If they wanted to make a episode about slavery just make one about slavery, like half the episode was about slavery and not monarchies/royalty.
11 Reviews
Worst Explained so far
gfarand31 July 2021
The episode's pitch is misleading, as 90+% of it focuses on the Windsors.
The Explained brand in-depth analysis is completely absent ("the Queen of England has no power" is repeated several times in one form or another, while anyone who has ever been interested in the English monarchy knows it isn't strictly true).
The form is poor, rambling (same information and even sentences repeated countless times). The cut is odd, unbalanced and amateurish. Especially so at the end, but throughout the episode as well.
On the whole, this episode felt like a botched PR exercise put together by a placement student. I sincerely hope this isn't the new Explained standard.
The Explained brand in-depth analysis is completely absent ("the Queen of England has no power" is repeated several times in one form or another, while anyone who has ever been interested in the English monarchy knows it isn't strictly true).
The form is poor, rambling (same information and even sentences repeated countless times). The cut is odd, unbalanced and amateurish. Especially so at the end, but throughout the episode as well.
On the whole, this episode felt like a botched PR exercise put together by a placement student. I sincerely hope this isn't the new Explained standard.
Stop being politically correct and teach me about royalty
kikicat-911086 August 2021
Really low quality, quite surprising for a series that I liked a lot so far. I don't mind the leftish tone of the series, I share it in fact, but in this case it was overwealming. I just wanted to learn about royalty all around the world and these people spent 15 out of their 20 minutes talking about slavery and Jamaica. Worst episode so far, youtube standard of quality (or not even that).
Started off well
tknowles-tk27 July 2021
For a programme that is meant to explain Royalty across the Globe, the show concentrates on a singular monarchy quite a lot. I would have loved to know more about different monarchies and how they have survived the same societal changes that had befallen the one's mentioned in the episode. But alas, the episode showed just 3 monarchies in some detail, but one in particular. I felt the episode was incredibly shallow, and was wrapped in socio-political themes, rather than concentrating on the institutions themselves as a whole.
1 sided and anti royal. Missed the premise.
d-joseph-winter14 August 2021
Unlike other episodes I didn't learn anything. It was 30 minutes of going Windsors, racism, Windsor's, racism, Windsor's, slavery. Dare I say it seemed like propaganda in support for the removal of monarchies and not the fact driven, balanced, informative episode as expected. Only other monarchy really referenced was Japan but nothing about the existing absolute Monarchies or talked about any of the other Monarchs involved in slavery such as Belgium. Poor research and very narrow minded.
Worst Episode Yet
jtb447 August 2021
Biased and not well thought out.
rachelcapie9 August 2021
Great series, shame about this episode. A very one sided, politicised discussion of royalty in general and the British royal family in particular. I'm not a royalist but it really felt like they were out to blame the state of the world on the royals. More focus on the facts and less focus on opinions.
Clearly written by someone with hatred in their heart
cjw197610 September 2021
This is so ridiculously biased and clearly written by someone who has been spurned by the royal family. Just disgraceful biased opinions which is trying to fit a narrative to destroy the British Royal Family. Please end this Netflix and MM Relationship.
Should be titled "British Royalty"
bsstanboris25 December 2021
Whole show focused only on the British royalty (or even more accurate British colonialism) with a very small segment on Japan. Introduction mentions some monarchies that are still absolute yet they don't even get listed let alone have a chapter about them. If you want to make an episode about Britain just title it that way so it doesn't mislead the viewer.
Insubstantial
MeadtheMan1 August 2021
The royals are "virtually powerless" and "just a figurehead...doesn't have any political power", hello, ever heard of the abuses of the Queen's Consent and other influences on legislation? You don't even have to dig deep to read about those things. Why are they not even mentioned?
Well done on the exposé on "post-colonialist" colonialism... but it could've brought up many more issues. I know 20-minute is quite limiting, but it could do away with many merely pretty images and interviews.
Well done on the exposé on "post-colonialist" colonialism... but it could've brought up many more issues. I know 20-minute is quite limiting, but it could do away with many merely pretty images and interviews.
This wasn't about explaining Royalty
Polly_Styrene28 November 2022
Warning: Spoilers
This started well, and had lots of gripping promise, but took a left turn quite quickly and turned into an anti Windsor PR exercise. Another issue was there was very minimal effort put into explaining or even acknowledging the history of royal dynasties that weren't western. I would have liked to know more about the Thai and Chinese royalty. But where this really tripped the wire was the information presented about slavery. As a historian I can tell you it was factually biased to the point of being incorrect. That whole section, which hijacked this Explainer episode, seemed to be the point of this episode as if any content presented was in service of arriving at that section. This wasn't an explainer. It was a low quality transparent smear of western royalty.
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