BLISS RATING: ★★+
“I don’t want to be anyone’s secret.” – Simon from The Young Royals
This BL is the continuing love saga between Simon played so effectively by Omar Rudberg and Wilhelm, played adroitly by Edvin Ryding. Wilhelm is the Crown Prince and the next in line for the Swedish throne while Simon is a salt-of-the-earth local who has managed through tenacity and hard-work to become a successful student at the academy with the added advantage of being a very good singer. Yet they are from two different worlds. Simon, not understanding the workings of the Royal Family, while Wilhelm, not appreciating the complexities and difficulties of living a life under ordinary means. But the one construct throughout these two series that was the constant was the love that they shared for each other. Unfortunately, that got muddled in Season 2.
While I loved Season One, I found this series to be a bore and a bit insufferable to watch. It did nothing to enhance or even move along their love story from Season 1. In fact, I had a hard time finishing this series as it seemed so directionless – until the end, where it was forced to make sense. Outside of the first and last episodes, everything in between was disinteresting and completely unnecessary.
To be sure, what Wilhelm did to Simon in the end of Season One was inexcusable, although understandable from a ‘saving face’ perspective. And Simon’s hesitancy in trusting Wilhelm and therefore needing to protect himself from being hurt further was justified. Coupled with their lack of maturity and never facing life’s low moments with any perspective of experience, naturally excluded them from sitting down with each other and talking about what had happened. Instead, both wanted to pout. With Wilhelm looking constantly like a lost soul, manifested in a forlorn look of despair that consumed his body, seemed overdone and repetitive, since it was so pervasive. His vindictive approach to getting even with August, while understandable, seemed uncharacteristic of Wilhelm and heavy-handed. Simon and Wilhelm both played the roles of two ships passing through the night. Each seeing the other but only interacting with each other in a transitory and incidental nature.
Simon superficially attempts to develop a relationship with a local named Marcus (Tommy Wattring). Marcus is a sweet, gentle, understanding individual who is patient with Simon and undoubtedly knows that he is ‘second fiddle’ to Wilhelm. He tries mightily to get Simon to see him as a viable alternative to Wilhelm. Marcus has fallen for Simon, and he hopes that someday Simon will see him in the same fashion. Eventually, Simon must face the truth and reality – he remains steadily and deeply in love with Wilhelm. While not wanting to hurt or mislead Marcus, he does. Marcus was a diversion and Simon had to come to grips with that and realize what he was doing was wrong. With Simon knowingly using him, that all seemed so feigned. A trait that seemed contradictory to who he was or purported to be.
So, we do get to see the uglier sides of both Simon and Wilhelm.
This season the relationship between Sara (Frida Argento), Simon’s sister and August (Malte Gardinger), Wilhelm’s cousin, and next in line should Wilhelm faulter, amplified Sara’s naiveté. Her blinding love for him influences Sara to betray her brother and cause irreparable and almost unforgiveable pain for Simon and her best friend. She thinks August will do the right thing as promised but true to form, he succumbs to the axiom that the ‘Royal Family’ must be protected and therefore any actions to do so are justified.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. this series? There really is only one choice for this distinction and that is Malte Gardinger as August. He is such a deliciously complex individual who continues to confound those around him. Part of him wants to do ‘good’, but he has been so conditioned to prioritize loyalty to the royal family over every other principle and standard, that he is unable to change. August is desperate and hungry for attention and will do almost anything to get it. Most importantly, he has learned to use people who are vulnerable and pounce on any apparent opportunity to make inroads into feeling important. Being second fiddle is to be unseen, unheard, and most painfully unimportant. That is not where he wants to be. August is smart, manipulative, and calculating yet so incredibly fragile. Perhaps initially wanting to merely use Sara for his own pleasure, he seemingly does fall in ‘love’ with her in his own way of defining love. However, she, too late, realizes his manipulative abilities and escapes to try and correct the mistakes she made.
Unfortunately, this story simply meandered too much. Wilhelm acted like a petulant child who is wounded, pensive, and an unhappy introvert and certainly does not look like he is capable of handling any crisis. Simon, on the other hand, takes a ‘holier-than-thou-attitude’, always thinking he is in the right and not being able to analyze or look at other perspectives. Between the first and last episode, there was this constant and continuous bantering about, each feeling sorry for themselves. That all was getting very tiresome. The only person who showed any type of development was August. He became interesting to watch. The magic that Simon and Wilhelm had was missing here. To be honest, I did not care about any of the other characters in this series. There were moments for each of them to be sure, but only when they enhanced and moved the story of Wilhelm and Simon along.
It was only in the last episode that we began to see the sparkle between the two rekindled and solidify again, and that was fleetingly at best. Finally, some growth as Simon began to realize for this to work, he had to see the situation from Wilhelm’s perspective. And now he was willing and able to be his secret boyfriend for the next two years until he reached the age of 18. This became a significant growth step not just for Simon but also for their relationship.
At the end when Wilhelm mustered up the courage to give the speech, he stated that he is the one who released the video, thus going on record of admitting the relationship. Much to the consternation of the Royal Family.
I know that I am in a minority here with not particularly thinking this was well acted, well written or well produced. For me it was as if they threw this together and belabored the inevitability of their reconciliation. None of these characters became alive until the end, except for August. This really was his story as he is the only one that we got to see what made him tick and how he had the fortitude to focus on his future goals and how to get there. The rest were all simply wrapped up with preserving their own status quo.
I thought this series was rather juvenile and did little to make this love story about two young men graspable with a heading that was focused. Sure, it made sense at the end, but for me, any series that waits until the last episode to tie up all loose ends misses the point to a story, especially about love. We should see it throughout; I just saw a bunch of uninteresting teenagers (most of them privileged and pampered), simply being a bunch of uninteresting teenagers. I wanted to see more from this series that left us with some deeper reflections and greater moments of discovery rather than the superficiality of a boring mundane story of privileged whiny children.
I was disappointed and frankly this was not worth the watch.
Leave a Reply