The Prince (TV series)

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The Prince
It's like Our Cartoon President, but with British politics, and a lot worse.
Genre: Animated sitcom Satire Running Time: 11-12 minutes Country: United States Release Date: July 29, 2021 Network(s): HBO Max Created by: Gary Janetti Distributed by: WarnerMedia Direct Starring: Gary Janetti Orlando Bloom Condola Rashād Lucy Punch Alan Cumming Frances de la Tour Iwan Rheon Sophie Turner Dan Stevens Seasons: 1 Episodes: 12

The Prince is an American adult animated sitcom created by Gary Janetti for HBO Max. Originally slated for a late spring 2021 date, HBO Max announced on May 9, 2021, that the series would be delayed due to Prince Philip's death in April 2021. The series premiered on July 29, 2021. In February 2022, it was confirmed that the show had been canceled after one season.

Plot

The series follows the everyday lives of the British royal family and their usual misadventures that happen occasionally.

Why It’s the Prince of Bad Adult Animation

1. Like Our Cartoon President, the idea of a show satirizing politics is questionable. Not helping is that this show was created by an American animation production company about the lives of a British Royal family.
   • Additionally, the show has a bad premise as it portrays the real-life Prince George as an egotistical jerk to everyone. It's awful and unfair since the real Prince George is only eight years old and doesn’t deserve this mockery of him.
   • It also tastelessly mocks Prince Phillips as well, as he's depicted as a rotting body, which is beyond disgusting, since the real Phillips had just passed away of old age in April 2021, and the fact that this show was originally slated to release in late spring makes it even WORSE!
2. It has tons of gross-out humor. There's a running gag of one of the characters having to take a dump.
3. Even if there isn't gross-out humor, the humor ranges from unfunny, offensive, mean-spirited, make no sense, or jokes we've seen many times before.
4. Many unlikable/mean-spirited/annoying characters:
   • Prince George, who is a shameless Stewie Griffin clone who treats everyone terribly.
   • Queen Elizabeth is also mean for no reason and always curses in most scenes she’s in, just for a cheap laugh. It's also extremely disrespectful towards the real Queen Elizabeth, as she died just nearly two years ago!!
   • King Charles III wants to advocate the throne after his mother's death and acts like a whiny brat, which hasn't aged well since he has now become King after his mother's death, and back when this show was made, he was still Prince Charles, thus making this show age terribly as a result.
5. Plus the animation looks very cheap. Not helping the fact is that Gary Janetti was a producer on Family Guy.
6. Terrible writing ranging from ridiculous plots or episode ideas we've seen before.
7. The show tries way too hard to be hip as well. This goes as far as the main poster, which says "Royal AF".
8. Prince George sounds way too similar to Stewie Griffin, adding on to being a Family Guy clone, and also is characterized like Allen Gregory (which is not a show you would want to copy).
9. The show can be offensive to British people and there are a lot of British stereotypes.
10. Ugly character designs, with most of the characters having rigid faces and deformed body parts that look uncomfortably awkward due to them trying to replicate the real-life appearances of The Royal Family, but it fails since the animation is so terrible that it makes them look hideous and since most of them are already animated poorly, it makes their appearances even more static and lifeless thanks to how badly designed they are.
11. Gary Janetti's performance as Prince George is atrocious, since he tries way too hard to imitate a British accent but the voice doesn't suit the little boy at all and it sounds too similar to Stewie Griffin as mentioned above, and he sounds way too adult for the son of the King of England considering that he's still a child, and since Gary is the only American actor in the show, it makes his performance come off as tasteless and annoying (especially since the real Prince George sounds nothing like how this version does).
12. Sequel-bait ending: The final scene shows Kevin carrying a tray of poisoned tarts to the royal dinner. Due to the series' cancellation, this was never resolved. It doesn't even help that Queen Elizabeth II died a year after this show was released.

Redeeming Qualities

1. Some funny moments here and there.
2. Passable voice acting, despite all the wasted talent and Gary Janetti as Prince George.
3. The soundtrack is pretty good.
4. Kevin is a very interesting character. He wants revenge on the royal family since they indirectly burned his family to death. This in turn would lead him to enact his revenge by poisoning tarts meant for the royal family.

Reception

The Prince was panned by critics and audiences, with criticism going towards the show’s humor, writing, animation, and portrayal of Prince George, which many deemed abusive and cruel due to Prince George being a child.

Some critics and producers have criticized the show as being unfair and inappropriate. Kayleigh Donaldson of Pajiba criticized Janetti, saying that the series "lacks intent and appropriate targets."

Marcus Gibson of Bubbleblabber gave the show a score of 3/10, seeing it as:

painfully insulting... Despite its engaging side plots, the show struggled to maintain the humor and charm in its satirization. As a result, it quickly fell apart before the second half of the season even started.

Writing for Decider, Joel Keller urged readers to skip the series, describing it as "essentially a royal version of Family Guy, and not nearly as biting and funny".

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