Adam Lenhardt
Senior HTF Member
E!'s first scripted series wasn't really on my radar but people kept insisting to me that the series premiere of "The Royals" was better than I'd expect. They were right.
The series begins when a night out clubbing results in the intimate parts of Princess Eleanor, the youngest child of His Majesty Simon (by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and of His other Realms and Territories King, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith), on the front page of every tabloid in England. And that is not the worst news of the day.
Eldest child and heir to the throne, Prince Robert, beloved both by his family and his country, has died suddenly in an unspecified "military accident."
One thing that the premiere does very well is step inside this very public event -- the upheaval of the British monarchy and the loss of a treasured public figure -- and focus on the very private grief and mourning of his family. The tragic death of Robert lays bare all of the fault lines kept more or less just under the surface before.
There are definitely straight guilty pleasure soap opera elements: Elizabeth Hurley chews scenery with the best of them as the icy queen consort, who was practically bred for her role and faces the loss of her first-born son with a stiff upper lip and barely constrained rage at the world. Jake Maskall just needs a mustache to twirl, as the villainous Prince Cyrus (very much envious of his older brother the king). Lydia Rose Bewley and Hatty Preston are hysterical as Cyrus's daughters, the Princesses Penelope and Maribel, cautionary tales about the dangers of keeping the bloodline pure through inbreeding.
But the rest of the cast brings surprising depth and complexity to their roles. As King Simon, Vincent Regan embodies the sort of man you'd want to be king and who'd never have wanted to be king. He is patient and selfless and respectable and he despairs of the way the monarchy has ruined his surviving children.
William Moseley already had experience playing royalty as Peter in the Chronicles of Narnia movies, and he's very good here as Prince Liam, the amiable but unremarkable second-born son who was content to float through life in his elder brother's shadow but now finds himself the heir to the throne. Moseley plays him with earnest bewilderment, like he still hasn't accepted what's in store for him.
Alexandra Park has the most complex role of them all as Princess Eleanor, the wild child of the family whose self-destructive tendencies belie her fierce intelligence and closely guarded perceptiveness. She is the bane of her mother's existence and the family member most loved by her departed brother. Strangely for two characters that are outwardly so different, her and her father are cut from much the same cloth. They understand the burden of the monarchy most keenly, but King Simon endures it while Princess Eleanor rebels against it. She demonstrates remarkable empathy in the premiere, and a keen awareness of the world around here. At the same time, her self-loathing leads to moments of horrible self sabotage, of which the opening scandal is far from the worst.
The only storyline that didn't work for me is the central storyline of the American-raised daughter of the king's head of security, who serves as the audience's window into this world even as she catches Prince Liam's eye.
The series begins when a night out clubbing results in the intimate parts of Princess Eleanor, the youngest child of His Majesty Simon (by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and of His other Realms and Territories King, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith), on the front page of every tabloid in England. And that is not the worst news of the day.
Eldest child and heir to the throne, Prince Robert, beloved both by his family and his country, has died suddenly in an unspecified "military accident."
One thing that the premiere does very well is step inside this very public event -- the upheaval of the British monarchy and the loss of a treasured public figure -- and focus on the very private grief and mourning of his family. The tragic death of Robert lays bare all of the fault lines kept more or less just under the surface before.
There are definitely straight guilty pleasure soap opera elements: Elizabeth Hurley chews scenery with the best of them as the icy queen consort, who was practically bred for her role and faces the loss of her first-born son with a stiff upper lip and barely constrained rage at the world. Jake Maskall just needs a mustache to twirl, as the villainous Prince Cyrus (very much envious of his older brother the king). Lydia Rose Bewley and Hatty Preston are hysterical as Cyrus's daughters, the Princesses Penelope and Maribel, cautionary tales about the dangers of keeping the bloodline pure through inbreeding.
But the rest of the cast brings surprising depth and complexity to their roles. As King Simon, Vincent Regan embodies the sort of man you'd want to be king and who'd never have wanted to be king. He is patient and selfless and respectable and he despairs of the way the monarchy has ruined his surviving children.
William Moseley already had experience playing royalty as Peter in the Chronicles of Narnia movies, and he's very good here as Prince Liam, the amiable but unremarkable second-born son who was content to float through life in his elder brother's shadow but now finds himself the heir to the throne. Moseley plays him with earnest bewilderment, like he still hasn't accepted what's in store for him.
Alexandra Park has the most complex role of them all as Princess Eleanor, the wild child of the family whose self-destructive tendencies belie her fierce intelligence and closely guarded perceptiveness. She is the bane of her mother's existence and the family member most loved by her departed brother. Strangely for two characters that are outwardly so different, her and her father are cut from much the same cloth. They understand the burden of the monarchy most keenly, but King Simon endures it while Princess Eleanor rebels against it. She demonstrates remarkable empathy in the premiere, and a keen awareness of the world around here. At the same time, her self-loathing leads to moments of horrible self sabotage, of which the opening scandal is far from the worst.
The only storyline that didn't work for me is the central storyline of the American-raised daughter of the king's head of security, who serves as the audience's window into this world even as she catches Prince Liam's eye.
