Based on a recurring series of tweets, The Prince centers around Prince George, the youngest child in the royal family. He gets all the service and attention he needs, but somehow it's never enough.
Yeah, uh... I don't know how to sum it up better than that. This show is a colossal disaster on every single level. First off, the premise itself. The tweets that the series is based on are not even funny. Most of them are kinda stupid in fact.
So to then take such a strange idea and sell it to a network doesn't come off as very bright. I'm actually surprised they even approved of it to begin with given that there wasn't much potential to gain from that.
Another problem is the humor. Not a single, and I mean not a SINGLE joke ever lands. Every joke seems to consist of either people yelling at each other, someone randomly swearing, a complete non-sequitur that doesn't relate to anything ("Demi Lovato is non-binary. Huh. Good for them.") or we have the worst gag of all, George bullying his butler Owen. More on that later.
All right, there is one joke that actually gave me a chuckle. But one small bit working and so many others failing is far from a glowing recommendation.
Then we have the godawful animation. This is one of the ugliest shows I've seen in my life. I'm not exaggerating when I say this shìt looks worse than Allen Gregory! Nearly every single character design has something off about them, and some like Prince Philip and Camilla are downright grotesque.
There is something very offputting about the eyes as well, like they're staring into space or something. A lot of the head proportions also look like a crazy mix between GoAnimate character sprites and Bobblehead dolls.
The voice acting is okay, with one glaring exception: Gary Janetti. All the time he's doing a measly Stewie impression, down to the tonal inflections and everything. But due to the character and the performance as well lacking all comedic timing and charm, it becomes grating to listen to very, very quickly.
Jim Cummings is easily the best out of the bunch, even if he gets thankless material to work with. He does at least deliver the only scene with any substance, which is when he tells the story of how he met his wife, and how lonely he feels after her absence. But that once in a while, he thinks back on those old times and feel happy for just a small moment. It definitely came out of nowhere, and Janetti's penchant for injecting heart into his stories shows there.
Too bad that right after that we are back to the terrible jokes and directionless plots.
As bad as the earlier flaws I mentioned are, the by far biggest sin are the characters. Oh my God. There is nary a single likable soul here. You don't care about George since all he does is act like an irritating spoiled brat who always complains and is extremely obsessed with social media for some reason. I can't even tell you how many times he namedrops "Kelly Ripa", as if it's supposed to get funnier every time.
And his narcissistic tendencies show at their very worst when it comes to his interactions with Owen. No matter how nice, complimentary and helpful this poor butler is, all he gets are mean cracks about himself, his dead wife, his life, even the quality of his services. Except how can he properly provide you any service if you just keep changing your mind every time he does something for you! It's so frustrating and painful to watch.
What Gary Janetti doesn't seem to understand is that even for characters with a lot of flaws you still need to take them down a peg once in a while, especially if it's your protagonist. Otherwise you're watching an ass-hole getting away with acting vindictive towards everyone just for the sake of it, begging for some kind of karma and justice to happen.
But it never does. Why should he be punished? He's the prince! Watching him treat the only sympathetic character in the show like he's worth less than an animal simply isn't fun, and only gets on my nerves more for every time it occurs.
Other than George and Owen, the other characters are just... there. The Queen does nothing but swear every other sentence and acts like she's on Jersey Shore. Prince Philip is just a pathetic old man who makes weird noises and looks like he's on the brink of death. George is a spineless mama's boy. Camilla never talks, and gets occasional bits where she acts like or gets compared to a horse (Yep, the kindergarten-style jokes about Camilla from the tweets are still present here). And all the other couples are so boring and uninteresting I couldn't possibly give less of a shìt about them. Only thing that stands out is that Prince Williams looks more like Putin. Olivia is always on the phone, then she turns out to be a Russian spy. Somehow though even the spy stuff manages to be ridiculously dull.
I can go on and on naming off the boring characters, but I just don't have the energy. If they're not even interesting enough to keep my attention, I'm not gonna give them the luxury of being remembered any further.
There is a feeble attempt at a serial arc throughout the season, which is rendered pointless in the end since it ends on a cliffhanger that will never be followed up on.
The theme song is solid, I suppose. But that's a good theme song if it's not leading up to something worthy of it?
Overall, if you are curious about whether this show is as bad as people say I can save you time right now and say this: YES. It really is as bad as its reputation suggests. In terms of adult cartoons you can't really go that much lower. Hell, it's barely even adult to begin with. Most of the innuendo is pretty tame, and it's not really that violent either. The swearing is the only reason it's considered "adult" at all. Instead of trying too hard to offend you, it's trying too hard to be hip and trendy. And in all honesty, that might be the worst thing a show could ever do.
Yeah, uh... I don't know how to sum it up better than that. This show is a colossal disaster on every single level. First off, the premise itself. The tweets that the series is based on are not even funny. Most of them are kinda stupid in fact.
So to then take such a strange idea and sell it to a network doesn't come off as very bright. I'm actually surprised they even approved of it to begin with given that there wasn't much potential to gain from that.
Another problem is the humor. Not a single, and I mean not a SINGLE joke ever lands. Every joke seems to consist of either people yelling at each other, someone randomly swearing, a complete non-sequitur that doesn't relate to anything ("Demi Lovato is non-binary. Huh. Good for them.") or we have the worst gag of all, George bullying his butler Owen. More on that later.
All right, there is one joke that actually gave me a chuckle. But one small bit working and so many others failing is far from a glowing recommendation.
Then we have the godawful animation. This is one of the ugliest shows I've seen in my life. I'm not exaggerating when I say this shìt looks worse than Allen Gregory! Nearly every single character design has something off about them, and some like Prince Philip and Camilla are downright grotesque.
There is something very offputting about the eyes as well, like they're staring into space or something. A lot of the head proportions also look like a crazy mix between GoAnimate character sprites and Bobblehead dolls.
The voice acting is okay, with one glaring exception: Gary Janetti. All the time he's doing a measly Stewie impression, down to the tonal inflections and everything. But due to the character and the performance as well lacking all comedic timing and charm, it becomes grating to listen to very, very quickly.
Jim Cummings is easily the best out of the bunch, even if he gets thankless material to work with. He does at least deliver the only scene with any substance, which is when he tells the story of how he met his wife, and how lonely he feels after her absence. But that once in a while, he thinks back on those old times and feel happy for just a small moment. It definitely came out of nowhere, and Janetti's penchant for injecting heart into his stories shows there.
Too bad that right after that we are back to the terrible jokes and directionless plots.
As bad as the earlier flaws I mentioned are, the by far biggest sin are the characters. Oh my God. There is nary a single likable soul here. You don't care about George since all he does is act like an irritating spoiled brat who always complains and is extremely obsessed with social media for some reason. I can't even tell you how many times he namedrops "Kelly Ripa", as if it's supposed to get funnier every time.
And his narcissistic tendencies show at their very worst when it comes to his interactions with Owen. No matter how nice, complimentary and helpful this poor butler is, all he gets are mean cracks about himself, his dead wife, his life, even the quality of his services. Except how can he properly provide you any service if you just keep changing your mind every time he does something for you! It's so frustrating and painful to watch.
What Gary Janetti doesn't seem to understand is that even for characters with a lot of flaws you still need to take them down a peg once in a while, especially if it's your protagonist. Otherwise you're watching an ass-hole getting away with acting vindictive towards everyone just for the sake of it, begging for some kind of karma and justice to happen.
But it never does. Why should he be punished? He's the prince! Watching him treat the only sympathetic character in the show like he's worth less than an animal simply isn't fun, and only gets on my nerves more for every time it occurs.
Other than George and Owen, the other characters are just... there. The Queen does nothing but swear every other sentence and acts like she's on Jersey Shore. Prince Philip is just a pathetic old man who makes weird noises and looks like he's on the brink of death. George is a spineless mama's boy. Camilla never talks, and gets occasional bits where she acts like or gets compared to a horse (Yep, the kindergarten-style jokes about Camilla from the tweets are still present here). And all the other couples are so boring and uninteresting I couldn't possibly give less of a shìt about them. Only thing that stands out is that Prince Williams looks more like Putin. Olivia is always on the phone, then she turns out to be a Russian spy. Somehow though even the spy stuff manages to be ridiculously dull.
I can go on and on naming off the boring characters, but I just don't have the energy. If they're not even interesting enough to keep my attention, I'm not gonna give them the luxury of being remembered any further.
There is a feeble attempt at a serial arc throughout the season, which is rendered pointless in the end since it ends on a cliffhanger that will never be followed up on.
The theme song is solid, I suppose. But that's a good theme song if it's not leading up to something worthy of it?
Overall, if you are curious about whether this show is as bad as people say I can save you time right now and say this: YES. It really is as bad as its reputation suggests. In terms of adult cartoons you can't really go that much lower. Hell, it's barely even adult to begin with. Most of the innuendo is pretty tame, and it's not really that violent either. The swearing is the only reason it's considered "adult" at all. Instead of trying too hard to offend you, it's trying too hard to be hip and trendy. And in all honesty, that might be the worst thing a show could ever do.