Why You Should: Elite

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Some of y'all are going to be mad at me, but it must be said: Elite is the best teen drama to come out in the last 5 years and none of the other girlies even come close. Literally no one is touching Elite not sleepy Riverdale, not "this doesn't need to exist" Degrassi Next Class, NOT DUSTY 13 REASONS WHY, and on the lowest of keys, not even Euphoria. It's just that good. Now, a lot of y'all who are reading this are probably asking yourselves:

"Damn, why is she gassing this random ass show? Isn't it not even in English? She has to read subtitles on a show that isn't an anime and she's STILL gassing it? Yiketh."

And to that I say:

"Stop hating and just watch the show. CLEARLY there is a reason I'm going so hard for it!"

The reason being that Elite is the only teen show in recent years that understands fully what it is. It's isn't trying to start any conversations acting like a school assembly and it isn't trying to be over the top stylistic in it's portrayal of what is LITERALLY, just a normal high school. It is a show in which a teen girl is murdered and all of her classmates are suspects and it TELLS THAT STORY. The writers don't dwell on fluff and they don't take shortcuts, which is more than I can say for most of the other shows in this genre. There is also a heavy emphasis on not only character building but motive building based on the characters and who we've come to know them to be. By the end of the season, right before they reveal who the killer is, EVERY SINGLE MAIN CHARACTER has equal motive to have committed the murder and you could feasibly believe that everyone is capable of murder. No other show that kills off a character and places the others as suspects has been able to do that in a convincing way. And the reveal of the actual killer... girl, when I tell you I audibly gasped it was INSANE and the ending of the season left me on the edge of my seat and begging for season 2. Plus, you really grow to care about all of the characters in such a short amount of time and that's also a testament to the writing. Especially my girl Nadia but let me stop because I could write an entire piece about Nadia.

The point is, Elite takes what is a basic and overdone premise and breathes life into it. Brings it into our time without the weird condescension and misunderstanding we've seen from other shows about "teens today". It also manages to do that while maintaining the character development, stakes, and unpredictability that shows now need to be considered good and that's impressive so stop sleeping on Elite. Season 2 comes out September 6 on Netflix and it's worth your weekend to spend watching it!

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