Earlier this month, the Spanish teen drama Elite returned for its seventh season, and it quickly ranked among the most popular shows on Netflix. An eighth and final season is already in the works, which makes this one of the longest-running shows on Netflix.
The secret of Elite‘s success is that it isn’t just a teen drama. It’s also a murder mystery that often jumps forward in time to reveal that cast members have died, before returning to the present where viewers witness the unfolding drama before things reach the bitter end for some. So don’t get too attached to your favorite characters on the show. Everyone’s time eventually runs out, even if they just graduate or move to another school.
Once you’ve binged through all seven seasons of the series, there are five shows like Elite that you should watch. Like Elite, they are more than just standard high school shows. There’s always a touch of mystery, intrigue, and usually a few murders as well.
Pretty Little Liars (2010 – 2017)
Pretty Little Liars made an entire franchise out of high school intrigue. It follows four high school students, Aria Montgomery (Lucy Hale), Emily Fields (Shay Mitchell), Hanna Marin (Ashley Benson), and Spencer Hastings (Troian Bellisario). They used to be close friends, at least until their mutual BFF, Alison DiLaurentis (Sasha Pieterse), disappeared.
Or perhaps Alison wasn’t as close to her friends as everyone thought. In the present, all four girls are blackmailed by someone calling themselves “A.” Although they instantly suspect Alison herself, the discovery of her body forces the group to question everything and everyone around them.
Watch Pretty Little Liars on Hulu.
The Afterparty (2022 – 2023)
High school and murder go hand in hand with The Afterparty. Unlike Elite, the first season of this series deals with a high school reunion that goes wrong when the class movie star, Xavier (Dave Franco), ends up dead. Detective Danner (Tiffany Haddish) is in charge of solving the murder, and Aniq Adjaye (Sam Richardson) soon emerges as the prime suspect.
The problem is that Aniq is innocent, and he needs to clear his name. To do so, he needs to go down the list of potential suspects that includes Aniq’s former classmates who had a grudge against Xavier, like Chelsea (Ilana Glazer) and Yasper (Ben Schwartz).
Watch The Afterparty on Apple TV+.
13 Reasons Why (2017 – 2020)
There’s no immediate murder in 13 Reasons Why, but give it time, because there will be. It all starts when Clay Jensen (Dylan Minnette) receives a box of cassette tapes from his late classmate, Hannah Baker (Katherine Langford). Clay had a crush on Hannah, but he doesn’t know why she took her own life.
Hannah’s tapes are her way of holding everyone at Liberty High School accountable for her death, especially a few people in particular. Yet, it’s Clay who has to live through the fallout as Hannah’s messages from beyond the grave continue to cause havoc in his life and at the school.
Watch 13 Reasons Why on Netflix.
Yellowjackets (2021 – present)
All of the high school rules go out the window in Showtime’s hit series Yellowjackets. The show unfolds in two time periods, starting with an incident in 1996 when the Yellowjackets, a high school girls’ soccer team, crash-lands in the Canadian wilderness. The other side of the story picks up in the present, as the surviving members of the crash reenter each others’ lives.
To reveal which characters are alive in the present may be too much of a spoiler for some. Suffice to say that the survivors have a lot of secrets that they’ve kept about their nearly two years in the wild. If those secrets ever come to the surface, then all hell may break loose.
Watch Yellowjackets on Paramount+ with Showtime.
Outer Banks (2020 – present)
Compared to Elite, Outer Banks is positively lighthearted. The series follows John B. Routledge (Chase Stokes), a teenager who is haunted by the disappearance of his father, Big John (Charles Halford). The legendary treasure of the Royal Merchant was Big John’s obsession before he went missing, and John B. believes that if he can find the treasure, then he may discover what happened to his dad.
Fortunately, John B. isn’t alone in this quest, as his group of friends, the Pogues, backs his treasure hunt. The bad news is that John B.’s rival, Topper (Austin North), and his rich gang, the Kooks, are also out for the treasure. And this is a race that only one gang can win.
Watch Outer Banks on Netflix.
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