Élite: The Spanish Teen Drama That Never Plays It Safe

It started as a murder mystery at a wealthy Spanish school. Now, six seasons later, Élite remains one of Netflix's most unapologetically queer teen dramas. The show is streaming on Netflix globally. This week, renewed attention follows the platform's broader push to highlight its European originals catalog — and Élite keeps drawing new viewers in.

What Is Élite?

Élite premiered on Netflix on October 5, 2018. It was created by Carlos Montero and Darío Madrona. The show is set at Las Encinas, a fictional elite private school in Spain. Three working-class students win scholarships there. Wealth, ambition, and desire collide from episode one.

The ensemble cast has shifted over seasons. Early standouts include Miguel Herrán, Itzan Escamilla, Omar Ayuso, and Danna Paola. Later seasons introduced fresh faces like Valentina Zenere, André Lamoglia, and Ander Puig. The show is produced by Zeta Audiovisual for Netflix.

Season six dropped in October 2023. Netflix has confirmed a seventh season is in development. The series has run as a true anthology — characters cycle in and out, keeping the premise fresh without requiring prior knowledge.

What Works

Élite handles queer storylines with unusual confidence. Gay relationships are not treated as exceptional. They are simply part of the school's social fabric. Omar and Ander's relationship in the early seasons was praised widely for its honesty. It showed desire, jealousy, and real conflict — not just representation for its own sake.

The show also looks genuinely good. The production design is slick and deliberate. Glass walls, white marble, expensive clothes — everything signals privilege. Directors including Ramón Salazar and Jesús Font give the series a visual consistency that holds across seasons.

The format helps too. Episodes move fast. Each season runs eight episodes or fewer. The structure borrows from telenovela pacing — nothing lingers too long. That keeps the tension alive even when the plotting gets implausible.

Carlos Montero, who also wrote the novel the show is loosely based on, understood from the start that class was the real subject. The queer storylines work best when they intersect with economic pressure. Who gets to be openly gay? Who can afford to be?

What Works Less Well

The show has a recasting problem. Beloved characters leave and new ones arrive. By season five, some viewers felt the emotional investment had reset too many times. New characters can feel thinly written in their first season. There is less time to earn the drama.

The mystery plots also strain credibility. Las Encinas has seen more deaths than any fictional school has a right to. The show seems aware of this — later seasons lean harder into soap opera logic. That works if you commit to it. Not everyone does.

Some critics noted that the politics of class, sharp in season one, softened in later runs. The wealthy characters became more sympathetic over time. The critique of privilege blurred. IndieWire observed that the show occasionally sacrifices its sharper edges for spectacle.

If you want understated queer television, look elsewhere. Tip Toe: The British Queer Drama That Refuses to Look Away offers something quieter and more carefully observed.

Who Is This For?

Élite suits viewers who enjoy propulsive plotting, glamorous settings, and queer characters written without apology. It is not subtle. It is not aiming for subtlety. If you want messy, entertaining television with genuine representation built in, this delivers reliably.

For those new to queer series with more grounded emotional writing, Special: Ryan O'Connell's Brutally Funny Queer Comedy offers a very different register — smaller, funnier, more personal.

Élite is not perfect television. But it proved something important: a mainstream European teen drama could put queer relationships at its center and find a global audience. That still matters. Seven seasons in, it remains worth watching — especially from the beginning.