AlRawabi School for Girls (Netflix)

Anyone else watching this? I wouldn’t have even known it existed except that I read about it in the New Yorker. I’ve watched two episodes so far (I think its a miniseries of 8 episodes). It’s pretty dark and not terribly subtle, at least so far. But it is gripping. And there is a bit of nostalgia for me - I never lived in Jordan, where it takes place, but many of the street and domestic scenes remind me of living in Egypt. I’ll probably binge-watch the whole thing in the next few days, I just hope the story arc isn’t too horrifying by the end (but I suspect it is).

Oh, and the music is fantastic. There are English subtitles for the lyrics in Arabic; the voice, melody and words are quite haunting.

as per CairoCarol’s request: trigger warning for episode 5 where sexual assault is brushed-under-the-rug.

This is an excellent show. I didn’t know what country it was made in at first, then discovered it was Jordan. I have never seen a show or movie from Jordan and I know very little about the country. The students at the school seem like they are from wealthier and more advantaged families. I really like both of the main two student characters, though they are intense rivals. Having seen the whole thing there are quite a few jarring things that happen in the last couple of episodes. Intense but very good as a show.

Yeah, I have watched a bit more since I wrote the OP. My respect for the show has increased - a lot of depth has been added to the characters. No one is as starkly good or bad as they were at the start.

Yes that scene in episode 5 was tough to watch. That guy was a complete creep and entitled scumbag. Also sad to see it brushed under the rug, as you mentioned. It’s as if girls and women just have to suck it up and accept crap like that from men who are free to do whatever they want.

Actually all of the parents/adults were pretty rotten. That seems to happen in a lot of teen shows. I guess disfuntional parents/adults make for more interesting stories.