The Next Prince: Uncut

plot got lost in the glitz and glam

Oh how excited I was for this series. So many possibilites on how this could‘ve turned out.
The watching experience throughout the whole series was - generally speaking - okay to good. It made me want to continue watching. But it could‘ve been so much better if the writing would‘ve been better.
Too many characters that all had an open plotline that just got loosly tied in the end or just ended abruptly.
Let‘s go through them:
(points that start with: - are original review points, the ones with: + were added later)

Calvin and Jay
- they were pretty much irrelevant for the main plot. They could‘ve been scrapped and nothing would‘ve changed.
- their conclusion in the last episode felt very out of nowhere and not believable at all. I wished it didn‘t happen.
- what I would‘ve done: not tell anyone that Net and JJ play in this drama, only have them as cameo characters, show them meet at the academy and during the protests (Calvin trying to hide in the masses), and then maybe how Calvin watches the competition. What great promo that could‘ve been for a standalone series that could‘ve been announced during or after the airing of the series. Aah. That would mean more lore about Emmaly and Bhujar.
Because their story is interesting enough for a separate series: A prince who was sent to another country because his father and/or brother(s) don‘t want him to compete for the throne. As normal exchange student Calvin meets (and falls for) this guy who is very much not happy with the monarchy (everything Calvin stands for) and tries to change it with all he has. Calvins search for who he is and where he stands/belongs. And Jay‘s fight for justice and being in love with a royal (aka what he despises most). I would watch that.

Princess Ava
Oh Ava, you were my favourite to win the competition. I wanted her to become queen.
- I needed more of her (and her bodyguard, they had great chemistry. +the kind of chemistry I wished was between Khanin and Charan)
- for her to withdraw felt so counterproductive. She wanted that change so badly and then for her to back down because she got hurt is Argh! What was the point of her fighting in the first place then? She was just used to display the misogyny in Emmaly and her own family. To betray her motivation like that. Frustrating. Misogyny won once again.
+ her dynamic with her father is also interesting. (As a daughter myself:) to go against your parent(s) belief like that is hard. And to realise they think that way is devastating and disheartening. I thought Ava could do it. Together with Mira and the fresh outside support of Khanin.
- So her and Khanin becoming friends made sense but we saw too little of them bonding/interacting other than supporting each others standpoints during/after their speeches.

Ramil and Paytai
- there definitely needed to be more of their story. Quite the heavy story but what we got was not enough.
- their conclusion kinda made sense and was emotional but left me with questions: How are they gonna deal with all this now? Will they have to hide from Ramils controlling father? He definitely wouldn‘t let Ramil go like that. And the family of Paytai? He said he‘s the son of a politician sent to serve the royal family. Knowing Ramils father he might let something happen to Paytais family to get his son back. Their story just left so much ground for more plot. And not just for what happens after the series ended but also during. The breaking point of Paytai. Ramils breaking point. Those both needed some more time on screen.
- I wished (and kinda expected) Ramil would‘ve become friends with Khanin and also Ava (since they had a learned rivalry going on since childhood) in the end. So he could have this spark of hope of a different way of living, hope for change, some stability when it comes to support, friendship and family. And his struggle to accept this kind of acceptance and love.
+ and the abuse Paytai had to endure all these years… that must‘ve left more scars than we saw.

Khanin and Charan
- Khanin never wanted a title? Well, after being a little hesitant in the beginning he seemed to adapt very quickly and was very ready to fight for that title. Even if it was just for his family. +He never said or acted like he didn’t want the title once he was in Emmaly, until the end. Felt a little like one of those „it was all a dream“ endings. We went through all this for what?
- From Charan I needed some more visible inner conflict. Duty versus love. What seems right/appropriate or wrong to him. +his (family‘s) duty to the king versus his passion for art (what wonderful parallels). +Being the older, more mature person that is not giving in *this* quickly to Khanins advances. Also what was that all about?
- They got together way too quickly. I needed more hiding, stolen moments, yearning for each other. +Chakri getting in their way on purpose (at first) and telling Khanin off to not get involved, to act like a proper prince and all that. Which may cause Khanin to try and run away or to his new friend Ava. +for them getting together this quickly it took Charan ages to say ‚I Love You‘ back. I didn‘t really understand why.
- Although I liked the bold moves of Khanin, like them dancing with each other in front of everyone. That was a good way of making the folk warm up to him as possible next ruler. Which makes the ending of him basically giving up his title so ugh. They could‘ve done that dancing moment at the end.
+ them kissing this early in the series was exciting but then adding that Emmalian First Kiss lore to it to then not mention it again? I partially saw that Charan was working through what just happened vs. what he learned & believed that just got shattered by this London Boy. But it wasn‘t enough imo.
Could‘ve been a nice touch for Charan to mention that kiss again before he proposed…
- Them getting engaged in the end… It just felt too soon (Idk how much time has passed since the competition). That just felt like a reasoning for a special episode in which they get married. Will it be a royal wedding or a modest one in London? The latter would make more sense since both gave up their positions in Emmaly. (but honestly I would rather want to see a royal Emmalian wedding)

The royal heirs as group
- as I said earlier I wanted them to become friends. First Khanin and Ava and joining a little later Ramil. Them going out together was a good start.
- And then when the competition was won by whoever they would change the current way of ruling to them ruling together as a council. So every part of Emmaly has an equal right to have a say. But the fact that the father of whoever won would become ruler ruined this possibility from the beginning. That fact irked me since it was explained.
- I full on expected Ava to win so the other couples could go be happy without the responsibility of being the heirs.

Some more questions and thoughts:
- Why are we forgiving the Grandpa King so easily? Just because he is about to die? He was a bad bad ruler. Where are the consequences for his actions? Why did not more try to assassinate or overthrow him?
- How is Jay‘s sister doing?
- What happens to Wasins part of the country? I have a faint memory that they said something about that but already forgot.
- Were the writers too scared to write something too anti-monarchy since Thailand still has a monarchy? A constitutional one but still.
- While we got a bunch of action and some attacks I wished there would‘ve been more thrill. Thrill in who is scheming, who is attacking, is it one group or person? Will someone die? All this happened but in a out of the blue way. No time to try and figure it out yourself or to feel the thrill.
- What about Ramils father? He‘s a violent controlling person in power. How will that play out for his part of Emmaly? Will he cooperate now that he can‘t be the king or will he keep scheming to get the throne?
- the roles of the fathers were interesting but also odd. idk how to put it into words rn. Will maybe add a point about the fathers in the near future.
- There was always a a disconnection between Khanin and his biological father. That needed some better writing as well.
- all the mothers seem to have died in some tragic way. And where was Charans father? Or rest of family? Was him getting adopted by the king the only option? And would he be eligible for the throne because of that? If Khanin didn‘t want to come to Emmaly or surprisingly passed away before the competition was Charan the kings back up plan? Why else would he be trained to be good in so many things? Why was this not a part of the plot? The king constantly reminding Charan that he‘d be next in line in case something happened to Khanin. What an interesting dynamic this would‘ve created between Charan & Khanin. I never really believed the king cared about Khanin anyways, just about his family staying the head of Emmaly.
+ the title „The Next Prince“ suggests Khanin is going to keep his title… and then he leaves after he gave the people of Emmaly so much hope. Idk if I would trust the son of the King who made and kept everything so horribly. Might be a reason for a coup.
+ the detective friend of Charan was there but also not really.

And some good things to end this review:
+ creating a whole kingdom with lore and political dynamics was very fun to see.
- I absolutely loooved the costume design. They were so beautifully made. Chapeau to that.
- Loved the settings. Some beautiful parts of Thailand (I assume) were shown here. And that we started in London was very nice.
- Also loved the little „Emmaly Gossip“ segments (mainly on insta).
- the fan service was insane. And with that I mean that parade of them for the first episode airing when they were dressed in character. How can you not get excited when you see that?
- I am a little immune to noticing whether the acting was not so good unless it‘s blatantly obvious. So that was good to me. Especially liked Jimmy and Ohms performances. Bie as Rachata/Ramils father was scarily good too. +Ballchon (Chakri) and Kris (Ava) were great, too. Will look for other projects with them.

I had more thoughts than I thought and there will probably be more once I read other peoples reviews.
Anyways: Thanks for reading :)
spice level: 🔥🔥

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Well...

I have so many things to say.

Let's start with the positive ones.
We can tell, that they have a lot of bugdet. Outfits, decor (?) are really amazing. Nunew did improve a lot his acting skill.
All the couple are really cute.

But I was really disappointed. They introduce us to some character with deep story (Domestic violence and mysogyny) but they gave us nothing?? It's funny to introduce a woman saying she suffer a lot from mysogyny and not show her much?? (btw to me she should have been the one winning)
Please don't write characters with deep story if you don't know how to handle them.
They should have show more of RamilPaytai and Ava.

I don't want to give less than 7 because it was enjoyable, but I was really disappointed. Ava must have almost only 20min of screentime? Which is nothing for a serie of 14 episode of 1 hour? RamilPaytai may have 1 hour (And I'm generous).
I'm okay with a little screentime only if you don't try having deep character

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I’m sharing the review I wrote in the non‑uncut version

I had been waiting for this series ever since it was announced. The hype was huge, and I’ll admit I got carried away with it too. Domundi usually delivers shows I find enjoyable — some more, some less — so I was expecting something special. Unfortunately, this turned out to be one of the biggest disappointments I’ve had in a long time.

From the very first episode, I felt something was missing: nothing truly engaging ever came through. The pacing constantly swung between rushed sequences and unnecessarily slow moments, and whenever the plot hinted at something promising, it was poorly developed, almost like a token gesture. It often felt as if the message was: “Focus only on the main couple, because they’re the real protagonists.” And yet, ironically, it was the second couple who stole the show for me.

Ramil and Paytai were, without a doubt, the best part of this series. I absolutely loved their story and followed every moment with genuine excitement, even though they were given far too little screen time. Meanwhile, the main storyline got lost in unnecessary detours and attempts to give depth to a plot that ultimately lacked logic and coherence. Even the entire tournament arc, which initially seemed to be the centerpiece, lost almost all of its value as the story went on, as if the only goal had become simply finishing the series.

The NC scenes between the main leads felt especially weak: slow, dull, and completely lacking in sensuality. They added nothing to the story and often seemed more like an obligation than a meaningful narrative choice.

The only moment that truly struck me was the march, when Jay suddenly began singing in the middle of the crowd: a powerful and moving scene. But the atmosphere was immediately broken by Khanin’s entrance. Jay is a character with great potential, and it was disappointing to see so little of him, as well as of his relationship with Calvin, which deserved much more attention.

Another major letdown was the princess. She could have added real depth and nuance to the story, yet she was reduced to little more than decoration, placed there just to fill space without any meaningful contribution to the plot.

All in all, The Next Prince felt like a wasted opportunity: a series with polished aesthetics and a capable cast, but without a coherent or engaging narrative. A real mishmash, as I once read in another review.

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Making us wait 3 years for THIS mess?Straight up disrespect.

The only notable strength of this series lies in its visual aesthetics and even that is far from flawless.While the costumes are visually appealing,they often lack coherence with the supposed royal hierarchy,giving the impression of low quality designs that lean more toward cosplay than authentic regality.The blending of genres is poorly executed,resulting in an inconsistent tone throughout.P’Aof appears to have aimed for an intense royal political drama with subtle comedic undertones but this ambition was not successfully realized.Furthermore, the pacing of the narrative suffers significantly with numerous filler episodes that caused the story to stagnate rather than progress meaningfully.Several critical and potentially compelling narrative arcs were introduced but ultimately abandoned without proper resolution.Themes such as internal conflict, social pressures,and political roles were mentioned but never explored in depth. This issue is particularly evident in the handling of the secondary couple, Ramil and Paytai, whose character development remained underwhelming and unbalanced compared to the primary leads. While some fans of the main couple dismissed this concern by asserting that the focus should remain on the leads due to their commercial appeal, such an approach undermines the principles of storytelling and artistic integrity.Lastly,for a project that reportedly underwent three years of preparation,the set design and CGI fall short of expectations,lacking the credibility nd sophistication one would anticipate from a production of this nature.

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Prince or the Pauper? Up for You to Decide!

People are rating this show so low and its really kinda baffling to me. Since I've seen wayyyy worse execution of plots in BL's than this, but yet the reviews are higher? Maybe its because the budget and hype were higher? Not really sure, but here are my thoughts. This would've been a 9 or higher star rating if the show would've been 10-12 eps, it just went on too long after that. Zee and Nunew never disappoint, but I expect that from them at this point. The sets and everything involved with costuming were indeed elaborate. The side stories were pretty good, although the third secret prince (forgot his name lol) side story was completely unnecessary and could've cut the show time down nicely. Like we could've had the pollution from the mines storyline without that kid and the prince playing into it, and have just a barely kiss at the end. Like huh? One thing that bothered me was the lack of content warnings with this one, seeing as there's so much blatant abuse on screen and trauma. So beware of that. Overall, solid show with a story that was too drawn out.

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14 Episodes

I’m enjoying this but… it’s getting a bit long with lots of space between plot changes IMO.
☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻

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The Next Prince - a masterpiece I'm so grateful and happy I watched✨

It became a part of my life watching each episode every Saturday.. I've waited long for this series to air and when it finally did, it felt like time was flying.
Today the last episode came out and idk what to say or think.
I cried a lot.
Before watching the last ep, because I was sad and afraid cause this series would end soon.
And I cried while watching the series, because the scenes were so amazingly beautiful.
Some of them made me smile while others really touched me.
And I cried after watching the last ep, because the realisation hit me that this was the end.
I'm happy with it and the last ep couldn't have been better in my opinion, but still I'm sad because The Next Prince became not only a part of my daily life but a part of me.
And even tho I can rewatch every ep now, the first time watching the series will probably be the best for me.
Tho I'm also happy I have these emotions towards the series, because ig this shows how much I enjoyed this series.
Cause no matter what other people might say, I liked The Next Prince.
Idk what expectations I had before watching The Next Prince, but everything turned out so good..
I'll give this series a 10/10
Even tho there might be questions or things I didn't LOVE LOVE, there were also a lot of scenes, episodes, characters, songs, outfits ect I loved.
I grateful that they didn't give up..No matter what people said or how many people spread hate, they continued producing The Next Prince, and I'm thankful towards each and every person who was a part of The Next Prince 💗

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Fantastic!

I loved it! A slow burn series of the beautifull love between Khanin and Charan. I love a good love story, and with the amazing chemistry Nunew and Zee have it can't dissapoint. They have so much chemistry that the kiss and bed scene's were amazing!

The love story was beautifull, with the side story about the fight for the kingdom that was entertaining. They also adressed some social isseus about gender equality, domestic abuse wich i liked, always good to bring some awareness to those things.
And i loved the funny moments, i am not a fan of comedy, but i am when they do it like this.

The visuals were stunning, beautifull music and very wel acted by all the actors.

A real must see!

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Started strong, then completely fell apart

I won't comment on the characters and their chemistry as it looks like a good number of people have already done that. I would say the plot could've been better. It started well, but as the plot thickens, with the combination of the investigation into Charan and Khanin's past, DMD starts to lose their grip on the story. What should've been a Charnan/Khanin story turned into a Charan/Khanin/Ramil/Paytai/Calvin/Jay story.

What's off-putting is that in the novel, Ramil/Paytai/Calvin/Jay are minor characters with not a lot of scenes, yet DMD went and added a whole bunch of unnecessary and sometimes cringey scenes just to promote their CP's. In an attempt to promote their actors, they somehow forgot they have a main story to tell. As a result, around episode 6 or 7, the show began to fall apart. The transition feels choppy and abrupt, and the ending feels rushed and unsatisfying. Like, one minute, we're still digesting the betrayal and deception at the competition, and the next, the couples reunited and everyone got their happy ending.

Overall, I would say the show isn't bad. DMD really put in an effort to get the setting right, from the palaces to the costumes to the world building. However, the plot feels scattered because their focus was all over the place. This feels less like a novel adaptation and more like a "check out our DMD couples" show to me. I have to say, for a show that made us wait for over two years, I'd expected more.

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Boring plot but amazing aesthetics.

Honestly, this was my first Thai BL.

The plot was really boring but I liked how they brushed on outstanding topics like discrimination based on gender, dust pollution and child torture leading to trauma. The aesthetics and clothes were just so amazing. The set along with the actors was excellent.
I loved how they showed every emotion from pain to pleasure.

I won't say that the entire series was bad, I did enjoy every episode but the plot was actually lacking.

As a writer myself (with 5 years of experience), I would have written it at the age of 17 (which I am rn.)

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