BLISS RATING: ★+
“His life and his situation is what it is. But love…shouldn’t be this hard. Especially when you are this young.” – Quote from Young Royals: Season 3
No truer words are spoken than those above in this quixotic series. I am honestly not sure why this season was crafted together. It did little to advance the relationship between commoner Simon (Omar Rudberg) and eventual king, Wilhelm (Edvin Ryding). Wilhelm continues to walk around like he has the weight of the world on his shoulders, while Simon continues to act as if he truly does not grasp the magnitude of being in a relationship with a future king of a country. They are both the product of the stupidness and innocence of youth. About the only thing that they are truly reacting to with any real genuineness is the raging hormones that are going on and in their bodies.
Perhaps I am in a minority here, but I am simply not enamored with this series at all. Sure, the first one was interesting but then it went nowhere afterwards. Frankly, it went where it should not have. It veered off into ugly and dark corners. Moreso, it left the impression that children of aristocratic families are extravagant, spoiled, pampered, shallow hedonists that lack ethical and moral compasses. I refuse to believe that is the case. That is just too much of a sweeping generalization.
Summarily, Wilhelm and Simon try again to salvage their relationship after the fiasco of the exposed sex tape leak from none other than from the infamous and dastardly August (Malte Gardinger). Of course, who paid a heavier price for her involvement in all of this was Simon’s sister Sara (Frida Argento). Both make amends, however. When August shares something about his older brother that forces Wilhelm to put the whole picture into perspective, he now begins to understand what made August do the things he did. He also begins to see his brother was not so perfect after all. Sara of course was also contrite and, in the end, optimized the expression the ‘better angels of our nature’ by shining a new light on herself and quietly worked towards making amends with integrity and veracity.
This season spent so much unnecessary time on completely unnecessary storylines that contributed little to anything to the advancement of Wilhem and Simon’s ‘love’ or even their relationship. That is the component of this series that frustrated me the most – all the potential that was wasted in not showing what a great love story that could have been between Wilhelm and Simon. Who cares about the school? Who cares about their silly sit-down strike? Why the need to have so much emphasis on overindulgent and overblown partying? Why spend so much time on the Queen’s mental breakdown when all we care about was Wilhelm and Simon? All of that was diversions. It became contrived roadblocks to any serious advancement between Wilhelm and Simon.
Why was the story so afraid to advance a gay story among a royal and a commoner? Why did Wilhelm lack the courage to really fight to become the first gay king of Sweden? Why, for example, could he not have shown Simon the ropes in trying to prepare him to become his partner when he takes over as King? Instead, the story goes off in the direction of King Edward VIII of England, giving up the throne for ‘the man he loves’. What planet are we on? What Century are we in? That might have been a magnanimous gesture in the 1930’s but shows a complete sign of implacability on the part of both Wilhelm and Simon.
Also does anyone seriously think one can so easily give up the throne by someone underage merely by running out of a car? Do you think it would be that easy and simple for a child on his own to give up the throne? One word answer – NO! That is ridiculous thinking and actually cheapened the relationship between Wilhelm and Simon by making them both look like they are impetuous.
One thing this series did do right was it showed upfront the dirty little secrets that the royals have and the aristocrats harbor between and among themselves that is ugly and is used as a checks-and-balance. Oh, the machination is fascinating and a thing of beauty to watch. August is a prima-facie of that kind of intrigue and had learned at an early age to use it not only for his advantage but to also survive. That is the kind of story that would have been utterly fascinating to watch with Simon.
Would he or could he have bent to that kind of intrigue rather than take a story off into all the cliché storylines and silly plots it went into. Instead of going deep, the story chose to stay superficial and shallow. We really learned nothing about Wilhem and Simon except that they are an adorably cute couple.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. this series? So, who did we learn about? Sara. No question. While the rest wallowed in their own worlds feeling sorry for themselves, Sara actually did something about it. She realized that her behavior was despicable and removed herself from the home to give herself and her brother both time to distance themselves from each other. She, with the surprising help from her dead-beat father, counseled her to put things in perspective. From someone who is a loser himself, he gave her an honest reality check about her life. Frida Argento as Sara plays this character with a dignified quietness begging for forgiveness with her eyes, but never groveling for it. She does it more so with her presence in returning to school and proving herself worthy to be there and saying sorry by her actions. Finally, they came around to her rather than her coming around to them. It is a remarkable performance of subtlety and quiet strength and change in a character who was generally unlikable before to one becoming someone who learned a great deal from the fiasco she was involved in. She learned from her mistakes, took responsibility, grew from them, became an adult, and moved on while the others seemed more-or-less happy wallowing around feeling sorry for themselves. Even when there is a hint of growth, it never fully internalizes into a real strength for them. Perhaps to some degree, an Honorable Mention should be given to Malte Gardinger as August. He too showed some real growth in this season, even to the point that he seemed to have internal some of the lesson learned into making real changes in his behaviors and personality. Perhaps for the first time, he learned real responsibility, a tiny bit of humility, and maybe ate some humble pie in the process. At least he might be on his way to becoming a part of the human race after all.
This series landed like a thud. It seemed, at least to me, lifeless, and gave us nothing we did not know before about Wilhelm and Simon. They are adolescent boys, still act like adolescent boys in heat. Neither one understands what living or life is all about but pretending that they do with both sets of parents overindulging them into thinking that they do. Nothing in this series is honestly real – at least for most people. Most of us have not attended boarding schools, dated a future king, drank ourselves into oblivion whenever we wanted to, or got driven us off to a palace for a birthday party. As a fantasy, this might work. As an honest story, it felt completely unrealistic and just plain silly.
I was very, very disappointed in this season. Overall, the acting is good, but I am sorry to say, not memorable. It is obvious that Omar and Edvin have a special bond and when they are together, it shows. Omar is the stronger of the two in acting when it comes to his scenes alone. His range was much more diverse and deeper.
I do also appreciate the efforts of Omar and Edvin to show that relationships between two individuals of the same sex can be and is universal and can occur no matter what the status is in your life. Its reach has nothing to do with artificial barriers of status or societal standing. I just wish the story would have been more honest and real and involved only the two of them.
It started out that way but ended up too theatrical with no serious message to be learned. Too bad. I wanted it to be only about Wilhelm and Simon.
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