"We’re trying to tell this story as true as possible.If you were pushed to sum Young Royals up in just one sentence, you might say that it's Heartstopper meets The Crown with a bit of Skam's Scandinavian angst thrown in for good measure. And that would be pretty accurate.
Young Royals is a gay teen love story, after all, and the Crown's machinations regularly impede that love, echoing the real-life problems British royals like Princess Margaret face in Netflix's other royal show.
Omar Rudberg, who plays Simon, has even told Gay Times how much he'd love to see a Young Royals/Heartstopper crossover, an idea he describes as "f**king iconic" and "amazing".And that's true as well. Because it really would be "f**king iconic" to see the two shows connect. We're sure Simon and Wilhelm could learn a lot from how Nick and Charlie navigated their own love story in Heartstopper season one.
But Young Royals is very much its own beast still, and not just because it predates Heartstopper by a year (on screen, at least). Like Skam, Young Royals feels painfully real at times, capturing all the drama and awkwardness that sums up everyday life as a teenager.
That's pretty remarkable for a show that revolves around Sweden's Crown Prince and the struggles he faces at an extremely posh boarding school. In the wrong hands, Young Royals could have felt far more elitist and removed from real life than it actually is.Instead, we have a show that's perhaps even more relatable than Heartstopper — which is already very relatable — thanks largely to its more mature and realistic approach to teen sex.
That's not to say Heartstopper's innocent approach to love is a bad thing. For many, that show is actually very typical of teen experiences in the UK, worlds removed from the drug-addled horniness of shows like Euphoria. But said horniness does exist too, and Young Royals impressively straddles that fine line between these two extremes with what looks like ease.
Season one set that initial tone with awkward fumbles and cute little moments that feel like they were ripped straight out of someone's diary. Where else would you see teenagers joke about each other's morning breath or turn up the volume on their game so their parents can't hear them have sex?
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