Our take
With teen dramas crowding not just Netflix but all of TV, it’s easy to think that the Jordanian series AlRawabi School for Girls won’t be any different. But while it may share a lot of similarities with other coming-of-age stories, it stands out for its willingness to explore dark themes and cultural specificities without a pandering tone. It’s smart, mature, and complex enough to give us a feminist lead who weaponizes misogyny against other girls, for instance, or a fierce bully who eventually earns our sympathy. It’s hard to imagine the treatment being this sensitive, nuanced, and wholly engaging without the all-female cast and crew that AlRawabi thankfully has.
The story
The bullied outcasts at prestigious Al Rawabi School for Girls plot a series of risky takedowns to get back at their tormentors.
Elsewhere
"...bold in its willingness to depict young women weaponizing patriarchal violence against one another, to ultimately chilling ends."
— Yasmine AlSayyad
In the hallowed halls of the private school AlRawabi, girls battle growing pains, the patriarchy, and each other as they come of age in present-day Jordan.
The show isn’t just pink-hued, it’s pink everything. The bathroom tiles, the classroom doors, the uniforms, the flowers that adorn the school grounds. Director Tima Shomali contrasts her whimsical, picturesque scenes with the grim things the students explore, and the even grimmer reality waiting for them outside the school gates.
Alternative title, Meaner Girls (2021).
The details
Streaming arrival
Who picked it
Renee Cuisia is the lead curator at A Good Movie to Watch. In her spare time, she likes to watch K-dramas and analyze them to death. She's also seen You've Got Mail one too many times but is still convinced it's one of the greatest films out there.
