Review: 'Elite'

Like many of the dramas that end up being buzzworthy binges, "Elite" is dropping onto Netflix Friday without a lot of warning. The streaming service didn't let many people see it ahead of time and as a result, even though the series is premiering globally at the same time, there's been a remarkable lack of pre-release coverage of the show. It's an approach that worked well for shows such as "13 Reasons Why" and given that "Elite" shares a lot of the same tones and twists, it probably makes sense to take a similar low-key marketing approach.

"Elite" focuses on an elite Spanish private school where three students from disadvantaged families were given scholarships. They're there because their former public school collapsed due to faulty construction and the scholarships were primarily an attempt at some positive PR. Of course, the three news students don't fit in and you'd be correct in assuming that part of the story is familiar to anyone who's ever watched an episode of "The OC" or "Pretty Little Liars."

But unlike those shows, the core of "Elite" focuses on the death of Marina (played by María Pedraza), a young rebellious student who is brutally murdered at the school's pool. The series begins with the discovery of her body and the eight episodes move back-and-forth between the present day questioning of other students by the police and the events leading up to her death. Each episode focuses on the story of another student and as the series unfolds, each of the conflicting stories begins to come together in time for the identity of the murderer to be revealed in the final few minutes of the season.

"Elite" is ambitious as it recounts the many reasons why people want to kill Marina and the myriad of personal challenges faced by these students who are being raised to one day rule the world. Could it be the racist and misogynistic Guzman (Miguel Bernardeau)? Or is it Nano (Jaime Lorente), whose forbidden love nearly costs him everything? There are a number of likely suspects and each one is written with care and complexity. But while the early episodes deal with everything from class resentment to an unwanted pregnancy to blackmail and social exclusion, the later episodes toss most of that aside in order to fit in the murder mystery and the eventual cynical resolution of the crime. You don't often hear critics argue a Netflix series needed more time to tell the story, but in this case, a bit more breathing room for the characters would have been welcomed.

But in the end, the cynicism is the thing I liked least about "Elite." The show paints a picture of teens comfortably living in a cynical, jaded world where they don't just feel entitled. They just expect to run things because they can't conceive of any other outcome. A lot of viewers might be fascinated by that world but when it was over I felt more empty inside than entertained.

Maybe it's just a reflection of the time we're living in, but the story of elites who get to write their own rules isn't a world I necessary want to experience again. It's a well-crafted show, with some stunning photography and it's a fascinating look at one segment of Spanish society.