ELITE

 NETFLIX's ELITE reminds me of the best of the shows I used to watch during the US's incredible creative vacuum in TV shows from about 1978 to about 1993 or so. With so little of any value on, with some exceptions of course, I used to watch the Latino channels. Many of their shows were shocking, surprising, interesting, twisty turny, and creatively and visually appealing. Most were called novellas and had rising stars and lots of outdoor location shooting which looked beautiful. Many were filled with gangs, secret loves, romances, shootings, stabbings, West Side story plots, serial killers and more. Some even featured time travel, lots of vampires, magic kids, lost kids, car chases, vampire rival gangs fighting over a boy prince, boat trips and fires, machine gun warfare, warriors out of time, and even the son of the devil himself. Some were about a young girl's party where she finds her one true love. Sometimes former Menudo would appear but mostly actors I've never seen doing and acting with sincerity. ELITE season one and two are as good as these but perhaps, better, with a super clean antiseptic look but peopled with beautiful people in Spain in a private, elite school. One or the rich men did a dirty deal to cheaply build a school and it fell down, literally, sending kids all over. This is mostly about three of those kids going to one private school and their interactions with the elite students there. There are tons of surprises and secrets and a murder that focuses the entire story. I didn't see the revealing of the real killer in a million miles. In fact almost everyone has secrets from the start and those that do not have them by season two's middle.

This show tackles....well, first, let me say that those Novellas, then and now, never backed away from controversial things: violence, sex, same sex (in fact many Latino shows conquered same sex relationships, gay issues, single pregnant high schoolers, and the like, LONG before American TV made it a regular thing). THEY WEREN'T AFRIAD TO GO THERE. ELITE takes that a step further and is not afraid of showing anything! There is a threesome that evolves from the story and characters. There is a strict Muslim father who empowers over his kids, though they do love him so it's not a one dimensional set of characters. There is a bi sexual teen. There are locker room scenes and plenty of butt shots. There are wild parties and some throwing up (could have done without the puke) that often reminded me of the original and best UK SKINS. There's a mean girl and her sexy, drug addicted brother, the brother coming into it in season two. Almost all of them are likable, strange, weird, somewhat cliché, and different. The killer or killers are hard to figure out and a main character or two might just die. One character, Christian is the life of the show shall we say and they're not afraid to damage him, either. There are three shirtless boys in bed together. There is a shooting. A bike crash. And lots more.

ELITE is a sort of hidden gem, fashionable, flashy, creepy, and entertaining with lots of pretty people acting humorous at times but mostly deadly serious. The actors, plot, different settings, and intrigue make it difficult to stop watching. Everyone does a great job in this!

The third (and so far last season) is the last with this cast and it has one of the best resolutions to the murder mysteries and situations in the series and is THE BEST CONCLUSION to any series I've ever seen and any murder mystery/get out of jail free plot development. Amazing.