which one do you want? I don't want to do either. When Meghan like perfectly made those daisy chains, I mean did she We didn't see it, but it looked like she did and pops that little crown in her head. I was just thinking, like, oh, you want to know what's just for one moment, what it would be like to be successful. That is a pinnacle of success, making daisy and they're just putting it perfectly, and then Mindicatety just looking at the mottled flowers mans and being like, this is the worst barth today apart from the fact from your shaving. I didn't expect to work to work wearing a gown. But there were all those moments started through the show, and obviously they've had all these planning meetings, like we're doing this whole show that's set in a mansion with very famous, rich people, and it's all about adding luxury to your life in a way that's very unattainable for most people because most people don't have a bathtub, a full fridge, you know, I guess room.
Well, not all of us have like the ability to take salt from the cupboard, put it in a different salt basket, and then put that salt onto our fish.
Yeah exactly. Or when she's like opening, she's like, here's all the things that you could like preserve so you can keep them. I'm like, woman, that is my entire storage and my bedroom in that closet like we had. But again, fridge had like a lot of space. Fridge was I wat real estate. I could live so happily in that fridge and it had like what one water. But that's the thing. It's like when you try and walk that line, it never works. Of like, here's my big, rich life and you can do it too. I'd almost love her just to go the other way and like be full luxury, but I think she knows that she would just get absolutely slaughtered for that in the comments.
But like she did, do not think she did. There was like a few things, like what you're saying that. I was like, if you just like, for example, the blender. She gets out the most pristine blender I've ever seen, never been used before. If that blender had a few stains in it, I would have been on board.
You know what I mean? Her house, remember, but here's your own stuff, like she could bring us.
She bought a dog, bring the blender along?
Would you say? The end? It popped up? Guys gonna cry.
I grew up with eagles, so this is really hard for me because I saw that dog and I was like, oh god, I can tell you're on.
Your last legs.
I got that dog has strugg like life. The dog was like, sure on my last minute, I don't know, please use me.
When she's like I got him, like an na. We went to Canada the winter, U came back to LA and so he's seen some stuff more than I have. And the camera pants to guy and he's like, I'm fucking getting out of it. He's struggling.
And I know because if you've ever owned beagles, noticed beagles. If you're in a kitchen cooking, a beagle will not be asleep on that bed. It will be all over you, like picking up crumbs every single beagle.
You can tell that dog is so old because he couldn't even lift his head to see what was got that little doctorate right up to just reminded me of my dogs so much when they, like before they died.
Because you are going to hell for laughing about this, it's just.
I feel like I can because we were doing the same to my dogs when like we were trying so hard, but like, yeah, that dog, Oh my god, r I P.
Well they did that. He got so much airtime. He got so much airtime. He was like her sidekick, and you can kind of tell the like obviously he was old and tied, but he could just he was like, I just alsow a bit over it. He's like because he's like he was snoring. Yeah, he was like, oh, she's making dog. I was like, oh, he she's making for Tata. Seeing that before to see and the end, it popped up in loving memory of Guy because he passed away. He passed away after filming. It was his final project.
Oh my god, I remember when Guy passed away out.
Yeah, you were really sad about that. That coincided with Megan's return to Instagram. Which was nice for her black and white. I could do a black and white memorial. Oh cut, it is really sad when a dog passed away. Anyway, back to budgets with what we were talking about, is it. Yeah, So many times through the show she does try and say like, oh and this is like it doesn't have to be expensive, it doesn't have to be this and that. And I just wish that she had done away with that because everything she did, even the fruit platter, that fruit platter, was like She's like, we have one of these every day. I had that fruit platter. I can afford parts at least one hundred dollars one hundred dollars worth of fruit in that one little rainbow right there, and.
She was flaming fruits. I've never heard of it, Like what a golden berrier. I don't know what that is.
Oh okay, I don't say, I mean, I use it. It's not even just like she grows that. It's like, wow, I love a two of Megan Michael's garden. Like I said, she comes across. I know people hating on her, but I would just love to go and live in her world for a little bit. That's my biggest takeaway.
I'd love to like be in her actual house and see what she actually does compared to what she showed she did.
You know, yeah, I'm sure she just walks around the house in white Linen's in her own house, right, No, because I remember there would be like little scenes.
Where they like she'd put a photo up for like a few seconds, yeah, and it'll be her looking like quite like freeing in my opinion, like in a jumper, with a hair in a messy bar and like tights on, just with like her girlfriends. I feel like those little clips like show us what she's really like in situations when she's not like lammed up for the cameras. And I wish we saw more of that, Like we sawed a bit when she was like picking in the garden with like a jumper and jeans on, and like those little like flashback shots of like her cooking by herself. But I would have loved to see like just her like playing like games with her friends without like you saw her playing her friend but it was so because like her friends are obviously like cameras and they had to bring changers of clothes and they were like like we saw with Vicky Saie. She was literally like so so famous, so so rich, has so much publicity for like being the founder of Tatcha that even she said she was having a nightmare before this about accidentally packing the wrong clothes because she was so amped up for this moment on.
Oh yeah, no, no, no, this is I mean, I want to like kind of be in the friendship circle for a moment, but not permanently because that was a high pressure situation.
They would be like the White Lotus ladies.
Yes, I got that vibe to like they came in. Obviously they're a bit on like high looks for cameras, but you do get that kind of feeling that when they hang out it is a little bit like this, Like everyone's dressed a very certain way, everyone's talking a certain way. Everyone's voices have this like particular octave that they're hitting. But it's all very kind of I don't know, it's all very like for a camera, even when a camera's not there.
Because it's different types of relationships. Right when I watched this, I feel like the only friendship that I felt like could have been like a bit more genuine than the others would have been her and Mindy and only in the same way. Like they're both like big status like in fame. Yeah, and they've both been canceled. They both had like been like cumulated by public. I've had like gone through so much crap together in the same industry that I feel like that connection would have been a bit more different to like the connection, even though she might be closer to her real friends obviously, Yeah, but there's always going to be that bit of difference when you bring your friends into your work.
Oh. Absolutely. But the thing is I found her maybe except for the name bit in the Daisy making change, I thought her connection to Mindy the most believable because at the end of the day, they're work friends. Yeah, they met through doing it well how to do it? They were saying in the show. They only really message about like work stuff. They're like the person you've done like a podcast with a few times and then you kind of connect with, so you have very set boundaries. I thought it was more interesting when you saw like her real friends coming and how that moved in front of the camera. The only one I quite believed maybe she was just more relaxed because she's used to it was Abigail Spencer because they like really threw the ringer together because they not only were on suits together, but Abigail was really front and center for a lot of the bullying things against Mega Markel. She's also the one that spearheaded that big magazine campaign to sort of clear her name, which backfired. I remember that, I don't remember that. So she organized a whole bunch of their friends to give all these interviews about Mega Markel at the height of the big backlash against her, the height of her like suing a company when she was suing the Sunday Mail magazine, newspapers about the letter they printed all that sort of stuff, and it kind of backfired in the courts because it looked like she was like giving testimony and speaking out of court. And then later Abigail Spencer apologized and she's like, I had no idea like the backlash or the trouble I'd caused for her. I was just like, we have to help this woman, like this is my best friend and she's getting absolutely beaten apart. And a lot of people hated Abigail Spencer for that, but I always thought she just did I don't know, I have not met her.
But interesting because now it makes me think that her choosing Abigail to come on the show, Oh, I.
Think that was a very cool statement, right.
Yeah. Also, I think they have like been through it together, but I think she's the one who's come forward and spoke on her behalf so much. So I don't obviously don't know Abergel Spencer, but I have always thought very highly of her because I was interviewing her for a new TV show that was coming out when we were in the first Sydney Lockdown and so I'm all alone at home. Zoom interviews weren't a thing at that time because like lockdowns had just happened, and I was gonna call her for this interview and my phone broke and I was so upset because I was like in lockdown, everything was closed, nowhere to go. I emailed her agent. I'm like, I'm so sorry, Like my phone's dead, I'm all alone. I don't know what to do. I have to cancel, and she was like came back to me and she's like, Abigail just said, we'll just make it work. You get your phone fixed, sort yourself out. We'll do it another time. And so she did it for me, like after hours, after the press cycle was done, and she was so lovely. She humped on the phone and she's like, how are you, Like, are you going okay? You okay? In lockdown, I was like, I'm so sorry about yesterday and she's like, don't worry about it. And she was like, oh, I've heard the fires in the street have been so bad, and I've been tracking it and I've seen all the and she was just like she was so lovely and I don't know if she would put that on for like a phone interview with a strange journalists, like potentially, but she went like above and beyond like and I'll never forget how nice she was and how lovely she was. So when I saw her coming out and saying that she was trying to defend Meghan and girl, I was like, Abigail my best friend. I know, I know it's real. So when I saw on the show, it was like I thought their relationship came across quite genuine. But I think maybe because Abigail's not scared of the camera.
Yeah, yeah, that's true, because like it's and it's correct what you said about work friends. Because even if Meghan is like obviously closer with the friend she's grown up with or known like for the longest time. When you go into that work mode, you automatically be more comfortable with your work there because you don't have to hold their hands through it. Yeah, you know, they'll just get it and know what to say. And I think that's why it seems like they're more closer.
Yeah, exactly. I wondered, like, because her whole takeaway from this show was so much about like wanting to give people all of these like recipes and lifestyle changes.
Wanted the jam.
Yeah, but like, okay, well, let's get to the jam I had. I was gonna say, are there any moments from the show that you're going to implement in your own life? You don't remember any of them? No? I actually quite like when she made that one pan pasta Yep, have I not been telling you for years to make one pan dishes? And that's the quickest because you're not Megan Markle. Okay, that's that's it. You make a very fair point. I am not Megan Mancle.
Because the one thing I do have as a walk, and I think it's the same size as that.
You could be living like a queen with one walk. That's all you need. That's what I've always said. Oh yeah, because that's what Meghan Michael told me in that show that I just watched. So I think that past it. I'm throwing out.
My flower sprinkles because it pissed me off too much.
She did. I think you should start putting them on everything.
Absolutely.
Maybe I'll put them on my little steak and I'm going to meet tonight when I get home, like she would love that everything.
I'm surprised that chickens didn't get them a flowers.
Because can I say the truest thing that that woman said is that fried chicken and expensive champagne go well together. That's if my favorite combination. I don't think enough people that pan years beer?
What oh the beer?
Did you notice that, like with all the ingredients and stuff, she like peeled off all the labels, oh everything, Yeah, yeah, No one's getting free promo.
Yeah, no, one's getting free only the jam which okay, because that's been your Roman empire for a long time.
Mindy knew what the people wanted, and she went hard asking questions.
I just pictured Mindy driving down the highway to Montecito, really focused, being like I'm gonna find it. About that jam. That's all people care about, yeap.
So we found out the theory behind the numbers yep. Mindy was like I realized there were numbers.
I didn't know which was better. The very lowest of very pre planned conversation. Even though she.
Received the jar of jam, Mindy was just like all of us. She went to Instagram to see who else jam, which is so funny. We found out that Megan's mum got the number one jam yeap, which fair, which is fine, we can't again.
Dory has been through it too.
And she just said it was random, which I highly doubt.
I don't know she was expecting how much that took off at everyone working out who had which number and who got one. And I think Mindy was all of us in that moment where she was like, I was trolling through Instagram accounts, I was keeping documents. I was looking for who had each jar of jam and who was too cool to post them. And then Megan did her standard thing that she does anytime she's confront with anything, pretended she didn't know about it. She knew everything about it. You could see on her face. She was like, numbers of jam, I don't know. I just try to make people happy with some beautiful preserves, and you know their preserves are not jam because jam is half fruit, hushed sugar.
Technically jam, which you've.
Been calling a jam all the way through. Are you going to print a retraction.
Once I get the jam?
I will, You're like, I'll see for myself right now. And also, now she's got pitch nectar?
What's that all about?
That did sound delicious, but like when do we get that? Well?
Even Mindy was like, oh, I mean it was like, I feel like I have to say yes to the nectar.
Yeah, because she's a Norman when she's going to be able to have that access again.
My favorite line though, before we continue with the Jam story, because like the whole Mindy Kaling episode was them like doing stuff for their kids, and Megan was like, are you like me where you go all out with your kids' birthday parties?
And then he was like the women I pay to go all at us and I.
Was like, yes, that is exactly what we want, and I wish like that was kind of the theme throughout all the episodes of like this is like tiny call out and like bringing her back to reality because I feel like in that moment, Meg was like surprised with him laughed, and I was like that's what she needed, Like she need just like surprise and make a laugh.
Yeah, she's like we're sting at the kids table and she's like it's almost too pretty to eat, and she's.
Like I'm around, pass me that, Christina.
But also she was like, you can come over and watch me heat up burritos. And I was like, Mindy, Kayling, you dirty liar.
She cooks, She cooks so much. She did him in her second memoir, but then she.
Learns no, but she's always posting her cooking on Instagram. Okay, that's just Mindy, don't don't Mindy, don't lie. The people who know you the best, which is us.
Her cooking is more real, though she does do the whole like messy kids ship carried everywhere and.
She'll be like this doesn't look great, but it tasted really good and make it be like weet with our eyes first touching her. No, I think in that moment he was just doing that thing that I think that also we do around people who are a bit more kind of closed up and stuff, like you start putting on a bit of a comedy routine and like being very self deprecating to tiy and like shake them out of it.
She's struggling for a life there.
But yes, I think the talking about the Jam saga was a way to address like the biggest headline that's been following her and try and put the rumors to rest. But I don't know if it landed.
I don't think it landed because I'm also still confused on when we get because it sounds like we will be getting jam eventually.
But she did Deserves preserves one thing today.
Yeah, we're getting our strawberry raspberry peach nectar preserves, maybe a dog bit skin.
She's willing, But.
We just don't know when because they didn't. She didn't say anything about like going to sell them or well.
I think all the trademark issues around it have probably had some sort of overlay onto the show, especially because the last episode is a launch party for what we don't know because she never says brand name. Do you notice that she's like, here's to creativity, here's to a new beginning, here's to launching this brand. Thank you all for being there with me, but never goes into well, it's the brand, not the show well, she never says like it's the show. I sort of got the idea that it was meant to just be the whole lifestyle brand, like, yes, it's a rap party for the show.
Please don't w watch another website I can't keep.
Well, she knows she's had to change the name of the company. That's what it is.
Oh yeah, because of the yeah, the old chid. I was actually looking really closely when she was writing people's names on the labels. I was like, I need to see this O written out and yes, because that did cost her entire company. The other thing I wanted to bring up was how much.
They broke the fourth wall all the way through filming, and I think that was again I don't want to have this thought around her that everything she does is so calculated. When you're at her level, I think you have to be. Like I said, last time she had people in her house and was filming and taking some photos in her reel house. It just blew up with all these articles of like pricing everything in the room, doing like backstories and everything of room. People looking for secret clues. We did it. We ran a story with big red circle around things like her telling her journalists what to write, Yeah, exactly, Like she's been burnt before, so I think this time she I think that she probably had a whole team of people trying to say, like, how can we do this luxury show that is your vision of this like beautiful, high end show and make you look really relatable at the same time. And I think half of that was her trying to bring in like some non celebrity friends who would also make her kind of look good. But I think the other part was always panning around to seeing the camera crew, seeing the producers make sure they're getting fed yes, and her like making food for them, her talking to them them saying in the background, they're being like, we love this food, Megan, like Europe, Meg, we love this food. Like you're so lovely, all that sort of stuff. And I'm sure she was being lovely to them. Like I said, she had official complaints put about her at the Palace for being a bully, so she'd be like walking on eggshells. Now, oh my god, I didn't even put that together. And also when she came to LA Now there's been so many reports about all the people that have quit her complex and stuff. Yeah, there's been reports of her being difficult to work with. So I think she is this rich, beautiful woman in this beautiful making this unattainable food and cutting her flowers an unattainable way. The truest thing she ever said was not to use see through glass so you can't see the dirty water, which is what I've worked for my flower arranging as well. Oh well, the rest of the time, she's very unattainable, and I think she could have come off really cold. So they're showing like her mingling with the camera guy and the producer and she's making them snacks and she's talking to them. And when the camera moves away, you can see like a bit of the mess and the production in the background. So it's showing like, we know this is a fake world for a moment, please step into the real world. Well, we're all friends and we make sandwiches and drink beer.
Oh my god.
Yes, WHOA. Maybe it worked.
I don't know, maybe it worked even like when she would do like little quirky things like now you reminded me, Like when she would be like, stay right here, I'm gonna run out and get some lavender. Yeah, and then the camera just follows her outside. Also that's not her garden. So is she allowed to do that? I don't know, but.
I'm sure loving de picking was included in the fee for the house. That lavender was like pre planted.
But I think it's like those little moments that look like she's doing it off the cuff, but definitely would have been I'm gonna go out and get some lavendar, yeah, and then just like pretend it wasn't yeah exactly.
I just think overall, I think a lot of people went into this wanting it to be this like crazy over the top luxury show, and it wasn't that. And I think other people wanted all these behind the scenes tell all moments from Megan Markle, which really didn't get any of like evitably didn't expect it, did we I think some people did. We did it, But I think some people thought that she might talk about her life, or or she might talk about like, you know, the royal family a little bit, but she only ever sort of just alluded to it on the surface. She talked about h Yes, well he didn't make a little appearance at the.
End, and then quickly at like the hike for like a little snippet yeah, because that was like a pre film. I'm so glad, Oh my god, I'm so glad they didn't take Guy on that hike. I was looking out for it and I was like, oh no, it's not going.
To be that would be the end for him. I also thought it was very interesting that. But you know how like every time a new episode started, it comes up with like you know, rated whatever it was for like adult themes, and it had a warning about crude humor, and I was like, I'm.
Sorry it was crude humor.
I didn't see it.
Was it just about talking them talking about drinks and getting drunk.
With some stage I think where she's like all that my bacon brings all the boys to the art. I'm like, I'm sorry. Was that the crude humor? And then like a zoom in on the bacon.
Also, what I needed to talk about was like the whole garden party at the yes.
Okay, last episode, food be.
Warned to food everywhere, preserves everywhere where the hell.
Were the flies? They had them removed?
They had the bees, but not the flies.
Yeah, I think if you're Megan Minkle, you have the power to have no flies.
I just like I even knew like that little kind of hut that she had Mindy Kalen in outside that would have been like if we try to do something like that, it would be like a sauna, Like it would be so hot in there, there'd be flies everywhere. Like just the whole look of it, Like, you can't replicate it, even if you do have all that money. I don't think you could ever replicate that.
Yeah, No, it was well. It was also set dressing, like there would have been a whole team of people, which sometimes we saw the Afforge.
Good to me though, because it showed me what was the flashback and what wasn't, because I got quite confused because you know, like some of the episodes, it would start off like at the end where she's presenting everything, and then she'd be like, pass me the strawberry preserve, and then it would flash back to her making the strawberry preserve before, or like preshing the Fish's superhero.
She can't make the jam on the same way that I'm saying, I'm like, that's what.
The outfit changes helped me with. I'm like, did you just leave her guest there to go?
Now? Cook? I don't think continuity was a big deal for anyone she felt safe. I was following this from beginning to in the story taking place. But yeah, I'm also I'm just wondering who it Netflix slept on that crude humor warning, and was it a joke, That's what I'm thinking.
I don't think so. They were just like have to be extra careful.
I mean no, I think she went a lot of money on it. She would love people to think there was crude humor in that show, that it was a bit edgy.
I just don't.
Show your kids. She's like, this is for the girls late at night. I love everything.
Ladies like her.
Chickens are ladies, her friends are ladies. The fruit she wanted to see later ladies. It's so funny. So overall, I think it's just the show has changed me. Can I say, go home and salt a fish?
I really like her now. I think it worked on me.
Really, Yeah, I am.
I don't think it's mainly the guests she chose. Yeah, like she chose very like not just like guests who aren't all just for the camera, but just like guess who are just open and vulnerable and like trying something new, like Vicky say.
I think it made her.
Look so good, Like she's not just like this super super rich woman who has this super super expensive skincare brand which is also so in touch with the cultural roots, and she makes dumblings and she like can teach you how to cook, like it's things like that, Like she made her guests look really good.
Yeah, and I think that is really nice.
Yes, And that's a big step up from archetypes, because I think why that podcast really didn't land is that Megan Markle and also we don't know, but apparently like they couldn't come up with an idea, so Spotify came up that idea for her, and you can tell with the episodes that she never really grasped it because it's about breaking down these archetypes which are based on words, but she doesn't want to use the words or diva like she doesn't want to. She's like, no, no, She's one of two who's like, don't talk about it and don't say it, whereas I think most people like no, say it and deconstruct it and use it. And you always just felt listening to that podcast that she was very uncomfortable and she didn't want to and she wasn't grasping the concept, whereas this is so her concept like this is her in a nutshell, is that she's wanting you to see her dehydrated fruit and her flower arranging.
And then she found her thing finally took her while.
But I feel like we weren't the people that needed to be convinced, Like we didn't hate her in the first place. We weren't hate watching this.
So do you think those people aren't convinced?
I think the headlines around the next day was super predictable of this is cringey, this is embarrassing. The ten most embarrassing moments for those headlines and mark.
Are also like written before people.
Are the show. But also they clicked the best. Yeah, like in the defensive megamuklell. No one's going to click on mad or like you know anything around that. But maybe we should do that. Yeah, I guess we kind of have in this episode. Like I said, I'm desperate to be friends with this woman unlimited time and place. But I just I just want to go and soak in the bar salts that she makes for me and use a love and to towel Is that too much to ask?
Now? I can do that for you, though, I.
Really don't think that's going to happen, but stay tuned.
Thank you so much for listening to the Spill today. If you loved our Brudley Honest review, we do a lot of these. The latest one we did was on the latest Bridget Jones movie.
It was really really cool, one of our best.
I'm gonna say we were, like the title says, brutally honest.
It's very funny, very funny.
The Spill is produced by Kimberly Bradish with sound production by Scott Stronik. And we'll be back here in your podcast feed at three pm on Monday.
Bye bye, La.
