Episode Guide
Episode 1: The crew of the USS Discovery come into contact with an alien species that has never been seen before. Episode 2: The crew of the USS Discovery must figure out how to get back home after they are stranded on a strange planet. Episode 3: The crew of the USS Discovery comes into conflict with a powerful alien race. Episode 4: The crew of the USS Discovery comes into contact with a new and dangerous alien species. Episode 5: The crew of the USS Discovery comes into conflict with another alien race. Episode 6: The crew of the USS Discovery comes into contact with a powerful and dangerous alien species that threatens their way of life. Episode 7: The crew of the USS Discovery come into conflict with an old enemy from their home planet. Episode 8: The final episode of season one concludes with the return home for the USS Discovery ..
Netflix’s Elite is a teen drama sensation that draws inspiration from a whole host of other sources. There are elements of Riverdale, Gossip Girl, and 13 Reasons Why here, but unlike those shows, Elite fails to really inspire likability with its large cast. In doing so, much of the story plays out far more passively than it should. While there are some interesting thematic material here and some socially challenging questions around class and sexual diversity, Elite doesn’t do enough to carve its own place in this over-saturated genre. ..
As the detective begins his interviews, he quickly realizes that there are many suspects in this crime. He interviews a few of the teenagers and soon realizes that they could be the ones responsible for the murder. However, he is not sure who to believe and which of the teenagers could be innocent. The story quickly becomes a battle between the rich kids and the new arrivals as they try to figure out who did what and why.
Elite is a crime drama that focuses on the death of one character whose identity is revealed at the end of the first episode. The show has 8 episodes at around 50 minutes a piece, which makes it shorter than other foreign dramas and allows for more time to explore the characters and answer the most important question hanging over the show – who committed the murder?
As the episodes progress, the attention jumps around a lot more sporadically around the different groups of characters as the popular kids get an equal amount of screen time and their own character arcs. There’s just enough to see you through to the end but along the way expect plenty of sex, drama, arguments, blackmail and deception to keep the series consistently unpredictable through to the tantalizing finale and final scene of the last episode.
Elite’s exhaustive list of characters lets the show down from being as good as it could be. While there’s no denying a lot of them have a really good arc and interesting storylines, it’s also really difficult to empathise and get behind any of them. From arrogant and smug to shy and silently deceptive, almost all of the students have a dominating negative trait clouding their personality, keeping us at arm’s length rather than drawing us in. This helps bring an ever-rising level of drama to the table, but it also makes it nigh on impossible to get behind and really root for the characters. This is particularly a problem for Guzman, Nano and Christian who all have their own share of deeply personal problems that should be full of emotionally charged sympathy but instead, it just feels passively soap-opera to watch. ..
Elite is a teen drama that is only available on Netflix. It follows the lives of teenage girls in New York City. Those turned away from Gossip Girl and Riverdale should probably keep looking as Elite is unlikely to really fire up the imagination and stand out next to some of the biggest names in this genre. Despite a well paced and oftentimes surprising storyline, Elite falters when it comes to its characters that just don’t do enough to stand out and actually feel like people we’d like to root for and empathise with. It’s a shame too as there’s definitely potential here but Spanish Original Elite doesn’t do enough to keep us invested in the long term. Still, given the way the show ends it’ll be interesting to see if this gets snapped up by Netflix for a second season and with a bit more thought and empathy put into the characters, Netflix could be onto another teen hit, flaws and all.
