Caution: Spoilers for seasons 1 and 2 of Elite. 

This past Friday, Netflix released the second season of one of its’ popular shows, Elite. The first season of Elite revolves around the lives of a group of high school kids from Las Encinas, a prestigious school in Spain. Along with delving into their lives, season one also has a murder mystery plot. The end of season one left us with Nano, the brother of the main character Samuel, being arrested for the murder of his lover, Marina. Season one left the audience with a cohesive plotline (albeit, an unsatisfactory ending), making it a hard act to follow.

The audience knows that it was actually Polo, who murdered Marina in a fit of rage in order to get back a watch that contained incriminating evidence of Carla’s father. Season two leaves us with the dramatic irony of the ending of season one, and brings in new faces to rock the world of Las Encinas.

Elite keeps you on the edge of your seat by developing each character’s mysterious background in a strategic way. Each plot point helps you better understand and better connect with each person, creating a soft-spot even for antagonists.

The series develops characters with not only their school lives, but also the way they portray themselves on social media. When we first meet Cayetana, she comes off as just another popular girl with a seemingly perfect life; however, the show quickly reveals that everything is a lie. In reality, she does not live the lavish life seen on social media, but instead, she is the daughter of a school janitor. Her story is a cautionary tale of the lengths people will go to in order to appear more captivating, and the hard consequences that come with trying to depict a falsified perfect life.

Thanks to the series’ clever use of social media in its characterization, there are major twists that each season brings its viewers. I applaud Elite’s clever timeline, as it keeps every mystery hidden between characters, but lets the audience in on secrets that characters slowly come to know.

As much as there are good things, season two also comes with a few things I don’t like.       

I thought I had gotten to know the characters in season one fairly well and was excited to see them develop further in season two, but as the second season progressed, I found myself questioning if certain actions were true to the original vision Elite had of those characters. The character development in season one is almost forgotten in certain characters in season two. 

Overall, the second season was well-done, but as it goes, not as good as the first. It kept me wanting to hit the next button to start a new episode, and I can’t wait to see what season three potentially has in store.