Privileged people at a posh elite school, where sex, drugs and rock and roll.. lol no, but parties, entitlement, bullying and intake of illicit substances are everyday things. We’ve heard and seen this all before and Young Royals has almost the same set up as the teenage/high school shows that have come before it. The notable difference is (apart from it being Swedish of course) that it’s about Prince Wilhelm — the black sheep of the Swedish Royal family who so far has been able to live a somewhat normal life, shielded from the court and all its responsibilities by his older brother, the Crown Prince Erik. Instead Wilhelm parties and drinks alcohol and oh gets into fights and sullies the great royal name.
The set up? Well as some sort of punishment for misbehaving he is sent to the infamous Boarding School called Hillerska where he is supposed to learn some discipline and become a prince the family can be proud of. That is ironic in and of itself of course, as boarding schools are always just massively toxic (did we learn nothing from Ondskan?), where the biggest bullies thrive by putting people around them down and the rich get away with whatever they want, even murder as the upper class even brags about at one point in this show, a perfect example of what entitlement does to you.
The somewhat insecure and introverted Wilhelm (Edvin Ryding) is thus thrusted into a new world, governed by outdated hierarchies, coming face to face with the main bully and antagonist August, a close relative to the royal family, who takes every opportunity he can to make Wilhelm’s life more difficult. And so Wille is notably drowning in it all-to make his family proud while all he wishes for is a normal life. Edvin Ryding plays Wilhelm straight to the audiences’ hearts, shy, nervous and prone to anxiety, he’s perfectly matched to Simon (Omar Rudberg), the small town boy with a heart of gold that manages to break through to Wilhelm’s heart by singing (of course he does) and a forbidden romance between the two soon start to take shape. Obviously it’s complicated because when is it not? Wilhelm is burdened by it all, somewhat in denial of his feelings to begin with, the mounting pressure of the crown and the fact that he can’t afford another scandal. Yet even he can’t resist the pull of romance and experience the chance at happiness, even when the other guy is ‘from the wrong side of town’ with a socio-economic status that Wilhelm won’t ever grasp (because he’s a prince duh). The pull is too strong for him to resist, even when he pushes Simon away, he can’t seem to stay away from him for too long.
Read my whole full review on my medium page here.
Yes I disappeared for a long time after keeping up a steady flow of updates... shame on me. I haven't even written a review of Love Victor which I was so excited about and binged in a few days time and who knows, maybe I will come around to it? Possibly, in the meantime my Insta is somewhat more active and while I divide my attention between my new job, reading and trying to find some time to be creative in this goddamn summer heat Insta seems to be where I gravitate towards these days.
Don't worry, I will come back, I have a lot of things to write, shall we sat next week? Okay great, see you then!
0 kommentarer