Elite, a much-talked-about Spanish teen drama, has been renewed for the fourth season this year. As announced in the month of February, a fifth season is on the plate with a few new faces and a much-twisted storyline.
The teen drama, which is set on the premises of a rich and exclusive Spanish private school, has received critical acclaim because of its brilliant storyline and outstanding ensemble cast.
The series can be put in several genres as it contains elements typical of a high school romance, a thriller, and a crime drama.
The story begins when three Spanish working-class teenagers Samuel, Christian and Nadia leave their collapsed old school for the sophisticated and expensive Las Encinas Academy, on a scholarship.
As they find it quite difficult to fit in due to their working-class background and constant taunting from their rich classmates Guzman, Lucrecia, Polo, Carla and Co., a lot of drama and romance ensue in the Academy culminating in a murder in the very first season.
The next seasons pretty much deal with the aftermath of the murder with new murders, accidents, romances taking place every now and then.
The series has received a bit of backlash for the portrayal of Nadia, a Palestinian-Spaniard who finds it quite difficult to fit in the school at the beginning due to her coming from a traditional Muslim home. But gradually she gets accustomed to the environment of the new place.
Many critics have found the very character to be quite stereotypical and islamophobic, as she has to discard her values to finally fit in and get liberated as per Western standards.
The explicit nature of the series has also been put under scrutiny by a lot of critics as the whole series includes plenty of R-rated scenes and therefore making it a bit inappropriate for many age groups.
However, the series is extremely progressive in nature and captures the realities of the upper-class circles of Spain accurately. The representation of a lot of marginalised communities has also been received in a positive light.
Elite is one of those binge-worthy shows which will make you jump immediately to the next episode due to the sheer curiosity generated by the ending of each episode.
It is also regarded as one of the two best-rated shows to come out of Spain, the other being 'Money Heist', which shares a lot of cast members with Elite.
Elite continues the recent trend of European TV shows taking Netflix by storm, and to say that it is well deserved would be an understatement.
