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*The Next Prince* had everything needed to become a strong series: a large budget, beautiful costumes, impressive locations, a popular main couple, and a political royal setting with plenty of potential. Unfortunately, the writing never lived up to the production.

My biggest issue was the treatment of the supporting characters. Some fans of the leads seemed to want the entire series to focus only on Khanin and Charan, but if that was the intention, the writers should not have introduced so many side stories in the first place. You cannot create several potentially interesting characters and relationships, then give them almost no development simply because the main couple has the largest fandom.

This was especially frustrating because Khanin and Charan’s story was not strong enough to carry the entire series alone. Their romance felt bland, predictable, and underdeveloped. They had visual chemistry, but the writing gave them very little emotional complexity. Khanin gradually became a lovesick character whose life revolved around Charan, while Charan remained emotionally distant and difficult to understand.

In contrast, Ramil and Paytai had one of the most compelling dynamics in the series. Their relationship involved guilt, trauma, emotional dependence, and unresolved feelings. There was much more depth and tension between them, yet they were given only fragments of a story. Every time their plot became interesting, the series moved away from them.

The same problem affected Ava, Calvin, Jay, and several other characters. They were introduced as if they would have meaningful roles, but most of their stories were either rushed, weakened, or abandoned. They existed in the script without being properly written.

The problem is not that the series had supporting couples. The problem is that it used them as decoration instead of treating them as real parts of the story. If the writers wanted a series focused exclusively on Zee and NuNew, they should have created a smaller and more intimate plot. But once they chose a political royal story with multiple heirs, families, and relationships, every major character needed enough screen time and development.

In the end, the series looked expensive but felt emotionally empty. The costumes, palaces, and cinematography were beautiful, but the most interesting characters were pushed aside while the weakest storyline received most of the attention.