The Royals Review: Crime Against Humanity, Straight to Jail

The Royals Review: When the charming Prince Aviraaj meets the tech entrepreneur girl boss Sophia, sparks fly. But as their opposing worldviews clash, things start to go awry. Will this fairytale romance find a positive end, or will their paths separate in the end?

The series has 8 episodes, each with a runtime of around 40 minutes.

The Royals Review

In Netflix’s The Royals, we are made to follow a hotshot boss babe CEO and an immature Prince as they clash and mingle and clash again over the course of doing business together. It’s a tale as old as time, one that is hardly new or improved in any way. The protagonists include Ishaan Khatter as Aviraaj Singh and Bhumi Pednekar as Sophia Kanmani Shekhar, two people who hardly have any charisma to keep the viewers glued. The series features 8 gruelling episodes of almost nothing and everything happening at the same time, and hardly makes sense for most of it.

The problem with this series is that it tries to be very unserious and extremely serious simultaneously. You can be either of the two, but you can’t be both. Both protagonists are such unstable brats that it’s hard to feel anything for them. Most of the time, I found myself annoyed with their odd decisions, and they constantly lash out at everyone around them and don’t seem to be able to function as an adult. It’s, thus, hard to understand how to follow or feel sympathetic to their woes when half of the time they are the ones self-sabotaging themselves.

It’s also a shame, thus, that neither Khatter nor Pednekar seems to have any real chemistry or charisma to wow us. Pednekar feels like a cardboard most of the time and is insufferable because of her character. Khatter’s baby face and bangin’ bod help (which the creators also clearly clocked because half of the time he is shirtless), but from a character and story perspective, there’s very little to offer. Together, they don’t feel like people who would be good romantic partners, although their intimate scenes feel realistic and sizzling.

The other characters are bland as well, and I must mention that the series has too many characters in that regard. It doesn’t help that more than half have no personality or role other than to either (a) tick a box or (b) be the comic relief. The storyline doesn’t offer any juicy drama, just a bunch of adults bickering like school children. Some very few twists become very apparent from early on, and a few humorous moments that will make you laugh.

However, its biggest problem might just be that it’s absolutely boring. There’s literally nothing happening in this series that will make you excited. After the first few episodes, I found my brain turning into mush because nothing happened. The dialogue delivery and the pacing are so slow that you might want to skip through scenes, and it will impact nothing. I guess Nora Fatehi shakes things up a little, and although her character has nothing to offer, she is one of the better parts of the show!

In the end, The Royals ends on a (predictable) cliffhanger that will leave you annoyed and maybe a bit confused. It’s so mind-numbingly stagnant and stupid that it boggles my mind as to who thought this would be entertaining. I came here looking for juicy drama and eyebrow-raising moments and was met with disappointment after disappointment that left me completely drained.

Final Thoughts

In a show called The Royals, you’d expect it to ooze charm. Ishaan Khatter’s six-pack made for a great view, but there’s hardly anything else that will entertain you. It’s a dud that makes the gravest mistake of all when it comes to entertainment in my book – it’s boring. I guess casual viewers will find it good to play in the background, but then again, rewatching Bridgerton or Downton Abbey might just be a better bet at that point.

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