In Netflix‘s new Italian series Minerva Academy, a group of teens are enrolled in an elite military school.
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group → enrol → school
While the season is about the usual teen drama stuff, one plotline has one of the new cadets looking for his friend, a cadet who went missing a few months prior to his enrollment.
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who → have → enrollment
In an ornate room, a large group of teens in civilian clothes are there to take the entrance exam.
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group → take → exam
The students who pass the exam face a strenuous three-day tryout; if they pass it, a current cadet will ceremoniously give them “the Smallsword” and be their mentor.
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cadet → pass → Smallsword
Salvo (Ciro Minopoli), who bounced around foster homes because his mother would employ him to deal drugs, is there to look into why his friend Francesco, who was a third-year cadet, disappeared.
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who → bounce → drugs
Vincenzo (Biagio Venditti) is there because his father is a decorated military officer and he wants to have a similar career arc.
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he → decorate → arc
Camilla (Margherita Buoncristiani) was sent there by her father after an incident back in her home city of Milan.
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Camilla → send → Milan
Those first three days consist of pretty tough moments of discipline, like drills in the wee hours and having to clean a putrid bathroom.
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days → consist → bathroom
Three red marks on the uniform means a student is out.
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student → mean → uniform
During those three days, Camilla, Salvo, and Vincenzo are subject to some light hazing by the more senior cadets, and Camilla is repeatedly punished for not knowing the words to the national anthem.
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Camilla → punish → anthem
But they and most of the others make it through and get the Smallsword.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of?
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It → make → You
Minerva Academy feels like a military-school version of Elite.
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Academy → feel → Elite
One of the problems with setting Minerva Academy at a military school is that, because the men get close-cropped haircuts when they start at the school, it’s really hard to tell who’s who.
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who → set → school
There are more male students than the ones we mentioned, but trying to keep track of which ones are going to be lasting characters and which ones are going to wash out before the first three days are up was difficult.
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days → be → track
On the women’s side it’s a bit easier, but pretty much any character that isn’t among the three we mention here don’t get much in the way of screen time to distinguish themselves.
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we → ’ → themselves
We not only are supposed to get to know the students, however; civilian professor Laura Canali (Cristiana Capotondi), Deputy Commender Colonel Bonaiuto (Irene Maiorino), and a few other faculty members are also major characters.
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Canali → suppose → students
It certainly is a lot to keep track of, and it didn’t seem like anyone’s story was given enough time for viewers to latch onto a character and follow while things develop around them.
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things → keep → them
In essence, what we’re seeing with Minerva Academy at its start is a mashing together of high school drama tropes, all dressed in some very ornate uniforms.
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all → see → uniforms
Cristiana Capotondi’s character, professor Laura Canali, is essentially the “adult in the room,” who will likely mentor some of these cadets and isn’t tied to the school’s militaristic protocols and traditions.
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who → mentor → protocols
Two of the third-year cadets are caught in some light “activity” in the courtyard, and we suspect there will be more of that during the series.
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we → catch → series
Salvo finds evidence of a relationship between his missing friend Francesco, and Diego (Simone Secce), the older cadet who is now Salvo’s mentor.
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who → find → friend
While Minerva Academy isn’t a waste of time by any means, its first episode is also muddled and confusing, and doesn’t set up enough story to keep our interest.
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episode → set → interest
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie.
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he → write → himself
His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
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writing → appear → Times
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