Hail THE ROYALS

Article originally published as THE ROYALS Review on Seat42F.

 

E!’s very first completely original scripted series is THE ROYALS, which premiered this week. It tells the story of a fictional British monarchy, and how they are rocked when the heir to the throne dies. It’s a soapy guilty pleasure show of the rich behaving badly, a mix of comedy and drama, and though my expectations were admittedly very low going in, it’s actually pretty enjoyable.

Early in the pilot, we meet Prince Liam (William Moseley, The Chronicles of Narnia films) and Princess Eleanor (Alexandra Park, Home and Away), the younger two siblings of the royal family. Both are partying and drinking and generally behaving as we see all spoiled rich kids behave in shows such as this. THE ROYALS is like Gossip Girl with accents and fewer secrets. While the instinct of many viewers will be to smack them across the face, the fact that they fit a societal trend speaks to larger issues. I don’t know if this show is the one to tackle those; probably not.

But then we hear about the death of their brother, the crown prince, who is the ‘good’ one of the group, perishing a military hero. This changes their world completely and provides the catalyst for the central plot. Liam is most affected, now being the next in line when his father, King Simon (Vincent Regan, Atlantis), dies. Liam immediately sees that he’s been a bit too wild, his behavior not befitting the role he has been granted, and tries to settle down with his one-night stand, the head of security’s daughter, Ophelia (Merritt Patterson, Ravenswood).

On one hand, Liam’s change must not be too drastic. While he clearly like to party, the family takes him seriously, especially his father, and don’t seem all that surprised he would want to be in a relationship. On the other, I feel like THE ROYALS sets up a different Liam in the first few minutes than we get for the rest of the episode, which is too bad. Maybe he’s just a normal kid, mostly good, but who lets off a little steam every now and then. If that is the case, it’s not all that apparent.

Simon tells his family he is thinking of asking Parliament to dissolve the royal family. It’s time, from a cultural standpoint. It also gives his kids the chance at a normal life and happiness, he certainly not having found it as King. This gives Liam, who seems to want to be the ruler, or at least feels obligated to be, more motivation to be who he should. It also indicates Simon feels trapped, perhaps by his marriage to the bitchy Queen Helena (Elizabeth Hurley, Gossip Girl, Austin Powers), perhaps by the things that keep him from being a simple fisherman.

Simon and Liam are compelling characters that I’m interested in. Ophelia is a little much in how she rises to Helena’s bait, but really, these three will be the heroes of The Royals that we root for. There is interesting pathos here, all of them having lost someone close to them (Ophelia’s mother died because she was near the royals). Toss in Ophelia’s father, Ted (Oliver Milburn, Driving Lessons), and there’s a show here I want to watch.

I’m on the fence about Princess Eleanor. Her damage is sadder, as she turns to drugs and sex as a way to act out and exert influence. Yet, when a guard named Jasper (Tom Austen, The Borgias) shows her how easy it is to get the upper hand because Eleanor is her own worst enemy, I feel bad for the girl. She is practically screaming for help and no one is giving it to her. She’s a tragic character that I expect a good growth arc from over the course of the series.

The aforementioned Helena and Simon’s brother, Cyrus (Jake Maskall, EastEnders), are the evil characters that cause all the trouble. Helena immediately sets herself up as a foe to Ophelia, and Cyrus, a live-action Scar, pulls a gun on Simon’s back in a too-obvious way. While The Royals will do well to keep the over-the-top danger and manipulation going, pulling back on the outward appearance of it from these two will do it good. It should also figure out how to use the comic relief characters, Cyrus’ daughters Maribel (Hatty Preston) and Penelope (Lydia Rose Bewley, Plebs), a little better.

THE ROYALS is far from a perfect show. Some of the characters are a little flat and it goes for a larger-than-life feel, which seems more of a gimmick than a style. But it’s far higher quality than anything else the network is offering (with the exception of the drastically different, hilarious The Soup), and I’d rather E! actually admit to airing scripted dramas instead of pretending their shows are ‘reality.’ In all, THE ROYALS is better than I expected it to be, and I’m interested enough to watch a second episode.

THE ROYALS airs Sundays at 10 p.m. ET on E!

Just Pass Through RAVENSWOOD

Article first published as RAVENSWOOD Review on Seat42F.

This week, ABC Family spins off its popular Pretty Little Liars with RAVENSWOOD. Set in a town with the same name as the show, Caleb Rivers (Tyler Blackburn) from PLL finds his face on a tombstone, as well as that of new friend Miranda Collins (Nicole Gale Anderson, Beauty and the Beast). This convinces him to stick around, at least long enough to get to the bottom of the mystery. That won’t be as easy and as quick as he might hope.

While PLL is a dark mystery teen drama grounded in reality, RAVENSWOOD is a dark mystery teen drama with supernatural elements, combining the elements that made PLL so popular and adding in the kind of stuff that has been hot in the young adult genre for awhile now. Teens like to be scared, and whether RAVENSWOOD just brings in ghosts or goes heavier, that’s definitely the goal.

Everything about the setting is designed to be overtly creepy, with lots of muted and washed out colors, graveyards and overgrown woods. Miranda’s Uncle Raymond (Steven Cabral, Roommate), whom Miranda and Caleb stay with, runs a funeral home, and looks as ghoulish as the bodies he takes care of as he skulks around. His household is maintained by Carla Grunwald (Meg Foster, briefly the Cagney or Cagney & Lacey), who speaks in a strangely quiet voice, purposefully intended to evoke shivers. And, of course, the building has no shower, making for a terrifying tub scene that will please young girls.

Except, it’s not really terrifying. The stakes appear to be low, with early frights being just that – frights. No actual peril or harm happens, even though there is opportunity for such. And throughout the first episode, this repeats many times, little bits of intense drama that add up to nothing.

Now, this is a show for teens, and ABC Family isn’t into lots of murder and gore. But these half-hearted, overly transparent attempts at horror are tame and lame. Given the ending of the episode, it doesn’t look like the network has ordered a series that has to hold back, so it’s a little puzzling why so much of the installment does so.

Speaking of the ending, of which I will spoil nothing, it’s huge and exciting, but not earned. There is too big a contrivance to set up the finale, and the stakes are not well enough established. It seems designed only to titillate viewers who might be considering not watching a second episode, rather than the direction the pilot should have gone in. I could see an episode later in the season ending this way in a satisfying manner, but the first episode jumps the gun in doing this now.

Backing up a bit, RAVENSWOOD seeks to establish a group of main characters to appeal to viewers, trying to cover the bases in putting together a typical ensemble. Caleb is well-known from the mothership, and Miranda’s description in materials as an “unconventional beauty” might be apt, but is definitely an archetype. The other main kids are also more a familiar role in this kind of group than a fully-thought out character, connected, often falsely, into an ensemble.

There’s Remy Beaumont (Britne Oldford, American Horror Story: Asylum), a newsman’s daughter who just happens to have the information Caleb and Miranda need to figure things out, or access to get said information. Her mother is also somehow connected to the larger arcs. Remy is dating Luke Matheson (Brett Dier, The L.A. Complex), whose father is dead. Remy’s father, and much of the town, suspects that Luke’s mother murdered him. Luke also has a sister, Olivia (Merritt Patterson), who is being unseated as the popular girl because of these events.

In RAVENSWOOD, as in many series of this type, the parents can be obstacles from time to time, but the action is centered on what the kids do, and they don’t confide the important stuff to the adults. Instead, they try to handle everything themselves and act grown up, which is far from unique to this series, but is a bit annoying from a believability factor. Especially when the mothers and fathers are actually part of the overall mystery.

RAVENSWOOD is a lot like other shows, in general, with few truly original things springing to mind from the pilot. Toss Sleepy Hollow, Pretty Little Liars, The Secret Circle, The Vampire Diaries, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and others into a blender, and this is what comes out. Unfortunately, it’s so watered down by the familiar that it fails to really stand on its own.

Which will probably not stop the target audience from loving the heck out of it and following it as vehemently as they do PLL. I expect this show will do very well. I just won’t be watching it.

RAVENSWOOD premieres this Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET on ABC Family.