Elite Season 5 Review: The New Season of Elite Has A Merry-Go-Round Complex But Still Interesting
Stars: Itzan Escamilla, María Pedraza, Ester Expósito, Miguel Herrán, Jaime Lorente and Other
Director: Dani de la Orden
Streaming Platform: Netflix (click to watch)
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 3/5 (three star) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
Elite Season 5 finally arrived Las Encinas school reopens its doors on Netflix. A new season, a new course, new students, but everything remains the same. Since it was released in 2018, Elite has managed to maintain interest in its stories without the need to change anything or evolve, simply repeating the same formula repeatedly: a mysterious death, glamorous and wild parties, class struggle, love teen and high doses of sex and nudity. The fifth season of the series, which premieres on April 8 on Netflix, returns with the same ingredients as always. Some of those ingredients that you repeat later, but you can’t stop savoring them out of sheer gluttony. A full-fledged guilty pleasure that continues to offer what is expected: good marrachismo.
Eight new episodes make up the fifth season of Elite, by far the most difficult to justify due to its scant plot and recurrence of the problems of the previous ones. The series insists on repeating the formula of posing a mystery that breaks off in the final moments of the episodes, filling the rest of the time with bacchanals that are like “posh carnival parties.” We do not say it, it is said by one of the new characters that lands in this new season in the “mother series”, although he had already debuted in one of those “short stories“.
Elite Season 5 Review: The Story
Elite Season 5 continues to develop the story that was left halfway through at the end of the fourth. In other words, there will be consequences for what Guzmán, Samuel and Rebe did. After the terrible New Year’s Eve party, the secret of Armando’s death will threaten the stability of those involved. Rebeca will be in the middle of a self-discovery phase, while Omar will try to overcome Ander’s absence by having regular sexual encounters with Patrick, without further pretensions, until a new student arrives who steals his attention.
At the institute Phillipe will respond to the accusation of sexual abuse, Benjamín will try to maintain control of the center by straining the relationship with the students by imposing increasingly restrictive measures, Mencia will be in the spotlight for her past with Armando and the cocktail will be shaken by the new additions, which will turn Samuel and Ari’s relationship upside down.
Elite Season 5 kicks off with the start of a new academic year, which makes us wonder: how many years has Samu (Itzan Escamilla) been repeating? That is the true mystery of the series. But going back to the official plots of season 5, the events that occurred in the outcome of the previous round mark the main characters. The secret of Armando’s (Andrés Velencoso) death puts Samuel and Ari’s (Carla Díaz) relationship in jeopardy, as well as the love story between Rebe (Claudia Salas) and Mencía (Martina Cariddi).
Elite Season 5 Review and Analysis
After the exit of Miguel Bernardeau and Arón Piper, the actors Valentina Zenere, André Lamoglia and Adam Nourou join the cast of Zeta Studios’ fiction to bring a little fresh air. Zenere plays Isadora, a millionaire nightlife businesswoman who, in a way, intends to fill the gap left by the character played by Danna Paola. But Lu was a lot of Lu. The former student’s shadow is too long and makes it difficult for the Argentine to find her place, although little by little she is getting it.
Since it seems that the series moves in an infinite loop of increasingly surreal crimes, cover-ups, abandoned corpses and Civil Guard operations that look more like FBI investigations it is the distribution that provides incentives. Or at least, it should… only the new ones end up looking like iterations of other characters we’ve seen before. A good example is Isadora (Valentina Zenere), the new Petarada influencer who will seek to conquer Phillipe (Pol Granch) but who inevitably reminds Lu (Danna Paola) in her way of speaking and in the definition of her role as ” bad that ends up having a heart”.
The messages that Elite launches are also very confusing due to an erratic and often meaningless script. To show a button: Iván (André Lamoglia), the son of the most famous soccer player in the world, also joins Las Encinas, who will play cluelessness with Patrick (Manu Ríos) and his sister Ari (Carla Díaz). It is supposed that one of its functions (beyond starring in a lot of racy sequences), is to raise a criticism of homophobia or even prejudices about homosexuality, bisexuality or sexual freedom, ultimately. But any depth seems ridiculous in a series so frivolous and shallow where every claim sounds like a joke.
In its eagerness to feed morbidity, Elite 5 is not content with the love triangles on duty (which also exist) but decides to incorporate more and more sexual vertices, sometimes so gratuitous or illogical that it really makes it difficult for the spectator… and the characters. In truth, an effort is appreciated by the performers to defend certain lines of dialogue that border on the ridiculous.
But the most unsatisfactory by far are two issues: the huge amount of padding that does not contribute anything at all and the loose ends. Characters are presented who are later forgotten, such as Bilal (Adam Nourou) and others are referred to without further consequences, as is the case with Guzmán or Ander. In general, the charisma of the characters of the first seasons and also a bit of coherence in the story are missing. The plot moves forward in inconsistent lurches and there comes a point where it feels like “anything goes”.
One of the main strengths (but also weaknesses) is the lack of characters from the past. Sure, they are missed in the first half of the first episode. However, if the core cast from the first season had been retained, it would have been ridiculous to see them subjected to similar arguments over and over again. And with that come the new characters Isadora and Iván. They’re a perfect fit, and while they’re not the most likeable of characters, they do bring a certain charm (and levels of drama). Ivan, possibly the most, as the series is likely to keep us guessing until the very end as to whether he and Patrick will sleep. Also, Iván’s relationship with his father seems to have depths that the series has not yet explored.
She’s folksy, she’s sexy, and she’s fun to watch. For the most part, Elite ticks all the boxes one wants, and that’s the only thing that matters in the end. There is a great mystery, and this time we are not only wondering who it did, but to whom it happened. It’s a slightly fresh new twist. One thing clear from the first 3 episodes of the fifth season of Elite, the series begins to lack fantasy. By now it always seems the same plot repeating itself in an infinite loop. Dynamics, motivations, characters are always the same. Only the victims and the way they are killed change. For the first few seasons it worked but, one wonders how much longer you will want to go on proposing the same style over and over.
A positive aspect in this fifth season, however, is that the mystery about the victim is kept alive, it is not clear who he is or who was. We focus more on the stories of the characters and the events that probably led to what will happen. For this reason, in spite of everything, I do not feel I can completely penalize this fifth season. I will wait until I have finished it all before giving an overall judgment. For now I can only say that the story seems intriguing and that at the end of the day, I was fascinated by the new characters of this fifth season who upset the already precarious balance of the protagonists.
Elite Season 5 Review: The Last Words
Hopefully the Netflix series Elite Season 5 bets on a deep renewal for its sixth season, for which a multitude of signings have already been confirmed, because until now it seems that they have resisted the fact that there is a new generation of students in Las Encinas, mixing old acquaintances with some new signings. The fifth season proves that the time has come for a new beginning.
