This review may contain spoilers
Failure on all fronts?
A number of things went wrong with this show making me enjoy it less and less with each episode, and although it’s not all bad it fails far too often to be considered good or even decent.
- The show tried to be too many things at once and touch on too many issues. If you’re making a 14 episodes long series you don’t have enough time for storylines of three couples, political intrigue, revenge, action, comedy and social issues. If you try to force all of that into a script, some or all elements will suffer – as they do here.
- There are too many characters – hence most of them, including Khanin and Charan, are underwritten, even one-dimensional (with Ramil and Wasin being notable exceptions), and quickly become uninteresting and boring. Also, I’m not sure the show has a main character. Is it Khanin, as the English title would suggest? But the title is misleading and makes no sense: the royal competition is to select the next king (not prince) and Khanin already is a prince when the show starts (he does not become one during the show). Furthermore, there’s plenty of POV characters and the romantic plotline of Khanin and Charan is often sidelined by unrelated events.
- Emotional bonds between characters are underdeveloped (Calvin and Jay being the obvious example, but this goes far beyond romantic relations) or are missing altogether (Khanin and Tharin have almost no connection nor contact for most of the show – a tad surprising given their situation). Also, after 14 episodes I can’t tell why Khanin and Charan became a couple nor why they fell for one another - it sort of just happened, for no reason and with no buildup.
- Both aforementioned problems are not solved nor helped by weak performances given by most of the cast – Nhing Nirut Sirijanya (king Thipokbowon) and Wit Phutharit Prombandal (Wasin) being the only exceptions. Performances of Zee and Jimmy were so bad, that they hurt the show as much as the poor writing of their characters did.
- Tonally the show is all over the place and almost every issue raised by it is either treated in a superficial way (like role of women in society and politics or environmental and social costs of maintaining economic growth) or the presentation is incomplete and unfinished (like reforming Emmaly’s political system); both these issues stem from the show trying to be too many things at the same time.
- Worldbuilding is derivative, unimaginative and unoriginal. We have heirs of clans Griffindor and Slytherin as well as a token girl armed with a bow fight in the Hunger Games for one of their fathers to become king of (South-East Asian) Wakanda; later it turns out that Griffindors are more like Lannisters from GoT. Also, the show’s fairytale world feels tailored for international viewers, with Latin alphabet and English language popping up in the weirdest places – even DNA test results, displayed to a room filled only with Emmalians, are in English. One thing I didn’t understand with that is why characters in London speak English, but characters in Emmaly don’t speak Emmalian (they speak Thai).
- There’s far more cheap glitz than actual glamour. The opulent costumes are somewhat impressive, but that’s about it when it comes to pomp. Instead of exotic royalty and fairytale aristocrats with noble visages we got commoners with tired faces; instead of London we got a Thai resort pretending to be the UK and some aerial footage; instead of a royal palace (where more than half of the interior shots were done) we got "La Chapelle", a "luxury wedding venue" with a horribly trashy look and outside shots of an English country house – with other locations being rather normal (a beach house is a beach house, Assumption University in Bangkok poses as "Morpheus School of Arts" etc.). Quite unremarkable for a show with a budget of 120 mil THB. The one place I really liked seeing were the Phuchongphisut caves – a well-chosen and skillfully filmed location.
If I was writing TNP’s script, I’d make Khanin and Ramil both main characters and the main couple. They’d start as rivals, then go to enemies, later friends and finally – boyfriends. The rivalry of their houses would drive their personal rivalry and even enmity, the realization that they’re in the same situation (as pawns in a game for power and targets for a vengeful Wasin) would get them closer, the need for understanding, support and acceptance would push them even closer. Ramil would start as an apparent supporting villain, slowly revealing his good side, while Khanin would have to discover his darker side in order to survive. Come to think about it, in a scenario like that even Daou’s "I trust you" would make sense.
- The show tried to be too many things at once and touch on too many issues. If you’re making a 14 episodes long series you don’t have enough time for storylines of three couples, political intrigue, revenge, action, comedy and social issues. If you try to force all of that into a script, some or all elements will suffer – as they do here.
- There are too many characters – hence most of them, including Khanin and Charan, are underwritten, even one-dimensional (with Ramil and Wasin being notable exceptions), and quickly become uninteresting and boring. Also, I’m not sure the show has a main character. Is it Khanin, as the English title would suggest? But the title is misleading and makes no sense: the royal competition is to select the next king (not prince) and Khanin already is a prince when the show starts (he does not become one during the show). Furthermore, there’s plenty of POV characters and the romantic plotline of Khanin and Charan is often sidelined by unrelated events.
- Emotional bonds between characters are underdeveloped (Calvin and Jay being the obvious example, but this goes far beyond romantic relations) or are missing altogether (Khanin and Tharin have almost no connection nor contact for most of the show – a tad surprising given their situation). Also, after 14 episodes I can’t tell why Khanin and Charan became a couple nor why they fell for one another - it sort of just happened, for no reason and with no buildup.
- Both aforementioned problems are not solved nor helped by weak performances given by most of the cast – Nhing Nirut Sirijanya (king Thipokbowon) and Wit Phutharit Prombandal (Wasin) being the only exceptions. Performances of Zee and Jimmy were so bad, that they hurt the show as much as the poor writing of their characters did.
- Tonally the show is all over the place and almost every issue raised by it is either treated in a superficial way (like role of women in society and politics or environmental and social costs of maintaining economic growth) or the presentation is incomplete and unfinished (like reforming Emmaly’s political system); both these issues stem from the show trying to be too many things at the same time.
- Worldbuilding is derivative, unimaginative and unoriginal. We have heirs of clans Griffindor and Slytherin as well as a token girl armed with a bow fight in the Hunger Games for one of their fathers to become king of (South-East Asian) Wakanda; later it turns out that Griffindors are more like Lannisters from GoT. Also, the show’s fairytale world feels tailored for international viewers, with Latin alphabet and English language popping up in the weirdest places – even DNA test results, displayed to a room filled only with Emmalians, are in English. One thing I didn’t understand with that is why characters in London speak English, but characters in Emmaly don’t speak Emmalian (they speak Thai).
- There’s far more cheap glitz than actual glamour. The opulent costumes are somewhat impressive, but that’s about it when it comes to pomp. Instead of exotic royalty and fairytale aristocrats with noble visages we got commoners with tired faces; instead of London we got a Thai resort pretending to be the UK and some aerial footage; instead of a royal palace (where more than half of the interior shots were done) we got "La Chapelle", a "luxury wedding venue" with a horribly trashy look and outside shots of an English country house – with other locations being rather normal (a beach house is a beach house, Assumption University in Bangkok poses as "Morpheus School of Arts" etc.). Quite unremarkable for a show with a budget of 120 mil THB. The one place I really liked seeing were the Phuchongphisut caves – a well-chosen and skillfully filmed location.
If I was writing TNP’s script, I’d make Khanin and Ramil both main characters and the main couple. They’d start as rivals, then go to enemies, later friends and finally – boyfriends. The rivalry of their houses would drive their personal rivalry and even enmity, the realization that they’re in the same situation (as pawns in a game for power and targets for a vengeful Wasin) would get them closer, the need for understanding, support and acceptance would push them even closer. Ramil would start as an apparent supporting villain, slowly revealing his good side, while Khanin would have to discover his darker side in order to survive. Come to think about it, in a scenario like that even Daou’s "I trust you" would make sense.
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