BY JOHN BILLINGER<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Have you ever wondered what it would be like if a \u201cFamily Guy\u201d cutaway gag became its own show? Look no further than the Max original series \u201cThe Prince.\u201d Created by Gary Janetti (who used to write for \u201cFamily Guy\u201d), the show premiered on July 29, 2021 for a full season of 12 episodes. Each of those episodes is around 12 minutes long. The description on the streaming service describes it as offering \u201ca biting look at the inner workings of the British monarchy,\u201d but after viewing it, I can safely say that it did nothing but bite away at my life expectancy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The show centers around the British Royal Family. Please note that when this was made, Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip were still alive, so they\u2019re depicted as well. The main character is young Prince George and all the shenanigans he and his wacky family members and staff get up to. And that\u2019s really it. The whole thing is just here to poke fun at the Royal Family. All the characters fall into two categories. Some are over exaggerations of the people they\u2019re supposed to be, such as Prince Phillip being depicted as a walking corpse (more on that in a bit). Others are an inversion of how they\u2019re commonly seen in the media. For example, Elizabeth II is a loud foul-mouth lady. They also resemble grotesque \u201cMad\u201d magazine caricatures rather than the real people. The show was not without some form of controversy. Originally set to be released in the Spring of 2021, it got delayed because of the real-world death of Prince Phillip on April 9. Eventually, they just decided to dump the whole thing on July 29, 2021. And the world was worse off for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This show is desperately unfunny. It\u2019s trying, but the writers don\u2019t have any wit to bring to the material. Most of the jokes don\u2019t really feel like jokes. At least, I think that they\u2019re jokes. Everything is so passive and slow, it\u2019s hard to tell what\u2019s what. Most of the time, they\u2019re just talking in a calm conversational sort of way. Most of the voice actors don\u2019t give any form of tone in their lines that would suggest that their dialogue is humorous. They just read the lines. It really becomes a game of \u201cspot the joke.\u201d The only character in the show that is somewhat humorous (and where the actor playing the character has something to work with) is Elizabeth II. But her scenes quickly become old as all she really does is say dirty words or phrases. The slight minor chuckle I got, was a scene where Elizabeth shoots a guy, but that\u2019s it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The most telling sign of the writer’s skill of joke writing for me is a scene where Prince George is reading an article on his phone. He says, \u201cHuh, neat. Demi Lovato is non-binary. Good for them.\u201d I don\u2019t get it. That\u2019s not a joke. It\u2019s a statement. Is it funny because a small child is saying it? Who knows. But what really stuns me about that requires a bit of context. As stated earlier, the show\u2019s initial premiere was delayed in April of 2021 for a few months. Demi Lovato didn\u2019t come out as non-binary until May of 2021. Meaning that they wrote and animated that bit AFTER Lovato\u2019s announcement. They saw the news, and were like, \u201cMy god, that would make for the perfect joke in our show!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The animation is pretty generic. It looks like something you\u2019d see in \u201cFamily Guy\u201d or \u201cBig Mouth\u201d but done worse, resulting in a bland look that lacks a clear identity in the art style. From what I\u2019ve seen, there aren’t any crazy animation scenes that would be too difficult to do in real life, meaning that aside from animating the main cast, the animators have little to work with. I honestly don\u2019t know why this had to be animated. It just seems like a waste of time for the animation staff, who no doubt had to spend hours slogging away on it. As for the plots featured in the episodes, it feels like nothing of substance ever happens. For example, in the first episode, Prince George tries to get Kelly Ripa to follow him on social media, only to unfollow her by the end of the episode. Pretty riveting. Mixed into the episode are a couple of unfunny scenes that \u201cFamily Guy\u201d would\u2019ve used for an equally unfunny cutaway gag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Prince\u201d was canceled in February of 2022, and will thankfully never see another season. I can say that overall, this show is horrible and boring. Perhaps if you severely dislike the Royal Family, you possibly could get some laughs from it, but I would say that statistically, that wouldn\u2019t be possible. I can say that it didn\u2019t get any laughs from me. There are better satires out there than this. Check those out, and leave this in the royal dumpster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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