The hit Swedish television show, “Young Royals”, is back for its third and final season released March 11th, 2024. Popular European Actors, Edvin Ryding and Omar Rudberg, are the lead characters in the show. Young Royals gives a good look into the darker side of monarchy. The show originally came out in July of 2021. I remember watching the show for the first time and was completely enticed by it. The show’s premise is unique compared to other shows I have seen about monarchies. I think the show’s nods to the differences between the lower class and upper class are a refreshing look into this genre of shows.
Young Royals is dark, with the overall premise being the pressure of traditional expectations of the monarchy and the effect it has on Prince Wilhem’s relationship with lower-class citizen Simon. The love between them is much like a forbidden romance and season three is the final wrapping up on the scandal between their love. Simon is the pinnacle of the lower class being stubborn and standing up for who he is despite what the rest of the world has to say about him. Prince Wilhelm feels the pressure this season being tested not only to keep his composure around his cousin who in previous seasons harassed him but also to keep Simon ‘inline’ for the sake of the monarchy. A lot of the drama this season revolves around the arguments between Simon and Wilhelm and their differing personality traits and views on the overall opinion of the Crown and its people.
Throughout the season it seems their love grows stronger but you can see something just is not working. Episode five left on a cliffhanger with Simon mentioning how “he can’t do this anymore” and “love shouldn’t be this difficult” The whole season is built up to this moment and even though they are in love you could see the spotlight slowly draining Simon. This was a wake-up call for Wilhelm and you can see in the last episode something changes and he’s becoming more confident in who he is as a person.
The whole show overall was an enjoyable experience however there are some things I wish had happened. I think that this season they should’ve dug more into the prince’s anxiety that has been present throughout all three seasons. In this season you also see this anxiety appearing in his mom, the queen. While it’s not an important part of the storyline, I do think it plays into a lot of the decisions he makes. Showing it would have added some explanations on why he made the choices he originally did in the first two seasons. Another thing I would’ve added is a more in-depth look at Simon’s feelings, while he is known for not telling his emotions to others I think it would’ve deeply improved the overall arc of the story.
All in all, the cinematography was great and the way they filmed the final scene of the show felt like a resolute end. The soundtrack was good, though it felt like sometimes they were putting music just to put music in without a reason.
Nevertheless, The final season was equally as good as the first. From the drama between the boys and the crown to the actual love story. The show never seemed to get boring up to the very last minute of the episode. Young Royals was a great show that I would recommend to any person who is into teenage romance shows.
4/5 stars
