The Next Prince

All that glitters is not gold!

This drama had everything going for it. From stunning sets, dramatic costumes, popular cast and a trailer that promised intrigue, romance and political drama. Unfortunately, it turns out that lavish wardrobes and good-looking actors in them can't save the day.

The most glaring issue here was the writing. The drama just can't seem to decide what it wants to be till the very end.
Was it a royal romance? A musical drama? A political thriller? A princess diary fanfic BL version? There were too many storylines crammed in here. Instead of choosing one and committing, it tries to do all and ends up doing none well.
Let's start with tonal whiplash. One moment, you are dealing with serious political protests and in the very next scene, Khanin suddenly bursts into song with a piano playing softly in the background. I understand singing during protests is nothing new and it's a time-honoured form of resistance, but this was Broadway theatrical in a way that totally undermined the gravity of that scene and took all seriousness out of it.

Coming to the main couple, they definitely look good on paper, but felt like paper in execution. Khanin is both the crown prince and somehow the least interesting person in most of the scenes. He starts as an interesting character, a normal boy adapting to palace culture in a foreign land, but quickly develops into this lovesick puppy whose only job is to pine, pose and moon over Charan.
Charan, on the other hand, is a man of few words and fewer expressions.
He was stiff, stoic and emotionally blank for most of the drama. He definitely had an air of nobility, and we were shown a few glimpses of inner turmoil that could have been fleshed out more to give us something, but I never got a sense of what drives him. Was it a sense of justice or his duty? He was just the "dependable one" and that's about it. Also the amount of filters on Zee's face was a baffling choice. He is already handsome. There was no need to smooth out every trace of expression. We know his age and there is nothing wrong with showing it. Why try to hide what already works!!??

I felt their relationship developed too fast. They have chemistry and I don't deny that, but just not enough development for me to root for them. They were very bland. Even the infamous NC scene looked like a fever dream you would expect from a Wattpad fanfic. It felt overdramatic and oddly timed.

Meanwhile, the second couple, Ramil and Paytai, sitting on the bench at the side, actually had a compelling dynamics but barely got any screen time. They had something emotionally raw brewing, trauma bonding, guilt, co-dependence. We were served crumbs of them but that’s the only part I ended up caring about.

Then there’s Ava. I was genuinely curious to see how the writers would handle her arc and they disappointed me exactly as expected. They made her stand up just to knock her back down again whenever it suited the plot (or their mood apparently). So much potential, so little effort.
I will not even talk about Calvin and Jay because they got so little screen time. They were written in but weren't written for. All the side characters had a better story in my humble opinion.

The polished cinematography, sparkling costumes and wide shots of castles and palaces screamed high budget. But honestly, it felt like a hollow chocolate wrapped in gold foil. Pretty to look at but kind of pointless when you are left with nothing to chew on. And also, I wished they were a bit subtle about the product placement.
And I wasn't particularly impressed with any of the acting performances, especially of the leads. I don't know if it was the writing or what, but NO.

Overall, this was a disappointment for me, not the fun kind which you can laugh about. I am not sure if the team thought aesthetics could do all the heavy lifting. I will not recommend this.

P.S.- This review is not meant to discourage anyone from watching the drama. If you are interested, absolutely give it a try. :) And this isn’t also a jab at the actors either. My disappointment comes from a place of a viewer who was genuinely excited for the series. You might wonder why I didn’t drop it midway, well you can thank my NDD for that.

But if you enjoyed the show, please take this review with a grain of salt and as one person’s perspective among many.
Thank you for reading my review and I hope you have a lovely day. <3

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Don't read All 10s reviews

Most of these "all-10s" reviews are clearly written by fans of the main couple. Do me a favor and go to their profiles. Their accounts are only created to hype up the drama. Unless you're one of them, you're likely to end up disappointed by this much-anticipated series. I'm just a regular BL watcher, always on the lookout for a good story, regardless of who's starring in it, so my review is unbiased.

I do appreciate the production value, the sets, and the effort to make everything look visually grand. However, sometimes it feels overly controlled and artificial. For example, the club scene, the protest scene, and the market scene all came off as staged rather than organic or lively.

The actors are almost always dressed impeccably, but it often feels like they're just reciting lines rather than truly acting. I'm not saying they’re bad actors, but the script is poorly written and gives them little room to showcase their talents. There was one scene where NuNew had to cry after his adopted father died, and that was genuinely moving. On the other hand, Zee’s character supposedly has childhood trauma related to rain, but that emotion never really came through in his performance.

The rest of the time, it felt like the actors were just wearing expensive outfits, delivering stiff lines, and doing forced NC scenes, simply because that's what the majority of fans want to see.

Overall, this was a poorly written drama with a massive budget for set design and wardrobe, but very little depth. The actors delivered their lines with maybe 25% of the emotional weight they could have, and the result is a series that looks good on the surface but lacks real substance.

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The fairytale that wasn't

If you've been seeking out a review from someone who racked their head to find one, just one positive thing about The Next Prince and pathetically failed.. Congrats! You found it.
Fair warning - I'm going to tell you what this series was about but if it comes across like I'm desperately trying to convince you not to watch it, it's not me, it's them. The makers of The Next Prince have come up with a series so devoid of soul that there's isn't a single thing I can say to convince you in earnest to give this a try, and honestly, I'm not sure I'd want to.

This felt like a script idea that they fed into ChatGPT with the words
"Write a series that is based on The Princess Diaries, Harry Potter, Hunger Games and a few other movies of your choosing. Most importantly, make it as boring as you can."

The story develops from Kenneth being an outsider in an unknown environment to a story about singing protests?
Kenneth is Khanin by the way, the lead. I can't call him anything else.

Anyway, the story starts out with Kenneth being this smart, sassy and bratty fencer who is living his life in England, until Charan (played by the increasingly stone faced Zee) kidnaps him and takes him back to some fictitious kingdom that can't be situated on any world map, Emmaly. Kenneth, as it turns out, is the kingdom's long lost prince.

Emmaly has a weird monarchy, it is split into four regions ruled by princes and Kenneth's grandfather is currently the king and he rules all of Emmaly. His biological dad is one of the contenders for the throne because irrespective of time and space, once in a while, there is a competition where the grandchildren of all four regions essentially compete in a Hunger Games-esque competition so that their fathers can become the next rulers. Incredible. Basically, Kenneth has been kidnapped to compete in his father's stead.

But our boy doesn't take it sitting - he's away from home, his adoptive dad is pronounced to be dead by Charan, he's a wreck. He lashes out, he tries to topple the monarchy (not really). For all of two episodes. Because Kenneth is surprisingly resilient. He is a duck's back. He's being an absolute delight, taking classes, being his princely self all with a bit of flirtatious rebellion because of course. You would think that this is all pretence - so he can root the monarchy from the ground within and run off to find his dad, but no, he loves it. And he's in love! With Charan, the dude who almost made him vomit just from the sight of maybe two episodes ago.

He's in love, and he's willing to do the competition because.. reasons. So the rest of the story obviously has to be about the competition? Now that we've successfully become the epitome of royalty, and completely forgotten about everything else? Wrong.

This is where the story pivots into fan fiction. Specifically for Kenneth and Charan. The public ships them after they dance together during Kenneth's reintroduction to society and about three episodes are dedicated to their fake relationship to improve Kenneth's PR imagine. They visit all the kingdoms, they go clubbing, we learn about Charan's trauma and they almost kiss. All this while, Kenneth's Grandpa has been doing some evil plotting involving separating the two of them - but because plot said so, he obviously can't. But Grandpa's evil arc isn't over yet.. not by a long shot.

They romance and other unnecessary stuff like a second and third couple development happens, only to stop there because they get no more development. There are assassination attempts when the focus, shockingly, shifts back to the competition for a half a minute, but before we know it, they're romancing again. This is where stuff gets genuinely bad though.

They bring in the storyline of mining protests, which I was told was based on real life events (thanks Jojo), but if you were going to do that, why not take it more seriously? Singing protests, abrupt mood shifts, there was no real substance to that plot point, which somehow became all about Kenneth. He was supposed to be the person who grounded everyone else, yet somehow he came across as the most set apart from reality of them all. Grandpa is obviously involved in this - he's been involved in a lot of shady stuff all this while.

And because Grandpa's evil deeds know no extent, we find out that all the protests and the assassinations, literally everything had to do with - revenge on him. Which admittedly, is predictable but not bad. This may have been the only plotline that actually made sense and kind of did tie the story together and that's good. But not when it lasted all of one episode before the focus was shifted back to a useless competition.

But we got a happy ending of course! With complete ignorance of all the plot holes, missing characters and horrific storylines they pulled off, but who cares! All that matters is that we get one more awkward NC scene as cherry on top right?

It's so unbelievably sad how quickly this sank, maybe it was bad from the beginning but I was too wrapped up in what could have been to actually see that. And what could have been huh? I genuinely would not have minded a very fan fiction, silly type of series with abrupt comedy and some weird storylines. But in being so serious, the writers have turned the story into a serious mess. The mood shifts were jarring, the storylines were incredibly choppy, the logic was all over the place..

The characters writing was atrocious. I thought for a couple of episodes that we were finally moving on from the caricatures that Zee and NuNew so often play, but old habits die hard I guess, we were back to whiny and emotionless characters in a minute. And I'm sorry (not sorry) but Zee and NuNew have no chemistry. I was bored out my mind watching them on screen, I felt no real bond because their relationship was so rushed and most of it was awkward and uncomfortable to watch.

Ohm and Jimmy had potential as Ramil and Paytai, but their characters are once again, written so horrifically you can't root for them. Net and JJ looked like they would prefer to be literally anywhere but in this series, who can blame them?
I genuinely hope their individual shows can make better use of their chemistry, because admittedly, they do have some. But this series spent an absymal amount of time on either of them, so what do I know.
And all the other characters were either written badly and had some screentime, or were written badly and had no screentime. A select few like Ava and Chakri were written comparatively well, but had no screentime.

All the investment in making it look pretty. But what use is holographic video calls when your plot is less stable than the Internet connection they used for those calls? This could've easily been an eight episode series with the most incredible plot, crisp and concise, with great couples and cinematography. What we got was dressed up nonsense.

I wasted around 15 hours experiencing pure torment and wouldn't want you doing the same, so if you want to watch it.. I don't know.. do something productive while you watch? Maybe five sit ups everytime they do or say something egregious. Or journal. Do your dishes. Dealer's choice.

Because remember, at the end of the day, this is the series that hinged on Zee's abs to do all the heavy lifting.

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The biggest disappointment in BL history....

While this show was not only overhyped and we all expected greatness, the script of this show was worse than I could ever have imagined. As usual this series started strong in the first two episodes to declined at a steady pace *till episode 12, where the jumped of the cliff and landed on the belly.

Everyone reading the novel can agree, that the novel did not need to be spiced up with the SM part for example. If the book is already good, you should not change it into something it never was. The pacing is all over the place and the side couples are mostly just extras where their stories are wasted and not explored in depth. But we see scene after scene of the ML which did nothing for the story.

Episode 12 culminates in the trash script this was, with one cliché after the next. Nobody can fault the actors who all did a very good job with what there were given. And of course costumes, most of the staging and cinematography was impeccable, The music with an real orchestra was great - if they had used it everywhere and not used some music from a library which again was completely unnecessary. The few minutes in every episode could have been handled by the composer as well. Of course I could nitpick about the "english" natives and the "London underground station" and so on. And don't forget all the ads slapped directly into our faces. And don't forget the miraculous healing power of Chakri, who was serving again after being shot (which was not a stray shot in the arm or so).

All in all, this was overhyped and did not deliver. Aof said, he did the best he could. If that's the best, I don't see a future for Domundi. But of course the fangirls will overrate this show again, will not understand how weak that story was and that the drama was forced. And they will write glowing reviews (hello CRPH & thanks for blocking) not having a shroud of integrity to write about the flaws this show has. Normally this show would rate even lower, but I can't deny the acting performance (oh daddy Ramil you were the perfect asshole through out the series), the cinematography, costums and most of the staging and most of the music. But the script was trash. As I have written all of that - the conclusion is: This show is a waste of your time.

Oh, I forgot: The cut version should not exist, because they even cut STORY elements. Which makes no sense at all, especially in the first episode.

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Could Have Been Great...

Zee: OMG, I have an idea for a royal series I wanna do with Nunew. Very princey, very royal.
Aof(director): Ohhh sounds good, I'd commission a writer and have a novel written.
Writer: Here you go, your novel.
Me: *read it, enjoyed the story and got super excited for the drama.*
*Drama starts at a billion years: huge budget, great cast, awesome costumes and sets, over top production. I'm in my disney feels. It was worth the wait.*
*3 episodes later...*
Director: You know what, how about we throw that novel away and do something else.
Me: But you had a novel... that was the whole...huh?
Director: Alright, quiet on set, on my count, we just gonna do our own thing... action!
ME: Dishonor on your ancestors goat, forehead, dishonor!

So yeah, literally what was the point of the novel if Aof and his forehead was going to throw the whole thing away and do whatever the hell he wanted? The script was meh, and the execution more so. somewhere after episode 7 it felt like a chore trying to get through it, the secondary character felt like an after thought, hated how they ruin Ramil's story with that unnecessary nonsense, poor dude lost his crown , and the friendship between him and Khanin and for what? I did like Jay and Calvin though, but please don't get me started on how bad they did Charan, dude was so one dimensional it was painful.

My fav scene would forever be the moment Khanin was introduced as the prince and he was in that royal outfit and walking down the stairs and you could see how nervous he was, so beautiful, Nunew did such a good job. I actually also liked the finale, but it's such a shame they waited until the last minute to give us depth to any of the secondary characters. Calvin was a disposable prince, Paypai was from a political family, Charan family took an oath to serve since forever... interesting give me more of that, instead we got the evil king who had no repercussion whatsoever die knowing his bloodline still reigns, give over.

This one had such a huge potential to be a great series, unfortunately even with the big budget, great sets, costumes and cast, it still came out of Domundi, so we got what we got. I have a lot of things to say, but imma keep quiet and go sit my somehow. One thing though, some of the music that came out of this was great, so if not for anything we had that.

Anywho, looking forward to the casts' next work.

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Here was my review after the first 3 episodes. I started my rating at 8 stars.

"In every age, power remains with those who win." Which means, the competition for the throne of Emmaly is about to be deadly. Three heirs, one throne. Ahhh, I'm so seated for this plot. Also, LMAO I don't trust anyone in Emmaly. Everyone is so shifty and suspicious like... that one prince in blue, the moment I saw his moustache I knew he was guilty of something. Khanin honey, imma need you to raid that closet and run back to England. Let me explain.

So, someone is trying to off Khanin and we don't know who, but after episode 3 I have narrowed it down to, well, everyone. Basically, the whole kingdom. Like, everyone on this show looks suspicious as eff,

My Reasons Why Everyone In Emmaly Is A Suspect
#1: The King: This man was playing chest by himself, and checkmate himself, that alone makes him suspicious.
#2: Green Prince: Dude entered the drama like we owed him money, angry and asking too many questions.
#3: Blue Prince: His moustache. Like, I don't know what he's guilty of, but it's not nothing. He did something, he looks super shifty.
#4: Pink Prince: Dude don't speak much, hiding something are we?
#5: Gold Prince: This man found out his son he believed was dead for 20 years is still alive, and so far all he's done is look sad for a bit and smiled all so sneering and... suspicious.

then we have the heirs:
#1: Princess Eva: Too pretty, wearing all them fancy gowns I don't have. Suspicious and guilty.
#2: Prince Ramil: This child speaks like basmati rice, slow and one at a time, but every word out of his mouth makes you wanna boo him. It's not looking good for him and his dad.
#3: Prince Khanin: Obviously he didn't attack himself but that child is Sassy. Bossy. Naughty. I feel he about to turn everything upside down, good luck Emmaly. Oh and Charan, poor dude was the first victim with the, I command you to be my guard stunt he pulled.

Others:
Charan: He said: "Power doesn't matter to me, but you do Your Highness." --> Royal guard too in love, he's a liability.
Calvin: 3 episodes in and all we got from him was a glance. Dude's hiding ,he did something.
Jay: Saw him for a second and he looked so pretty while singing... it's suspicious.
Paytai: He's close with Ramil and his father, so he must be guilty of something too.

So yeah, everyone is guilty, cuz this this drama is like a cross between Game of Thrones, Princess Diaries and Gossip Girl, you know, but make it gayer. No, but those three princes' had me rolling. These dudes gossip over tea. They had their fancy tea cups and everything out. lmao.

Anyway, so far, we 3 episodes in and I am super impressed by how grand everything feels. The scale, quality, and budget, everything feels so massive and well over my expectations. I was drooling over the wardrobe in episode 3 and Nunew Chawarin is one beautiful boy cuz he was born to play this role, he embodied being a prince with such ease and grace. And when he walked down those stairs to introduce himself? I stood up and bowed too, cuz... Your Highness!

My Impression after 3 episodes:
I am enjoying the drama so far, and impressed with the acting of the leads as well. Seeing Zee and Nunew bring their characters to life made me emotional. Overall, I am stunned with the drama in general, Everything from the outfits, locations, set designs, music to the cast is so beautifully done and detailed to perfection. The grand-ness-ness is majestic as hell.

After episode 3, it's clear the plot would focus on the fencing competition for the throne. It's a different plot from the many high school bls we mostly get, so already it's a win in my book. Not gonna lie, I have no idea what fencing is about, but from the little we saw it seems you just poke your pointy stick thingy at the other's head and then they poke back, and some dude shuts something in french, so yeah, sports and stuff. Either way, I can't wait for the competition to start.

What I'm looking forward to:
- Who is after Khanin and why.
- How Khanin and Charan goes from royal guard and prince to lovers. It's probably gonna hurt, but that's what tissues are for.
- The competition for the throne! Can't watch for the royal intrigue and backstabbing, it's gonna be amazing. I'll make popcorn and wine while watching.
- The beautiful aesthetics of the sets. I am ready to immerse myself in this royal aura.
- Fully meeting the other cast members and seeing what they bring to the table. From the trailer they are all about to give us drama, and I am seated for the ride.
- How Khanin adjusts to being a prince, living in the castle and coming to Emmaly. It's gonna be interesting seeing how he adjust to the change in status and meeting his new family after losing his current one.
- And of course who would win the throne in the end.

Also, lastly, Khanin, child, why is you saying no to being a prince? If someone told me I was a prince in this economy, I'd have been like: 'A prince prince? With my whole castle and everything prince? Dude, say less, I'm in.' No, really, they don't even have tell me the name of the country or nothing. Matter fact, just point me in the direction of where it is, and I'll walk there myself. This child was out there sobbing and wailing and angry. Understandable giving everything, but like, the title came with a hunky handsome royal guard. Nah fam, if he don't want it, I volunteer as tribute. This child playing with his blessings.

Anywho, I can't wait for the rest of the episodes, once every week is gonna be torture.

Enjoy the show royal subjects of Emmaly.

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Dull

Nunew does his best to carry the show, he’s geuinely the only one with a personality. The three couples featured have zero chemistry together. Charan has the personality of a rock and cares entirely too much about his duty to the king. He refuses to stick up for Khanin & is just incredibly subservient. Plus he’s hiding a massive lie from him about his dad that he 100% should’ve told him about before they ever got intimate. I would never forgive
someone for lying about that. I appreciate the political aspect with Khanin wanting to step up for his people regarding the pollution but overall the plot is just dull and I might drop it.
The bdsm was the only wow factor of this show.

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The Princess diaries but make it gay

Domundi new era and I’m HERE FOR IT.

I know this has been one of the most anticipated series for the longest time, and I’ll admit I had high expectations and you know what I was not disappointed. there was apart of me that thought it this was going to be cringe and I’m glad I was wrong.

you can tell so much effort went into this. Now I am a huge DMD fan but I can admit they sometimes lack in the script or in places here and there. but this, this is everything I wanted and more.

music: fantastic
no cringe acting: that’s a plus
so far no silly sound effects: sign me the hell up.
good fight scenes: yes please

and the cinematography is chef’s kiss.

the wait for us to get here took forever, but you know what, the wait was worth it.

plus I NEVER give 10/10 across the board and yet here I did. fingers crossed it doesn’t let me down

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Utterly disappointing (Only good for a HATE-watch)

The Next Prince feels like an underbaked cake with perfect icing, visually stunning, with gorgeous cinematography, lavish costumes, and clearly a high budget… but the writing is flat, disjointed, and lacking depth.

I actually enjoyed the first episode and felt a spark of interest, but after that, it was all downhill. Each week I found myself less engaged, to the point of skipping entire scenes. The writer set up a promising world and then just… walked out of the room.

Let’s talk about Khanin, or not, because what is there to say? He started off strong with a sassy, confident personality, but the moment he stepped into the palace, all of that disappeared. He became a lovesick puppy following Charan around for no clear reason. Was it just because they’re Zeenunew? Because nothing in the story really justified the romance. Imagine your entire life falls apart after some random guy shows up, and somehow you're supposed to fall for him anyway?

And don't get me started on how Khanin completely forgot his life in the UK the second he entered Emmarly. That entire backstory might as well have been deleted. As for Charan, the idea that he has a debilitating trauma response to rain, and still gets sent alone to the UK to retrieve the crown prince, is just absurd.

Their romance had zero momentum for me. It started with promise but became boring fast.

I adore JimmyOhm, but the Ramil–Paytai dynamic was just bad. Paytai deserved to run far, far away from Ramil, who was cowardly, frustrating, and made no smart choices.

Calvin and Jay actually had an interesting storyline, but they got the screen time equivalent of a fruit fly's lifespan, blink and you miss them.

Princess Ava had potential to be iconic, but her character was reduced to spouting "girl power" lines while being surrounded by constant misogyny. She deserved much better writing.

Now Chakri, Chakri is the moment. Scene-stealer, fan favorite, and honestly the most consistent character in the show. No notes there.

Overall:
The Next Prince is style over substance. Beautiful to look at, but hollow. The cast did what they could, but the writing left them stranded. If you're looking for something to roll your eyes at while admiring the outfits, this might be your perfect hate-watch.

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dmd budget wasted once again

never ever in my lifetime have i been so bored watching a show.
they have ruined each and every side character, the mains are boring asf idk how anyone watches it, theres not enough time for them to tie up all the loose ends on the plot so the ending WILL be rushed.
directing is fine i like the royalty vibe with the modernity too.
dmd budget ate but maybe stick closer to the source material next time, the screenwriter messed up BADLY on this one
i supported ava throughout this show and ik she does better in the novel but im still so mad how they did her in the show, ava never fought for womens rights to gain recognition from her dad/family, she did it because in emmaly women dont have rights and she wanted it to change, the show really ruined her.
ramil was also ruined, if hes meant to always protect paytai but didnt even run to hug him after stepping on his head, thats not love and sincerely i hope paytai can find someone who respects him and protects him like a lover. who doesnt control his life and force his power over him. 
charan is cute but the pacing of all the plots around him are so boring i really cant anymore, as someone obsessed with politics the political plot is my least fav
dmd wasted the gl couple ava mira smh
ohms a good actor but idk smth is off sometimes
net deserved more screen time along with jj they were the best couple i fear and net is so pretty, 
not much else for me to say other than, what a waste of 13 (14 next week) hours of my life (i skipped thru the eps)

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Spent a lot of money to discover an almost perfect recipe for BLAND

SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT REVIEWS
-Currently its AT 8.1. It deserves no higher then 7 because it achieved somethings, good camera work, better sets, wardrobe, but a good script and compelling story is what should count in the end. It failed on those
-The ratings are a joke. Over 95% reviews here 24/7/20 have given this a rating of 10 when they had only seen 1 episode (reviews done in first week of airing). Currently there are 11 pages. It seems its desperate dishonest fans.
User "CRPH" swears that "plus I NEVER give 10/10 across the board and yet here I did. fingers crossed it doesn’t let me down" but if you look at their reviews there is a lot of 10s (Jacj Joker, Deep Night, You are mine" - a few on the first page only)

STYLE OVER SUBSTANCE
-It makes me think of the expression "the emperor is not wearing any clothes" Except here a good portion of the budget was directed at wardrobe (obviously stolen from script writing).
-A fortune was spent on this vanity project for the main leads, but does not engage viewers - unless you are an NNZ or ZNN fan.
SOME ISSUES
-There were too many plots which all missed the mark. It was all over the place.
-The did not focus enough on the two support couples who were infinitely more interesting
-NN plays a NN, a butterfly princess that parades around in costumes, or is that NN playing NN. (nothing wrong with princesses) but if you have an intricate plot you need a better actor with some gravitas
BAD INVESTMENT
I can think of other worthwhile script driven, character driven projects that could have been made instead of this.
Its a shame

EDIT - I adjusted the overall review score to a 6.5 because I felt it deserved credit for the technical aspects (prob above my grade to discuss) such as camera work, sets ect

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