Perhaps the best and most credible h.s. drama since FNL: Elite

The 8-part Netflix series Elite (2018) has gotten little attention so far - perhaps because it's in Spanish and easily confused w/ a Telanovela - but in my view it's a series well worth watching for a # of reasons: Excellent narrative line w/ many strands that intersect intelligently and surprisingly, fine acting by a young cast (all of the principals are student in an "elite" high school in, I think, Madrid), a mystery and a murder investigation revealed in the first scene and carried through till the conclusion but that never dominates the plot, which is really about the students and their complex inter-relations; a high-school drama that is both sympathetic and highly credible (the only comparable piece I can recall would be the great Friday Night Lights). Yes, maybe there's a touch of melodrama and yes it's a litle hard in the first few episodes to keep the many characters and their back stories straight and yes the cross-cultural crushes and relationships are not always totally believable - a fact that the characters recognize themselves and joke about, calling these cross-class relationship "Disney" - but there's a lot of veracity throughout and it will hold your interest and attention top to bottom. In brief, the story line is that 3 kids from an impoverished public h.s. win scholarships to attend the elite school and their doing so and their falling in love with kids already in the school creates waves of social pressure and reaction.Among issues touched upon include homosexuality, Muslim fundamentalism, political corruption, grade-grubbing, and more, all done without didacticism and as part of character development. All told, though Madrono and Montero have come up with a really good series w/ a lot of insight into many social issues - in all cultures today - and it seems definitely headed to a Season 2 (and who knows?, an English-language remake, that would probably ruin the whole thing?).