King Charles III

Where did this fantasy "reality" drama come from? It takes real living people and turns them into farcical characters with evil or untoward motivations. Yet, like a train wreck, I couldn't look away. I guess it's interesting to watch but I'm not sure why. We all have our opinions on the royal family and what we think makes them tick. It just seems a bit irresponsible to commit those notions to film, which has the unfortunate effect of being interpreted as having a basis in fact.

I don't give a rating because I only lasted 3 minutes into it. After hearing Camilla explain to Kate that Charles is king immediately after the queen's death instead of at coronation, and that the UK doesn't have a constitution, I knew this was written so that characters say things to each other that they already know, for the sake of the audience. Bad writing at its worst.

While it is shocking to see living people turned into characters that behave in unexpected ways, it is a pure and glorious tragedy that any Greek or Elizabethan playwright would recognize. Betrayal and unmasked ambitions abound. There is even a ghost!

As people mourn the death of the queen, Prince Charles prepares to become the king of the monarchy. All things good, we get the idea, but I feel like the movie emphasizes more the characters, than the action itself. Plus, it seems like the situation presented turns into a game with no end, but we already know how things may change. I mean, it's obvious that in a moment when things go wrong, the only solution for the man in power is to give up, right? I just think that the movie could have come up an impartial opinion on how things evolve after the tragic event and let the public decide what path, good or bad, the king may choose.

This is a fictional story but using largely real, living people not even thinly disguised but under their real names. The time is the Day After Tomorrow, that is the very near future. My first reaction to seeing this is it is a blatant invasion of privacy and exploitation of their name and fame that would invite furious litigation in the USA. The portrayals of certain of the royals is quite defamatory, too.

On the other side, these are public figures and maybe under British law they have no expectation of privacy to defend. Or perhaps they all have given permission to BBC to portray them in any light it likes. The effect is startling here.

The musical score with its recurring bassoon motif is very similar to the music in the movie **Hamlet (2000)** starring Ethan Hawke as a modern day Prince of "the Denmark Corporation". Tribute or rip-off?