Season Review: The Prince Season One

It wasn’t that long ago when Prince Philip sadly passed away and left a hole in the hearts of the British royal family. While I’m not a huge follower myself, I can understand why he was so beloved by everyone. Clearly, someone loved him so much that he decided to make a cartoon based on his heritage, and that someone is Gary Janetti.  

Known for writing Family Guy and Vicious, Janetti has created an animated satire of the British royal life, but it doesn’t center around Philip. Instead, it involves the child of Prince William and Duchess Catherine, Prince George. The show was initially scheduled to debut on HBO Max in the spring but was delayed due to Prince Philip’s death. An easy indication that it wasn’t the right time to poke fun at the royal family at his expense. A couple of months later, the streaming service launched the show the day after it was announced, with no marketing plans whatsoever. If that wasn’t royally irritating, I don’t know what is.

The show, which debuted with 12 episodes, centers on a seven-year-old Prince George (voiced by Janetti) as he makes life a royal pain for his family and the British monarchy. Rounding up the all-star cast is Orlando Bloom, Condola Rashad, Lucy Punch, Alan Cumming, Frances de la Tour, Iwan Rheon, Sophie Turner, and Dan Stevens. There’s usually a set of boundaries they can push to get some laughs when it comes to parodies, whether it’s poking fun at specific events or the celebrities or both. With its adult rating, The Prince had an opportunity to go all out with its satirization and social commentary. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.

The show has been gaining some controversy surrounding its unruly concept and the process of using a child as a source of adult humor. After seeing it for myself, I can understand why it got some people all worked up. It’s a highly crude and tasteless animated sitcom that failed to balance the charisma and humor with its mean-spiritedness.

What managed to keep the show going was some of the side plots that lasted throughout the season. They involved Prince Harry (Bloom) and Meghan (Rashad) getting jobs in America, Charlotte (Turner) secretly working for a mysterious organization, William (Rheon) and Catherine’s (Punch) relationship, and a hunchbacked monster avenging its family. It provided enough interest in its scenarios to make the series somewhat serviceable. However, they weren’t without their share of flaws, mainly the cliffhanger ending. It felt like an irritating excuse to make the show more exciting, but in reality, it wasn’t that exciting in the first place. If it added in one more episode in the season and gave it a proper closure, I would’ve been more forgiving towards it.

The main plots in the episodes didn’t stand out as much as what’s happening behind the scenes. The writers wasted the narratives and charm of these situations in favor of many characters berating each other, acting like children, and being complete morons all the time. I don’t mind this type of stuff as long as they’re full of wit and appeal. Sadly, the show failed to deliver on that potential. Like the character designs, the show’s personality was more ugly than it was humorous as it struggled to get a single laugh from its mundane storylines and adult-rated jokes. Even the ones involving kids cursing were painfully awkward to witness.

The show was able to get a little better with the last four episodes, including the three-part “School Musical” episode, but that’s not saying much. Even with its attempts at providing some heart on some occasions, including George’s butler Owen (Cumming), some of the characters still came off as unlikeable and even offensive. For example, they butchered Queen Elizabeth’s good nature by making her into a bitch and making Prince Harry into a dim-witted fish-out-of-water-type husband. I can understand that it’s a parody, but since there isn’t a single laugh to be had throughout the entire show, it just came off as painfully insulting instead of entertainingly funny.

The only good thing I can say about the show was that the voice cast did a suitable job with their roles, except for Gary Janetti as Prince George. While not entirely awful, his voice made an apparent attempt at being more off-putting than it should have in terms of the character’s young age. Alan Cumming, Orlando Bloom, and Lucy Punch were also acceptable as Owen, Harry, and Catherine, respectively.

Overall, the first season of The Prince had a chance to become a royal addition to HBO Max’s animation library. Sadly, it wound up being a royal pain in the ass to get through. Despite its engaging side plots, the show struggled to maintain the humor and charm in its satirization. As a result, it quickly fell apart before the second half of the season even started. This was a poor start for the series and Janetti himself regarding its concept. Hopefully, he’ll learn from his mistakes when season two arrives in the future. Otherwise, he’ll be haunted by Prince Philip’s ghost for the rest of his life.