If you were to summarise Young Royals in one line, you might say it’s Heartstopper meets The Crown, with a dash of Skam’s Scandinavian anguish tossed in for good measure. That would be rather true.
After all, Young Royals is a homosexual adolescent love story, and the Crown’s machinations frequently obstruct that love, mimicking the real-life issues that British royals like Princess Margaret encounter in Netflix’s other royal program.
Omar Rudberg, who portrays Simon, has even expressed his desire for a Young Royals/Heartstopper crossover, which he characterizes as “f**king classic” and “wonderful.”
That is also correct. Because a crossover between the two series would be “f**king legendary.” We’re confident Simon and Wilhelm could learn a lot from how Nick and Charlie handled their own love story in Season One of Heartstopper.
But Young Royals remains a distinct beast, and not only because it comes a year before Heartstopper (on screen, at least). Young Royals, like Skam, feel achingly genuine at moments, capturing all the drama and awkwardness that characterizes adolescent life.
That’s very impressive for a program about Sweden’s Crown Prince and his hardships in an extremely affluent boarding school. Young Royals may have seemed considerably more aristocratic and detached from real life in the wrong hands.
Instead, we have a program that, because of its more adult and realistic approach to teen sex, maybe even more accessible than Heartstopper, which is already incredibly relatable.
That isn’t to argue that Heartstopper’s carefree approach to love is a negative thing. That episode, for many, is fairly representative of youthful experiences in the UK, a world apart from the drug-addled horniness of programs like Euphoria. However, horniness does exist, and Young Royals appears to effortlessly walk the delicate line between these two extremes.
Season one set the tone with embarrassing stumbles and sweet tiny moments that felt like they were plucked from someone’s journal. Where else would you find teens making jokes about each other’s morning breath or turning up the volume on their video game so their parents can’t hear them having sex?
Season two, luckily, maintains this tendency, well knowing that this was a crucial strength of the first season.
That’s most likely why the new premiere begins with an intimate kissing scene. Sure, it’s a dream, but considering how Simon and Wilhelm ended things in season one, anything else would have felt false at this time.
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As the advance of the new episodes, we see Simon and Wilhelm fighting to cope without each other. Wil unexpectedly joins up with his closest friend, Felice, while Simon momentarily turns to someone new, a kid named Marcus.
Again, witnessing them both fumble through their anguish, seeking physical solace, is quite familiar to everyone who has had a painful split with their first love. So, basically, practically everyone viewed this program at the time.
As a result of this division, there is less gay content this time around, at least in a physical sense. For most of this season, we’re back to uncomfortable stares and simmering tension. That is, until the end of episode five, when Simon and Wil finally reconcile – this time, thankfully, with the curtains drawn.
The duo wakes up together at the start of season two’s last episode, but the cold light of day brings the realization that their relationship doesn’t work anymore unless someone makes a significant concession.
Simon is the one who does it, informing Wil later in the episode that he’s ready to keep it a secret until they’re 18 years old “If that’s the only option.
” However, “no more secrets between us, ” “He continues.
This moment is filmed with a wonderful intimacy, with lots of close-ups that focus on the affectionate way they hold hands or hug and even murmur “I love you” in each other’s ear at one point.
Young Royals, on the other hand, aren’t hesitant to get a little dirty when it comes to intimacy.
August and Sara transform the uncomfortable energy of early kiss encounters into something more physical in episode three, and we even witness August rip open a condom packet at one point. Scenes like these may not be common on other adolescent shows, but they happen all the time in real life.
Malte Grdinger, who portrays August, expressed it best in an exclusive interview with Digital Spy:
“I believe we intended to make it amusing and embarrassing. Because it may be a little embarrassing at times. But nicely. It doesn’t have to be cringe or embarrassing. It can be this lovely awkwardness. I’m hoping we can portray that true embarrassment with the condom fiddling, tiny chuckles, and fumbling around.”
Scenes like these, or the embrace shared by Wil and Simon, are a far cry from the stylized sex scenes we’ve grown accustomed to seeing on other series that attempt, but frequently fail, to effectively represent youthful experiences on film.
But it’s not only the sex that distinguishes Young Royals from other programs of its kind. Huge amounts of time are also devoted to the emotions that bubble beneath the surface, the hatred, and the yearning that Simon and Wilhelm alternate between in each scene. Aside from Heartstopper, which similarly prioritizes the inner thoughts of its characters, there’s a complexity here that’s typically absent in other similar series.
All of this comes to a head after the season, when these feelings erupt, first in a tense hunting rifle scene, and then again at the climax when Wilhelm defies convention and declares his love for Simon to the world.
What makes this so powerful is Young Royals’ choice to be so choosy with these times.
Apart from the last speech, there are no great gestures, no boombox announcements, and no romantic Ferris wheel rides. Instead, the program focuses on the tiny things, the sly looks and secret kisses that characterize the innocent, pure delight of youthful love as it is, not as it is portrayed in movies.
During another exclusive interview, this time with Omar Rudberg, the actor who portrays Simon explained why he believes the program resonates with that outside of Sweden:
“We really work on displaying what teenagers actually look like, and what teenagers go through, and how teenagers feel, and what they do when they feel certain things… showing real teenagers, primarily, and real love, and real relationships, and how it goes in life when you’re a young teen in love, or when a friend does something stupid and you get really disturbed about it.”
It also helps that the performers portraying these parts are all teenagers. Even the casting is aimed toward this inherent demand for authenticity, which adds to the appeal of Young Royals for young audiences viewing at home.
“I simply think that people can connect so much to this series because we’re trying to present this narrative as accurately as possible,” says Rudberg.
And now that Wilhelm is finally able, to be honest, and upfront about his love for Simon, we’re hoping to see a lot more of this evolve into a healthy relationship in season three. That would be “f**king iconic,” wouldn’t it?
Seasons 1 and 2 of Young Royals are now accessible on Netflix.
