WARNING: This review will contain spoilers for both seasons!
On November 1st 2022, Young Royals Season 2 finally dropped. And, I have a lot of thoughts.
To quickly recap season one, the story first starts with the Crown Prince of Sweden, Wilhelm (Edvin Ryding) and Simon (Omar Rudberg) meeting at school and falling in love. However, their happy relationship doesn’t last long, as an illegally filmed video of Wilhelm and Simon having sex is leaked by Wilhelm’s cousin August (Malte Gardinger). This video sends shockwaves through all of Sweden due to Wilhelm’s status as the Crown Prince. By the end of the season, the two boys unwillingly break up due to the pressure that the video has placed on them both.
In the second season, Prince Wilhelm is trying to deal with the fallout from the video, the expectations that are placed on him as a crown prince, and is also attempting to mend his relationship with Simon. On the other hand, all Simon wants to do is move on from the whole spectacle; he even enters a new relationship to get his mind off of Wilhelm. Meanwhile, August begins a relationship with Simon’s sister, Sara (Frida Argento), and harbors a fear of being caught for leaking the video.
There were a lot of things that I enjoyed about this season. First and foremost, I need to give a huge shout out to the actors: they are all absolutely incredible. If I am being completely honest, there were some times in the season where I was literally watching the show as an excuse to see how well they would perform. Personally, I absolutely loved Edvin Ryding’s performance as Wilhelm this season the most, he really did a great job channeling a lot of Wilhelm’s frustrations and sorrows, and he really makes Wilhelm seem like an actual royal that I would hear stories about. I would even go as far and say that he deserves an Emmy for this role. And of course, like the first season, Edvin and Omar’s chemistry is off the charts as Wilhelm and Simon. I honestly think that the casting directors couldn’t choose any other two people to play these two roles, and that they are a perfect example of how TV show relationships should be on screen.
Another thing that I also love about Young Royals is this show doesn’t try to overly compensate in an attempt to be relatable. Rather, everything feels really natural: I love how all of the actors really look like they should be in high school and I love how the show is not afraid to portray teenage awkwardness on screen. Despite the dramaticness of the show, I really feel like I am reading a diary of a teenage kid’s life sometimes.
However, there were things that I did not enjoy about the season either. I honestly felt like the plot progressed way too slowly. For me, a lot of the season really felt like filler.
I also felt that there was slightly too much emphasis placed on August and his relationship with Sara this season. For all their screen time, neither of them really grew as characters from the last season, which was disappointing to say the least. I would have preferred if the time used on them went towards more scenes with Wilhelm/Simon or perhaps Felice (Nikita Uggla), who is Wilhelm’s best friend and who I felt was “done dirty” this entire season.
Finally, I felt that the season was too short. It was only six episodes and each episode was about 45 minutes, giving us only around 4 and a half hours worth of content. While it’s easily bingeable, I felt that by episode 6 things were only really getting started, and that there was not enough time to really dive deep into a lot of the show’s conflicts and themes.
Overall, I give Young Royals Season 2 a 7.5/10. While I enjoyed the acting and the refreshing nature of the show, plot wise there was a lot left to be desired. I really hope that season 3 contains a lot more action and maybe a little more happiness than this season did.