On Oct.5 Netflix’s “Elite” brought an exceptional breath of fresh air in teen and young adult dramas with a murder mystery series also dealing with topics that included discrimination of the working class, HIV, homophobia, and Islamophobia.
The plot is set on a prestigious private school, Las Encinas, in Spain where three newly enrolled students from working class backgrounds, are thrown into the theatrical lives of the country’s most privileged teens.
As tensions rise up between the students, it leads to a murder mystery of one of their classmates.
The series explores serious topics with the characters on how they overcome the difficulties of social classes colliding throughout the whole season.
One topic that stood out the most throughout the season, was how the series explores Islamophobia in Europe.
“Elite” highlights this with one of its main characters about the current real-life challenges that Muslims face in today’s European society.
Among them is a intellectually ambitious Muslim-Palestinian girl, Nadia, played by Mina El-Hammani, who is heavily discriminated by her school peers based on her religion and background.
El-Hammani’s character reflected on the bias and discrimination towards Muslims integrating into European society affects the current political climate that is currently occurring.
Another topic that stood out was the discrimination of the working class and the prejudice towards it.
“Elite” perfectly demonstrated how the wealthy and the lower classes clash and bump with each other towards the status quo.
The series knew how to highlight the social and economic inequality in Europe which is also the case globally.
The show has been compared to shows such as “Gossip Girl,” “Pretty Little Liars,” “How to Get Away With Murder” and “Riverdale.”
Netflix brought something fresh to the table and followed the trend of mixing dark and teen soap dramas, along with including the Spanish language market.
“Elite” is Netflix’s second Spanish original series, following “Cable Girls,” which dropped in 2017.
So watch out “Riverdale,” Las Encinas is taking over with this new murder mystery.
