m-ozfirat This series explores the possibility of what the Royal family could be like dominated by a youthful dynasty in the present. It examines the possibility of a clash with the traditional protocol and the modern standards of the Post Millennium and the challenges this can bring to a traditional elite. The Characters are well developed and suited for the series to fit in to this paradigm whilst being genuinely funny and not serious. Their is the Queen Mother played by Jane Asher who is loving but stern to keep the family in order to live up to responsibility. The King who does his duties sincerely but likes to live like a playboy along with his Mischievous little brother and Frivolous little sister. Then their is the astute but scheming older sister who was more suited and had a claim but was unlucky. The staff and cabinet are just as colourful and full of strife in comical situations with their duties. The show should of gone for another 2 seasons as there could of been more potential. The first series was good as it showed a modern minded and energetic monarch settle in with his own character to his role and the political challenges and demands of that role in a changing time alongside historical tradition. Apart form the young Kings personal experiences it could of covered European and Global politics such as America, Arabia and the emerging nations. The changes in Britain today and relatives that were ex-monarchs. It was cancelled due to low ratings. They probably think reality TV is more entertaining and thats what gets higher ratings. Humour has lost its intelligence and the early cancellation of this is an example.

jackfertig "The Palace" looks like one of those American post-adolescent dramas where beautiful young 20-somethings are scheming and screwing at every opportunity. Even the role of the queen, recently widowed, seems to have been written for Joan Collins.Cheap, tawdry, and ridiculous though it is it makes amusing fluff, a pleasant diversion. If you want to laugh at young actors struggling a little too hard to look like they're taking themselves seriously and roll your eyes at the absurdity this could be a lot of fun. In fact, one has to wonder how much the creative staff for this silliness just saw the whole thing as a spoof. If anyone meant this show to be taken seriously it's an epic fail, but as a take-off on American dramas, it's really quite funny.

paul2001sw-1 'The Palace' is a series that takes place in a fictionalised royal family not so unlike our own; a young king thrown unexpectedly to the throne and who resembles George VI; his sister is a ringer for Princess Margaret, and there are a batch of partying young royals to boot. An ensemble cast also features many of the palace staff, and the tone of the program is somewhere between 'Drop the Dead Donkey' and 'House of Cards', as it follows the ambitions and intrigue surrounding this substantial collection of characters. It's all believable stuff, yet somehow not very interesting: the comedy element is obvious and just not that funny, while the more serious side of the drama fails to engage, the royal family has already lost so much of its mystique that it's hard to feel anything real is at stake in the political games. Stepehen Frears' film 'The Queen', another obvious template, was such fun because of the way it imaginatively interpreted real events and people; but in 'The Palace', none of the made-up royals have sufficient depth to flesh out the plot beyond a skeleton outline. In the end, it's neither subversive or revealing, and fails to contain anything that might not have been predicted; neither true sitcom not true satire, 'The Palace' aims high but ultimately, appears to have nothing of substance to say.

damonreynolds Okay, so a certain amount of belief has to be suspended to enjoy this, but that doesn't mean it's not good TV. There seem to be far too many comparisons to the West Wing. The Palace is basically a tongue-in-cheek dramatisation of a whole bunch of 'what-ifs'. And, if you can get over the initial premise and look a little deeper, there are quite a number of points here about male succession, the spilt between crown and parliament, staff loyalty, the duty of monarchy and so on. This has not just been thrown together - in fact by making all the characters fictional the writers have much greater license to look at and expose some of the more interesting facets of the UK constitution.The main problem is that it falls between two stools. It's too silly for a Royalist drama, and not quite biting enough for black comedy. It would actually be much better off on Channel 4. ITV doesn't have much of a history of 'faintly subversive' so doesn't know what to do with it, and the critics don't know what to make of it.