Wow, the most overhyped show of 2025 BY FAR.
DMD must have spent all their money set aside for Next Prince on just the costuming and set decoration, because I know for sure they hired ZERO competent script writers for this one. This show is proof that good looking actors in beautiful costumes are not enough to save the show.
This show was confused from episode 1 about what it wanted to be. Were we watching a political thriller? A royal romcom? A modern day prince story but BL version? Shows cannot be jacks of all trades, masters of none, and this one was tonally off from the beginning.
Khanin, considering he is the crown prince and the central figure of the story, has basically no personality. He is cheeky for the first 2-3 episodes, and then his only personality trait is that he is obsessed with Charan. I also find Nunew to be a very mediocre actor who cannot cry convincingly, so he is very weak in emotional scenes. All he does is wear pretty costumes, sings songs randomly and loves Charan. He is actually the fish-out-of-water character so there was so much scope to make him a richer, more complex character. Alas, the non-existent writers did not bother. He is not charming or charismatic in any way as the crown prince, and the people of Emmaly basically "love" him only because the story needs that to happen.
Zee, who is usually the stronger actor within this OTP, was also lackluster in this show. Throughout the series, outside of very few scenes, he is stiff and stoic. Does he look the part of nobility? Yes, but nobility does not mean robotic characters with no emotional depth or resonance. Who was Charan? What was his personality? Why was he the way he was? We never got to see what drives this character. So he is as bland in their relationship as he is outside of it.
Their relationship was boring, and developed too fast— even the NC scene was weirdly filmed and felt like a drug high rather than an intimate, sensuous scene. DMD has gone WAY OVER THE TOP with the white filter they put on their shows because it made the one-note characters of ZNN in this one even worse. They literally look like plastic. Here's my message to DMD: please let your actors look like human beings. They are not ceramic dolls and so trying to cover up every line, every wrinkle on everybody's face makes the already stiff acting WAY worse.
The "second couple" who got maybe like 20 mins of screentime over the 14 episodes had the actually interesting dynamic. They were trauma bonded, and Ramil had such a difficult home life— he would have made a way more interesting main character. I wished we got to see more of Ramil and Paytai's relationship and how it grew from their childhoods.
If The Next Prince was just 8 episodes long, perhaps the paper thin plot would have been enough to keep it going. However, the showmakers got greedy and wanted ALL of the product placement and stretched this dismally written show to a whopping 14 episode length, and it greatly suffers because of it.
The huge cast of characters are irrelevant, interesting characters like Ava, Ramil and Paytai hardly get enough screentime and Calvin is a non-entity basically. This show felt like a spoiled apple wrapped in gold foil tbh. Its all shiny and sparkly on the surface, but the acting is mid, the directing is mid, the editing is mid and the story is nowhere to be seen.
Honestly, its a disappointment because I know how hard it is for BL productions in Thailand to get a decent budget. This show had it and it still falls flat on its face. All the social media hype, and hashtags trending is solely because of overly zealous ZNN fans who will lap up anything they put out. The only reason I did not drop this was because of Ramil x Paytai storyline. They were great, their acting performances were way stronger, and their relationship was actually compelling instead of the bland snoozefest that was the leads.
This show was confused from episode 1 about what it wanted to be. Were we watching a political thriller? A royal romcom? A modern day prince story but BL version? Shows cannot be jacks of all trades, masters of none, and this one was tonally off from the beginning.
Khanin, considering he is the crown prince and the central figure of the story, has basically no personality. He is cheeky for the first 2-3 episodes, and then his only personality trait is that he is obsessed with Charan. I also find Nunew to be a very mediocre actor who cannot cry convincingly, so he is very weak in emotional scenes. All he does is wear pretty costumes, sings songs randomly and loves Charan. He is actually the fish-out-of-water character so there was so much scope to make him a richer, more complex character. Alas, the non-existent writers did not bother. He is not charming or charismatic in any way as the crown prince, and the people of Emmaly basically "love" him only because the story needs that to happen.
Zee, who is usually the stronger actor within this OTP, was also lackluster in this show. Throughout the series, outside of very few scenes, he is stiff and stoic. Does he look the part of nobility? Yes, but nobility does not mean robotic characters with no emotional depth or resonance. Who was Charan? What was his personality? Why was he the way he was? We never got to see what drives this character. So he is as bland in their relationship as he is outside of it.
Their relationship was boring, and developed too fast— even the NC scene was weirdly filmed and felt like a drug high rather than an intimate, sensuous scene. DMD has gone WAY OVER THE TOP with the white filter they put on their shows because it made the one-note characters of ZNN in this one even worse. They literally look like plastic. Here's my message to DMD: please let your actors look like human beings. They are not ceramic dolls and so trying to cover up every line, every wrinkle on everybody's face makes the already stiff acting WAY worse.
The "second couple" who got maybe like 20 mins of screentime over the 14 episodes had the actually interesting dynamic. They were trauma bonded, and Ramil had such a difficult home life— he would have made a way more interesting main character. I wished we got to see more of Ramil and Paytai's relationship and how it grew from their childhoods.
If The Next Prince was just 8 episodes long, perhaps the paper thin plot would have been enough to keep it going. However, the showmakers got greedy and wanted ALL of the product placement and stretched this dismally written show to a whopping 14 episode length, and it greatly suffers because of it.
The huge cast of characters are irrelevant, interesting characters like Ava, Ramil and Paytai hardly get enough screentime and Calvin is a non-entity basically. This show felt like a spoiled apple wrapped in gold foil tbh. Its all shiny and sparkly on the surface, but the acting is mid, the directing is mid, the editing is mid and the story is nowhere to be seen.
Honestly, its a disappointment because I know how hard it is for BL productions in Thailand to get a decent budget. This show had it and it still falls flat on its face. All the social media hype, and hashtags trending is solely because of overly zealous ZNN fans who will lap up anything they put out. The only reason I did not drop this was because of Ramil x Paytai storyline. They were great, their acting performances were way stronger, and their relationship was actually compelling instead of the bland snoozefest that was the leads.
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