Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Young Royals’ Season 2 On Netflix, Where A New Semester Begins At An Upper-Crust Swedish Boarding School

Season 1 of Young Royals was immensely popular for Netflix, because it took the recent trend of “teens getting away with things” genre and deepened its story. Wilhelm, crown prince of Sweden, just wants to live life his way, including being with Simon, who is a) a boy and b) as far from Sweden’s elite as a person can get. After lots of revelations in Season 1, what does Season 2 have to offer?

YOUNG ROYALS SEASON 2: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Wilhelm (Edvin Ryding) and Simon (Omar Rudberg) being intimate with each other. Then we cut to Wilhelm alone, waking up in his room at the royal residence in Stockholm.

The Gist: During the holiday break between semesters at the Hillerska school, Wilhelm is busy ignoring texts from his cousin August (Malte Gårdinger); the two of them had a falling out after he found out that August leaked a video of him and Simon. But he’s also hurting over the fact that he told Simon about his feelings and Simon didn’t reciprocate them. He decides that he’s going to spend the semester taking every opportunity to embarrass August he can find.

Simon is still living at home with his mother Linda (Carmen Gloria Pérez), but his sister Sara (Frida Argento) has gotten accepted to live at Manor House on the school’s campus. She’s given a ride home from the stables by a boy named Marcus (Tommy Wättring), who finds Simon singing in his room, and there’s an immediate mutual attraction; Marcus invites Simon to karaoke night at the local pub.

On Sara’s first night at Manor House, the other residents, including Felice (Nikita Uggla), give her an initiation challenge: Bring the seniors’ first-night party to a halt. When Simon’s mother can’t get in touch with Sara, Simon sets out to find her, with Marcus the only one who can drive him to campus. Wilhelm is also trying to disrupt the party by bringing his underclassmen buddies; he pulls rank on August and makes his way in, forcing his cousin to call him “Your Royal Highness.”

But Wille also wants to rekindle things with Simon; Simon is so hurt by the video being leaked, though, that he just isn’t ready to get back with the Crown Prince. Wille knows, though, that telling Simon that August leaked the video would ripple through the school and the royal family. August is convinced that Sara is the one who told Wille about where the video came from, but she tries to reassure him that she wasn’t the snitch.

Wille also is taken by surprise when he finds out he’s giving a speech at the school’s anniversary jubilee, leading to an angry phone call with his mother Queen Kristina (Pernilla August), where he decides to renounce all of his royal duties.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Young Royals continues to give off the vibes of a class-based YA drama like Elite crossed with shows like Euphoria.

Our Take: We had a feeling that, after watching the first season of Young Royals, that its story would go a bit beyond the usual “rich high school kids doing rich high school kid things” trope, because of the attraction Wille had for Simon. That attraction, along with a burgeoning rivalry with August, drove most of the story in the first season, and it’s gone to a new level in the second.

Creators Lisa Ambjörn and Lars Beckung have done a good job at raising the stakes in Season 2, giving Wille more of an impetus to want to live his own life and not the life his mother or her advisors want him to live. He can’t love who he wants to love, while at the same time he feels that August can’t really get what he deserves because the royal family protects its own. So he’s decided to make August’s life miserable — he convinces the group that the underclassmen can get their lunch before the seniors, for instance, something that’s unprecedented — while essentially telling his mother to go eff herself and her protocol.

There is certainly a love triangle developing between Wille, Simon and Marcus, and Sara still wants to be in August’s romantic life. But the relationships are only part of the story, and it’s also not all about these overprivileged teens getting away with things away from their parents. It’s about how Wille struggles with his royal responsibilities while trying to build a life he wants and love who he wants to love. That is where the show separates itself from the YA pack.

Sex and Skin: None in the first episode besides Wille thinking back to being intimate with Simon. But there will likely be more as the season goes along.

Parting Shot: After telling his mom and her advisors that he doesn’t want to be crown prince anymore, a shaken and angry Wille screams into his pillow.

Sleeper Star: We continue to like Frida Argento as Sara, because she knows she’s not like everyone else at the school, but it doesn’t stop her from pursuing friends and popularity.

Most Pilot-y Line: There’s a segment where Sara has to transfer money between accounts in order to pay for coffee for her and her new Manor House friends. The graphics of the transfer are showed on screen. What we don’t get is that this isn’t Sara’s first year at the school; don’t Felice and the others know she’s not made of money like they are?

Our Call: STREAM IT. Young Royals proved to be a hit for Netflix because of the whole “teens being teens” thing, but there’s certainly something deeper behind all of the teen drinking and sex. Wille’s desire to live his own life is even stronger in Season 2 and it’s what drives the show to be more than the typical YA fare.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.