‘A Very Royal Scandal’ Prime Video Series Review - Just Watch the Real Interview

Directed by Julian Jarrold and written by Jeremy Brock, A Very Royal Scandal almost gave me a similar feeling to the one I had after watching Philip Martin's Scoop. Let me be more specific and say that the first two episodes don't seem very different from the Philip Martin production. Everything comes across as an excuse to recreate the infamous BBC interview of Prince Andrew (taken by Emily Maitlis). Scoop was based on Sam McAlister's 2022 book Scoops and showed McAlister's mission to secure the interview. A Very Royal Scandal is based on Maitlis' book, Airhead: The Imperfect Art of Making News, which means she is the main character of this show. Ruth Wilson steps into Maitlis' shoes, and we are instantly distanced from this character because of her voice, which seems too rehearsed, too theatrical. Like Scoop, the first two episodes of A Very Royal Scandal see the female journalist as a shallow figure who is simply driven by the zeal for getting breaking news. It remains incurious about the news reporter's personal life, reducing her to the cliché of a journalist who sweats and exerts herself to do her job. Scoop was nothing more than an exercise in recreating a real-life event (Prince Andrew's disastrous interview). A Very Royal Scandal doesn't just recreate that moment; it also dramatizes it with intense pauses and exchange of glances - it adds more chili to already spicy food.

Prince Andrew (Michael Sheen) is reduced to a nincompoop. He is an overgrown kid, which the show constantly reminds us of. "The last one to reach that tree is a fatty," a gleeful Andrew says to his private secretary Amanda Thirsk (Joanna Scanlan). When Amanda showers him with compliments, he smiles proudly like a schoolboy getting appreciated by his teachers and parents. The Duke of York, while praising his golfing skills within the confines of his bedroom, looks like those children who fantasize about becoming a superhero and saving the world. Andrew is so naive, so dumb, that he not only fails to find any fault in his BBC interview but also doesn't notice the train wreck he is causing through his words. Here is a man who celebrates shooting 328 birds without realizing that his own wings will soon be cut. Andrew becomes so much of a cartoon character that we don't feel anything about his actions, or his behavior. We are neither repulsed by him nor do we chuckle at his foolishness. Emily gets an award for the interview, but during her acceptance speech, she doesn't mention the victims. This gives rise to the notion that Emily used sufferers of sexual assault as a board to ride on the wave of success. It's a fascinating territory, but the show doesn't know what to do with it. So, it exists like a bullet point. When Emily's son is found going through a Reddit post, she explains that sometimes fans become angry when someone knocks down their idols. This scene merely suggests the toxicity of the fan culture. If Brock had really focused on the personal aspects, he would have allowed the boy to reveal how exactly his life - in the school and among his friends - has changed since the interview.

Brock's narrow thinking can also be detected in that scene where the interview is edited. Instead of diving into the editing process, the scene is treated as an excuse to display what we don't see during the interview. It's like watching a film and seeing its deleted scenes later on YouTube. Jarrold is a very plain director. His images are static, uninteresting, and lifeless. This means he is suitable for Brock's material, which cuts between Emily accepting her award and Andrew washing dishes to bring out their respective rise and fall. The two of them are also seen holding their umbrella and in the company of their dogs at the same moment so that A Very Royal Scandal can establish a "visual connection" between the two characters. Both Scoop and A Very Royal Scandal relegate the victims to the sidelines by reducing them to clips on news channels. The focus is on the least interesting ingredients, most of which are invented for fiction. It slowly becomes apparent that there is not much of a story here. Whatever you need to know already exists in the form of a real-life interview. You can also dig into many, many news articles. The third episode conveys that Andrew, through the BBC interview, expected more appreciation (he loves listening to compliments). It also tells you to see her daughters, Princess Eugenie (Sofia Oxenham) and Princess Beatrice (Honor Swinton Byrne), as humans. Being rich doesn't mean you are not emotionally vulnerable. But these are very broad points, and Eugenie and Beatrice mostly roam around with sad faces. Ultimately, Scoop and A Very Royal Affair indicate that there is no real story before and after the interview. The most important takeaway is that not everything needs to be made into a movie or a TV show.

Final Score- [4.5/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times
Note: All 3 episodes are screened for this review.
Premiere Date: Sep 19, 2024, on Prime Video