Show Title: Young Royals Audience Rating: Teen/Adult Warnings: bullying, hazing, homophobia, character death, drug use Length of Episodes: 45min Length of Series: 3 series of 6 eps each so far Why you recommend it:
Much more gritty than Heartstopper, this Swedish Netflix show follows Simon, one of the few non-noble and non-rich students at a Swedish boarding school. He falls in love with Wille, who is in line for the Swedish throne.
The two leads are both cute and good actors, and all the main characters look like teenagers, not twentysomething models. Their family situation is realistic - Wilhelm being in the public eye and constantly followed by bodyguards - and Simon having a very caring divorced mom and a sister he feels very protective about. The whole show is nicely multilingual, with one character speaking English, and Simon's mom speaking Spanish. Some of the characters (including Simon, of course) are multi-ethnic.
The secondary characters are relatively well developed and not too stereotypical. I found some of the scenes hard to watch, it's far from a happy show, but all the young actors do an amazing job, and it drew me in despite my preference for more fluffy things. I haven't seen seasons 2 and 3 yet, so I cannot speak to the ending.
Young Royals
Show Title: Young Royals
Audience Rating: Teen/Adult
Warnings: bullying, hazing, homophobia, character death, drug use
Length of Episodes: 45min
Length of Series: 3 series of 6 eps each so far
Why you recommend it:
Much more gritty than Heartstopper, this Swedish Netflix show follows Simon, one of the few non-noble and non-rich students at a Swedish boarding school. He falls in love with Wille, who is in line for the Swedish throne.
The two leads are both cute and good actors, and all the main characters look like teenagers, not twentysomething models. Their family situation is realistic - Wilhelm being in the public eye and constantly followed by bodyguards - and Simon having a very caring divorced mom and a sister he feels very protective about. The whole show is nicely multilingual, with one character speaking English, and Simon's mom speaking Spanish. Some of the characters (including Simon, of course) are multi-ethnic.
The secondary characters are relatively well developed and not too stereotypical. I found some of the scenes hard to watch, it's far from a happy show, but all the young actors do an amazing job, and it drew me in despite my preference for more fluffy things. I haven't seen seasons 2 and 3 yet, so I cannot speak to the ending.
I wrote a review for the first season here.