'Élite' Is the Best Teen Drama on TV Right Now

Teen dramas are usually a hit or a miss, but Netflix's international series Élite has smashed it out of the park. 

We fell in love with the series last year when the show wowed us with a shocking murder mystery and surprisingly queer storylines. In season one, we meet a group of teens at Las Encinas, an exclusive high school for some of Spain's richest students. Marina, a popular student who happens to be HIV+, is dead—and one of her classmates murdered her. From there, we dive headfirst into a world of conspiracy and secrets that builds to a thrilling finale that I, personally, talked about all year. 

The premise isn't exactly new for teen dramas. "Who killed the dead girl" immediately brings to mind Netflix's controversial American series 13 Reasons Why or classics like Veronica Mars and Pretty Little Liars. But Élite breathes new life into the genre with fresh takes on themes like anxiety, forbidden love, sexual fluidity, classism, and more while cranking up the drama and firing on all cylinders. HBO's dark teen-series Euphoria is the only other show even close to Élite's supreme level of excellence. 

Season two picks up right where the first left off: Nano is in jail for Marina's murder. Christian is torn up about his friend taking the fall when he knows who really killed him. Lu is desperate to stay together with Guzman before a new taboo love interest comes into the picture. Both Nadia and Omar have to decide what they want more: love or family. Carla is a lonely-yet-unbothered badass bitch who remains interested in her classmates' antics, even as Polo spirals into his anxiety. And with the help of some new characters, Samuel comes up with a plan to free his brother. 

Then one of our beloved characters goes missing. 

The result is a whirlwind of murderous intrigue, sexual fluidity and exploration, tense stares from across rooms, hit and runs, catfishing, love triangles, drunken bar fights, and incest—and through all of that, season two somehow manages to top Élite's stellar first. There were moments so tense that I had to pause my TV and walk around my room to take a second to breathe before I could continue.

I'll go on record and say it: Élite is the best teen drama on television right now. The other girls just aren't doing it like this.

So why aren't you watching yet? 

Élite Season 2 is on Netflix now. Be sure to catch up on Season 1 and watch the new trailer below!