tellybuddies - Tumblr blog

tellybuddies · 4 years

Text

Élite has it all: rich students with a hint of a murderous trait within, a queer romance that will have you reaching for the tissues, sweet interracial couplings, a taboo that will make your jaw drop, and mysteries you will not be able to get your head around.

What is the story behind Élite?

S1: Three working-class teens (Nadia, Samuel, and Christian) are given scholarships to study at Las Encinas, an elite school when the roof of their school collapses. Thrust into the world of Spain’s richest and their children, both worlds collide when a student is murdered.

S2: Three new students arrive at the school, and Las Encinas finds themselves entangled in yet another incident: the mysterious disappearance of a student.

First Season:

I didn’t really know what to expect while watching this, I don’t watch too many teen dramas but I had a feeling it was going to be a typical drama filled with cliches and stereotypes. That was not the case.

The first episode was so explosive, I couldn’t just stop there and not see this through to the end! There were moments where humorous lines were thrown here and there, but overall this has to be the most dramatic high school I have ever been to - I felt like that quiet student who sits at the back and just watches as the drama unfolds one by one - it was that deep.

Racism is one of the themes explored within Élite and there were times where the racism was subtly injected into a conversation: Christian meets Nadia for the first time and calls her beautiful, he retracts his statement seconds later saying “Shit, sorry. You won’t blow yourself up because I said that, right?” He laughed while saying this, showing how easily people can turn their racist comments into a joke when it is something very serious.

Eleven minutes in, Nadia begins her school day with being called into the principal’s office, the topic being her hijab. The principal begins by telling Nadia that “as per our rules, no accessories are allowed”. Watching someone be discriminated over their cultural choices sparked some disappointment, the ignorance was unreal. A teacher tried to sympathise by saying that they understood why Nadia was against this and her response gained a round of applause:

“If you understood, you wouldn’t ask me to give up my culture or religion.”

For the duration of the series, Nadia goes from strength to strength: she deals with her strict parents and the pressure they put on her to bring pride to the family while also dealing with her feelings for Guzmán, leading them into a slow-burning romance.

Christian, in my opinion, was shown to be this character who played the clown role within the trio. He could be a little bit cocky, didn’t particularly study, liked to have a drink or two and smoke a few joints, he was crazy about another student, Carla, and wanted more than a little taste of the fancy lifestyle he was exposed to. Throughout the season, he showed that there were times when he could be serious too, whether it was to do with his friends, Carla and his feelings for her, or himself -- when he got serious, he was determined to let people know his exact feelings and thoughts before going back to his humorous antics.

Samuel seemed like a decent guy, he wanted no trouble, just wanted to get through the school year, and battled with his studies and his job as a waiter. The moment he locks eyes on Marina, a cute girl who gave off a rebellious vibe and sister of popular boy Guzmán, that’s when trouble knocked on his door. He was infatuated with Marina and their relationship went from a one-sided crush to a half-boyfriend, half-girlfriend situation. When he finds out about Marina’s pregnancy, he starts to act paranoid and goes on accusing everyone around him, including a teacher; this made me dislike Samuel but then I realised that he was only acting this way because he was looking at her with rose-tinted glasses, she was his first love, and finding out who she was really in love with did nothing to stop him from loving her.

As stated in the beginning, the show includes the murder of a student and so episodes have snippets of the main core group being interviewed by an officer on the case. The intertwining interviews give an insight into the characters’ relationships and thoughts but you also begin to notice that there are too many twists and turns which made things confusing, however, it all made sense in the end.

Halfway in season one, the students (privileged and unprivileged) start to form relationships with each other - both friendly and romantic - and because they have to share classes and projects with each other, they begin to grow a sense of personal development. It was really interesting to see the elite students bring out their vulnerable side, you start to see them as more than a person who was born with a silver spoon in their mouth but as a real person with feelings and internal issues that a “normal” person deals with.

Despite the students starting to warm up to each other, there was a clear divide between the rich and the poor. The working-class students were not seen as equals and are instead seen as pawns in a wretched game they didn’t want a part of. Christian really takes this to heart and lets his feelings be known, he says “I am fed up, Carla. I want you to see me as an equal [...] I don’t want to be your gigolo, or your thief, or someone you use.” In reality, it’s a dog-eat-dog world and it is something you can’t control. People are used left, right, and centre and while some see this as a normal thing, others don’t understand it.

This season touched on a lot of issues that are reflected in reality, ranging from social pressure, drug and alcohol abuse, sexual relationships, racism, sexual identity, and a whole lot more.

The finale revealed the last moments of the murdered student and uncovered secrets that left you wondering what was next to come.

Highlights:

#OMANDER (obviously) I loved seeing Ander and Osman, Nadia’s brother, start a relationship. The thing with queer relationships in television is that it is often thrown into your faces and it is either displayed as over-the-top or very sexualised or in some cases, both. Thankfully, the most amazing queer relationship I have seen in a series was done so beautifully and realistically. Nothing was forced, the characters took their time with coming to terms with their sexuality and their newfound relationship, and it was cute, healthy, and heart-warming.

Nadia + Omar’s sibling love Although they both lived in the same house, walked home from parties or school together, and were even in the same room together, the two rarely spoke to each other but as the series advanced, we see the Shanaa siblings form a bond that wasn’t there at the start of the series. They spoke more, confided in each other, and had each other’s back.

All things QUEER Ander’s mum found out he was gay when she came home to find her son kissing Omar and rather than deny what she saw, she accepted it with a smile. Like any other teen who is in the closet, Ander was worried about coming out but receiving a warm reception from his parents and best friends Polo and Guzmán, the latter who was confused why his friend didn’t feel comfortable confiding in him about his sexuality, gave him the freedom to own his queerness and he wasn’t shy about letting people know his sexual preference.

Carla and Polo were the IT couple (other than Guzman and Lucrecia of course), as they have been together since the age of twelve, and the arrival of Christian changed their whole relationship with the three of them engaging in a sexual relationship, solo and group, and this also gave Polo the opportunity to figure out his own sexuality.

The characters in Élite had sexual freedom that is slightly frowned upon in real life and usually met with confusion, denial, and/or offensive remarks. The show really made it clear that times have evolved and people like to kiss men, women, have relationships with either gender or engage in open relationships, fwbs, or NSA and that was OK.

Second Season:

Personally, I didn’t enjoy the second part of Élite. It seemed a little bit too messy with the number of secrets and lies that were circulating around. There was nothing that gave me an oomph and the drama was a bit unnecessary and boring. While I was intrigued in the first episode, the anticipation died down quite quickly but I did find that it picked up in the last two episodes.

I did somewhat like the introduction of the three new characters that popped up, although there wasn’t much of their backstory that really got me interested which simply made them look odd and out of place.

I do have a favourite quote from this season and it pretty much summed up the whole show.

“In the end, the one you’d least expect... turns out to be the worst of the monsters.”

Highlights:

Omar - QUEER ICON He really embraced his sexuality in this season, such a pleasure to see! He smiled more, had a positive outlook, and let out the rainbow within.

Final thoughts:

There was a really nice representation in this show; PoC actors, queer characters, and religion and culture were explored. It’s not every day you get to see a person of colour on your screen - it was refreshing - and the queerness was a joy to watch.

I feel that the characters were well-thought-out during the first season and although they went in a different path in the second, I enjoyed watching them evolve and go through their journey of self-discovery.

Would I recommend it? Yes. The second season was a bit of a letdown but it has been renewed for a third so there is clearly some potential there and I hope the thrill and energy that was in the first season is brought back.

If you want to watch a show that has good character development, this is one to watch. The character arcs were really well-thought and planned. The writers of Élite managed to include a good couple of seasons worth of development in just two seasons which is a feat in itself.

There are eight episodes in each season which makes it the perfect series to binge-watch- I managed to finish both parts in two days; it’s not too long to bore you and not too short to have you groaning in annoyance.

Overall, it was a good watch and I am a little intrigued to see what comes next in season three which will be dropping in March!

0 notes

tellybuddies · 4 years

Text

Aaron Hernandez was a man who played for the New England Patriots, he was known for being a talented player in his teen years and grew to be a fan-favourite. He was rising on a high and it seemed as if nothing could stop him — until he was accused of murder.

The documentary begins with a witness describing his journey home from a run where he discovers a body of a man, later known to be Odin Lloyd – a twenty-seven-year-old semi-professional football player and the death of this young man sparked shock throughout his friends and family as he was known as a kind man caused no trouble, and those who knew him were left wondering who would cause him harm.

Hours later, Aaron Hernandez was arrested and put on trial for murder after police noticed his house was a mile away from where the body was located and was able to connect his car to the crime scene. This incident sparked major interest worldwide and journalists started to dig into Hernandez’s life, starting from his childhood with an alcoholic father to his success as a professional football player for the New England Patriots, having been drafted at the young age of twenty.

Odin and Aaron were considered to be friends and would have been brothers-in-law as at the time of his death, Odin was dating the sister of Aaron’s fiancée. Their relationship made it hard for anyone to establish a clear motive as to why Aaron murdered a man who would have potentially become a member of his family via marriage.

The docuseries focuses on four things which gives the audience an insight into the man who was adored by fans and appeared to have it all; a mansion, expensive cars, money, a fiancée, child, and fame – everything a human could possibly dream of.

o Aaron’s early life (and the abuse that occurred in his life) o His rise from a prodigy to an NFL footballer o Issues with his sexuality o The discovery of Hernandez’s brain disease, CTE

The Hernandez family consisted of Dennis, Terri, DJ (Aaron’s older brother), and Aaron. Dennis was considered a football legend but later in life, he turned into an alcoholic who was abusive towards his family on more than one occasion. The abuse affected Aaron but it was his father’s death in 2006 which troubled him and those close to him have said that he never got over the passing of the Hernandez patriarch and it is implied that this incident was what led him to become the man he was.

The biggest misconception is he was someone who had everything and threw it all away. What is your definition of being happy? From what we know now, can you ever really define that he was happy? Can you ever really define that he was content? – Stephen Ziogas, childhood friend and teammate of Aaron Hernandez

The series features interviews from childhood friends, football teammates from both high school and the NFL, journalists who covered the trial and dug into Hernandez’s past and even included phone conversations that took place in prison. I really liked hearing the phone conversations because it was more personal as you were able to hear from the man himself about his thoughts regarding his trial and understand his relationships with people such as his mother, his fiancée, manager, and friends who he would converse with while in jail.

There were so many accounts from people who knew Aaron that said different things; some said he would be an angry person who started fights when people looked at him wrong, others would say he was a kind person, always nice and smiling, and the added question about his sexuality made it even all more confusing to fully understand what type of person Aaron Hernandez was and what it was that led him to commit a wicked crime at the peak of his career.

He was later found guilty and sentenced to life in prison for the first-degree murder of Odin Lloyd. Interestingly enough, during his trial, he was also connected to an unsolved double-murder which occurred in 2012 and although there was evidence that linked him to the crime, he was found not guilty.

On April 19 2017, Hernandez was found dead in his cell where he committed suicide and in the final episode of the docuseries, it is briefly explored that it was possible that he ended his life due to a radio station outing him as a gay man and the fear of having his sexual identity being known publicly was too much.

After his death, his brain was taken to be studied and it was discovered that from being hit too many times in the head, he suffered from brain damage that was well-advanced for someone of his young age.

Final Thoughts:

I enjoyed watching the docuseries, I felt that it really highlighted life as a professional player in the NFL – there were those that were gay but suppressed it in order to continue projecting a masculine image that came with being a footballer and there were others that retired early in order to protect their health.

There was mention of Aaron’s sexuality and I did feel that it was quite unnecessary, there was no reason for bringing it up, it may have helped understand a little about who he was as a person and possibly what drove him to take his own life but it fell flat as there was no definite evidence that supported the claim that Hernandez was a gay man who lived a double life.

It seemed that the docuseries was using the brain damage as the reason for Hernandez acting out and killing a friend and while that seemed to be one of the reasons, there was no definite answer to why Odin was murdered so the series left many questions unanswered.

Would I recommend it? Yes. If you enjoy true crime, dark documentaries, then this could be your next binge watch! With only three episodes, it will leave you with a taste for more. The series can easily be finished in an evening or if you like to be kept on your toes, it can be stretched out over two days or more.

#killer inside: the mind of aaron hernandez #aaron hernandez #true crime #documentary #docuseries #netflix #television #review #think piece #tellybuddies #tellychats

1 note · View note