Amaryllis_Flower

Okay curiosity got the better of me. One episode of Downton Abbey cost $1.6 million USD to produce and the last episode ran 10 years ago. And as I said in my comment below British actors don't make nearly what American actors make.

And to get a better picture of what a period costume series costs per episode today, The Gilded Age (also a Julian Fellows production) cost $27 million to produce the third season. There were only eight episodes so in other words $3.4 million per episode. Season 3 was filmed in 2024, so 9 years after the last season of Downton Abbey.

It sounds like you read the novel so you have to know that the king did survive and Wasin did not.

In the book Wasin had way more reason to be angry with the king than he did in the series. In the book he actually murdered Wasin's wife, in the series he merely ran a dirty mining operation. The two really aren't comparable.

And you just made an excellent point on one of the reasons they didn't follow the book. If they had Calvin/Jay would have been nothing more than a footnote. They barely appear in the book. Same for Ramil/Paytai.

Chakri wasn't as prominent in the book either but I am glad they expanded that role because he is my favorite character in the series. I hope Balchon gets more work after this.

But I do want to thank you for actually having a reason for your criticism. You are one of the very very few. Congrats!

Nope I don't only respond to the good stuff (that is If you mean people who praise the series as opposed to criticizing it). And you can make a succinct criticism in just a few sentences.

It doesn't take a lot of effort or a lot of education to know why you don't like something.

When somebody says for 14 weeks this sucks and nothing else and has all their little buddies come and say the same thing they're going to get the derision they deserve. 🤷🏻‍♀️

And you just made an excellent argument for why I can't compare a Thai BL to any US or European series.

I would just love to know what Downton Abbey cost per episode, and they don't pay British actors anywhere near as much as they do in the US which is why so many of them work here.

But I think for the budget they had, the production costs involved to be believable they did a pretty good job.

Oh and BTW I haven't mentioned this before, but in the sabotage at the palace I realized that a lot of the columns and furniture were made out of cardboard or thin plywood and I noticed some of them falling apart in ways that they wouldn't have if they were actually real materials. I realize that they probably didn't have the budget to smash apart real furniture but a little bit more creative camera work would have helped.

It's an internet discussion board. Nobody owes me anything, but that doesn't make a crap comment any less of a crap comment.

I have the hide of a rhinoceros, it's damned impossible to hurt my feelings, and that goes double for strangers who make comments I can't respect because they are ridiculous.

Every episode of TNP has brought the plot forward. There hasn't been one that has not. When the series is over this Saturday I'll start discussing that.

I would have preferred it if they hadn't deviated so much from the book but I can understand it from some aspects.

One of them is that DMD wouldn't have a role for any of its stable actors outside of ZeeNuNew If they'd done that. There was pretty much no role for Ramil/Paytai and Calvin/Jay in the book.

The book also reads a lot like a Grimm's fairy tale, which believe it or not were read to children and their original form in the 19th century.

In addition Charan's role was smaller in the book and romance was less prominent.

Also when they did have sex it was very very graphic, and I think when they were trying to find a way to make it spicier than what was in Cutie Pie they kind of failed, especially in that second NC scene with the paintbrushes. But on the other hand you can't graphically portray the prep for anal sex in a TV series.

I also think that viewers had more of an expectation out of TNP because of the budget and the time that it took to get financing arranged and actually produce the series.

It's a decent series, but there isn't any Thai BL I've ever seen that is better than a well-produced Academy Award-winning movie. For the genre I think it's a good BL. To expect more than that is kind of ridiculous.

That's completely incorrect. My posts are not all praise. There are many components to this series I've had issues with and I've said so.

And when I've seen thoughtful criticism I will respond. Sometimes I even agree with it.

But for every bit of criticism I see that's actually worth reading they're probably 50 that aren't.

After 14 weeks of listening to whining that amounts to poo I finally said it.

There's criticism and then there's just throwing a tantrum. A lot of what I'm seeing here falls into the tantrum category.

If I wanted to deal with that I would have had children.

My nanny would have taken away all my privileges for month if I acted like what I'm seeing here, and that was when I was 4 years old.

Is it too much to expect that a criticism of a series will actually say why you don't like it?

Criticism has to be something beyond "I'm bored, I don't like it, they need better writers". Otherwise the criticism is just crap.

I haven't liked everything about this series even if I've mostly enjoyed it.

When I haven't liked something I've said exactly WHY I didn't like it.

And also if I hated a series it's ridiculous to come back 14 weeks in a row to say you don't like it.

Even if you don't want to give a worthwhile criticism then just say you don't like it, rate it low and be done with it. Don't make the rest of us have to wade through diarrhea.

Usually I just ignore this stuff. But I can't believe you have the energy to consistently post how much you hate a Thai BL for 14 weeks.

There have been plenty of shows that I started watching and stop because I thought they were crap, and guess what? I've got better things to do then keep coming back to a discussion group to tell people how much I hate it.

The only problem with all the debris here is that those of us who are enjoying the series can't really have a discussion because we have to wade through this cesspool.

So thanks for contributing. Thank God I kept my waders from last winter.

I'm really enjoying this series but it's not one that lends itself to multiple years.

TNP was originally a novel adapted for the series. However it was written for Zeenunew to star in the adaption. You can even tell by the way the characters are written.

In the series we are just about to the end of the book except for the four special chapters. Not sure if they're going to try to include those in the episode on Saturday or not.

But this was never intended to be a multiple year series. Most I could see is a single special episode to include those four additional chapters if they are not included in the series finale on Saturday.

I just noticed that YouTube is behind on BTS. Looks like episode 12 BTS is premiering this morning.

Episode 13 BTS is up on IQIYI but no translations at all yet. I've written them and they actually respond by telling me they can't fix it. That's helpful. 🙄

I guess I didn't notice they weren't getting up BTS on YouTube in a timely manner since I have IQIYI. Sometimes I do look at the YouTube highlights from the episodes to see what people are saying about them.

Google Netflix The Next Prince release date. You'll find this overview:

"The Thai series "The Next Prince" premiered on Netflix on May 3, 2025, according to IMDb and iQIYI. The series also had a premiere event at Iconsiam on April 26, 2025, where a behind-the-scenes documentary was released. "

It's also on Rakuten TV in Japan and Heavenly in South Korea.

I think they would do this in a single special episode if they don't wind up including it in episode 14.

It really depends on how long it takes them to deal with the plots of the fencing match, the new king If there is one in this version, and the future government of Emmaly.

Ramil/Paytai and Calvin/Jay show up for the wedding ceremony but since their relationship was quite a bit different in the book there really wasn't much to resolve.

I don't know what they're going to do any more than the next person. But I don't see how they're going to deal with all of that above, Khanin moving to London, Charan eventually joining him, proposing, getting married, and convincing Khanin to move back to Emmaly. Seems like a lot for 30 minutes of an episode.

Loads of money compared to what? If they had loads of money there wouldn't be annoying advertisements in the first half of the series to its detriment.

And what is the budget? Aof said it was approaching nine figures, so more or less 100 million baht, or a little more than $3 million USD.

A series with fancy outfits and locations like that $3 million USD would just about cover the cost of one episode and maybe the cost of the series stars in a US series.

It's been forever since the series Friends was on the air. I never watched it but each one of the six leads got one million dollars per episode and that was quite a long time ago.

We're to the point that Zee and NuNew have an international fandom and it's about time they learn to speak English and reap the dollars that they could get working elsewhere.

So maybe this BL had a bigger budget than some others but it's hardly anything to write home about.

BTS for episode 13 should be coming out Thursday on IQIYI although they've been annoyingly late on English translations. The YouTube version, which is abbreviated from what is shown on IQIYI, it's usually a third to a half of the length, will appear on Friday.

There haven't been any reaction videos in a while and the last one was really bad. Contractually they apparently have to blur out a significant part of what they're reacting to which makes it very difficult to make any sense out of them.

If they follow the book they won't need any of that. They got married in London and then eventually move back to Emmaly where Charan built them house. He was going to be an art professor and Khanin was going to teach fencing.

In the book there was no longer a king of Emmaly, so there was no longer any of that pomp.

PS The clothes are already paid for but I doubt they will be wearing them if all they are doing in a special episode are the four special chapters.

That isn't the reason. I absolutely adore, am in love with, any well thought out criticism. I've seen very few of those here. It's mostly I hate it, I'm bored, someone should do bad things to Aof and DMD.

I feel like I'm in nursery school.

The point isn't opinions. But if you have one make it specific to something that's going on. Most of the opinions here remind me of poo in my toilet.

It's there, it needs flushing, and other than keeping me from dying from an obstruction it has no other value.

TNP by far isn't perfect but it's still enjoyable at least it is to me. And when there have been things that I thought were silly I've said so.

I've also read most of the book by now. I read the second book first and right now I'm about halfway through the first one.

My guess is the reason they changed some aspects of the book is that it was pretty dark and maybe they thought Zee and NuNew needed a brighter plot.

Also there was almost no reason to get anything but guest actors for the roles of Ramil/Paytai and Calvin/Jay if they kept the plot of the book intact. So people who were bitching about those characters not having more screen time would really be bitching if the original book was adhered to more strictly.

I'm going to need to finish book one and reread book two, plus rewatch the entire series before I'll have a more cogent opinion.

That's all I ask of other people.