With Love, Meghan dropped on yesterday (March 4) after a delay due to the California wildfires.
The saccharine reality show sees keeping bees, preparing fruit salads in the shape of rainbows, and creating her own bath salts. And by and large? It’s inoffensive. There were even bits I enjoyed – even though I think Meghan should have stuck to her day job and never quit in the first place. Her tidy new aesthetic is just a bit boring.
What’s far less boring, though, is ’s true crime saga Apple Cider Vinegar. The Australian drama – starring Kaitlyn Dever, Alycia Debnam-Carey and Kate Lister – tells a fictionalised version of the very true story of wellness guru Belle Gibson.
In real life, Belle falsely claimed she was diagnosed with various types of , including brain cancer, and was managing them with alternative medicine. By 2015, Belle admitted that her diagnoses were lies – but it didn’t stop there.
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There’s a show you really should be watching on Netflix – and it’s not Meghan’s (Image: Netflix)
She launched The Whole Pantry mobile app and a cookbook to go along with it, claiming she donated some of the profits to charity – but this was also a lie. In 2017, she was fined £410,000 in Australian currency when Consumer Affairs Victoria launched legal action against her.
The show also explores the life of Jessica Ainscough – given the fictional alias Milla Blake in the series. Jessica was really diagnosed with epithelioid sarcoma when she was 22 years old, and blogged about her ‘healing journey’ using alternative therapies.
Apple Cider Vinegar is a gritty true crime dramatisation (Image: Netflix)
Jessica refused an arm amputation which could have saved her life, instead relying on coffee enemas and raw juices. By 2015 she had sadly died at the age of 29, after trying last-minute radiotherapy in a bid to extend her life.
Her mother Sharyn had also died of breast cancer just a year before her daughter, also relying on alternative medicines.
Like the true crime dramas before it – The Act, based on the story of Gypsy Rose Blanchard, is a favourite – Apple Cider Vinegar scratches that itch for something a bit grim, something to really sink your teeth into. Sadly, Meghan’s show just falls flat.
Yes, it might be the perfect kind of escapism from a world filled with the realities of the the ongoing Palestine and conflict and increasingly bizarre presidency – but should we really be scrunching our eyes shut and sticking our fingers in our ears?