School’s back in session on Elite, but it’s not as fun this time
I enjoyed the first two seasons of Elite quite a bit, but I think you have to admit that stretching out one murder plot for three years is a bit of a reach. And creators Carlos Montera and Dario Madrona apparently know this as well, which is why the show is now jettisoning its main cast and coming back for Season 4 with a brand new one (ala Skins, which had to have been one of this series’ biggest inspirations), but I think they probably missed the boat by a season. As it is, this final one with the original cast feels like it’s going in circles, and with no satisfying conclusions by the end of it.
We pick up with our outed murderer Polo back at school after having had the evidence disposed of by his cunning new paramour Cayetana (who remains the show’s worst addition from last year), and the rest of the group pretty much hating his guts and/or scheming to do away with him, with yet another new death serving as the show’s flashback premise, which took place on graduation night. This time around though, plots start getting recycled, which is always a bad sign. Even with Polo himself, who literally relives his threesome storyline from the first season, this time with Cayetana and Valerio. In other pairings, more new characters are introduced, as ice goddess Carla gets stuck in a horrid storyline with her father pimping her out to new guy Yeray, while Samuel uses and double-crosses the faux tough girl Rebeka even though he remains hung up on Carla for some reason, in an ongoing carryover from last year, though the two never had an ounce of chemistry and was the show’s least interesting pairing by far.
The show could never decide what it wanted to do with Guzman and Nadia
Guzman of course is still obsessed with making Polo pay for his crime and avenging his sister, but it stunts his ability to develop as a character on his own, while he and Nadia remain star-crossed til the end. And poor Ander gets the obligatory terminal illness that always strikes one major character on a soap eventually, causing more problems for him and Omar, but the issues with these two are so repetitive now that it makes you question whether they’re stuck in a time loop. Ultimately, the show spins its wheels until the highly unsatisfying conclusion to the mystery posed in the premiere gets revealed, and the result is so baffling and makes everyone so hypocritical in their choices that it renders the entire season redundant and pointless. And yet…even with all these irritations there’s something about the pace and tone and all around slickness of Elite that keeps it highly watchable, because you don’t start asking yourself these questions until the episodes are over, which are some light points in its favor. Still, a disappointment in the end, but perhaps a new cast can rejuvenate the series, as it tended to do on Skins. I’ll keep checking in.
Grade: C
More fighting in the hallways
