Television series

Young Royals

A Swedish Netflix drama about a closeted prince shipped off to an elite boarding school, where he falls for a scholarship boy from the wrong side of the tracks. It's slower and sadder than the premise suggests — less palace intrigue, more suffocating expectation, class shame, and the particular loneliness of being watched constantly. Gorgeous to look at, quietly devastating to sit with.

TVMaze rating7.6

If you liked this

Heartstopper2022

British counterpart in gentleness — same ache of hiding who you love, but sunnier, kinder, and confident nobody needs to suffer to make the romance mean something.

But If you want darkness and consequence, this will feel almost too soft and uncomplicated.

Heartstopper poster

Élite2018

Same private-school pressure cooker of money, secrets and class resentment, dialed up into soapy thriller territory with murder mysteries layered over the romantic tangles.

But Loses the delicacy — this trades emotional restraint for melodrama and body count.

Élite poster

SKAM2015

The Scandinavian original that basically invented this whole mode: naturalistic teen ensemble drama, told in real time, that treats adolescent feeling as seriously as any adult story.

But Low-budget and unpolished, originally released in awkward real-time clips online — a very different viewing experience.

SKAM poster

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Maurice1987

Young Royals is basically Maurice with a Netflix budget and a phone camera: a well-born young man falls for someone below his class at an elite English institution and has to choose between the life he's handed and the one he wants.

The film that did this story first, decades before it was fashionable — Merchant Ivory's lush, aching adaptation of E.M. Forster's novel about class, repression and a love with nowhere sanctioned to go.

But Stately period pacing and 1987 filmmaking rhythms — patient viewers only, nothing here moves at Netflix speed.

Maurice poster
More like this (8)

Sex Education2019

British sixth-form comedy-drama that shares the earnestness about identity and desire, but wraps it in warmth, absurdity, and a genuinely huge ensemble of misfits.

But Broader and funnier throughout — if you want Young Royals' hush and restraint, this is louder and messier.

Sex Education poster

Normal People2020

Another quiet, aching story of two people from different worlds who can't quite let each other go, told with the same unshowy intimacy and long silences.

But No royalty, no institution, no secrecy plot — just two people, which some will find too spare.

Normal People poster

The Crown2016

For the institutional side of the equation: duty crushing desire, a family that treats feeling as a liability, and the particular prison of being born into an audience.

But Much older, slower, and grander in scale — this is prestige history, not intimate teen romance.

The Crown poster

Call Me by Your Name2017

The film that captures the same summer-fever, first-love intensity — sun-drenched, physical, and unbearably tender about wanting someone you're not supposed to.

But It's a film, not a series, so you lose the slow-build ensemble world Young Royals builds over seasons.

Call Me by Your Name poster

Please Like Me2013

Australian comedy-drama that treats coming out and family fallout with the same mix of humor and real sadness, following a young man figuring himself out.

But Older, scrappier, and more episodic — less swoon, more shrug-and-laugh about disaster.

Please Like Me poster

Atypical2017

Lighter family-and-school dramedy about identity and difference, worth it if you want the coming-of-age warmth without the aristocratic weight bearing down on everything.

But Considerably fluffier and more sitcom-adjacent — the stakes here are domestic, not dynastic.

Atypical poster

The Talented Mr. Ripley1999

Swap romance for menace and you get the same engine: someone who doesn't belong performing belonging inside a beautiful, moneyed world, with a queer undercurrent of wanting both the man and his life.

A gorgeous, sun-drenched thriller about class envy and identity theft among the idle rich, with Jude Law radiating exactly the kind of golden privilege Wilhelm was born into.

But This is a thriller with a body count, not a romance — the tenderness of Young Royals curdles here into obsession and violence.

The Talented Mr. Ripley poster

Gossip Girl2007

Same ingredients — elite institution, class anxiety, secrets that could ruin someone's whole future — thrown into a blender with none of the restraint and all of the camp.

If you want the trashy, gleeful version: private-school scandal, narrated gossip, and privileged teenagers destroying each other over status, with zero of the melancholy.

But It has none of the emotional seriousness or believability — pure soap, and proud of it.

Gossip Girl poster

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