Escuela para señoritas Al Rawabi

This is a well acted and well paced series that makes us take a deeper look at what it means to be a woman in any society. Yes, we have seen the premise before, but we also all seen romance movies and will still watch them.

I noticed a lot of low rating stating that the plot of is series is American and never happens to Arabic girls, but I find it hard to believe that young Arabic girls are never mean to other girls. Sounds like people being overly defensive instead of wanting to acknowledge a potential problem.

These types of stories need to be told and this series does a great job of bringing something serious to light.

Not really sure how Jordan lifestyle is, but that wasn't western like everyone is saying. Maybe some of the music, but that's about it. Lol or are westerners the only ones that have teenagers that bully others? If they threw a McDonald's in there I would have agreed, but other than that, very different. Honestly I like seeing a different aspect to a typical teen show and found it entertaining. Hope there is a season 2 because of that ending.

This story is like Mean Girls whereby a group of popular girls bully other girls but with a Jordanian flavor. After they beat a girl unconscious, she devises a plan for revenge. She gets a couple of friends to go help her with her plan.

One thing that is interesting is the attitudes towards women and girls. One girl is beaten up by her father, and no one raises any concern or objection. Oh, your dad punched you in the face. Teachers see a girl with obvious facial bruises and act as if nothing happened. Then one girl is harassed by an old man, and the teacher scolds the girl as if it's her fault for walking around showing all that skin.

The girls gossip and talk about Zac Efron. One girl has a bedroom that is like entirely pink. You start to feel like it's almost a western society, and then the crazy comes. The final revenge is unbelievably intense so shocking so insane.

An exceptional piece of storytelling, this mini-series delves into the grim realities of bullying and the pervasive influence of abusive authority figures on school-aged girls in Jordan. It sheds light on the experiences of girls navigating a deeply sexist and misogynistic society, where fear of violence and familial retribution is commonplace. From objectification to victim-blaming, the show starkly illustrates the myriad challenges faced by young girls. It skillfully unveils the distorted priorities of Jordanian and Middle Eastern societies regarding women's rights, depicting how girls are often broken at home and further fractured in school. Notably, it refrains from using the 'broken glass panel analogy' to caution against mistreating these girls to the point of shattering their spirits.

Season 1 was brilliant, well thought out and engaging. *But* it set the bar for season 2 impossibly high.

Here are the main issues I had with season 2:

• Tima Shomali, the producer, didn't disprove the rumors about the release date until many fake release dates circled around the internet in the 2.5 years we waited. She disproved them on 10 August 2023 and didn't even give us a rough timeframe. I get that she wanted to use the hype to her advantage but it has worked against her, as fans were infuriated by this whole situation
• The show wasn't originally planned to have more seasons. The producer had clearly given in to the pressure from fans and/or the appeal of repeating season 1's success. She was out of ideas and it shows. I didn't appreciate that she changed the makeup of the series but recycled major plot points and gave us a similar ending to season 1
• Season 2 killed the rewatch value of season 1, as it doesn't do it justice. As much as I loved season 1, I'm afraid I'll never go back to this show again.

• Maybe we could've enjoyed season 2 as its own story, had our expectations been properly managed by giving us a hint that we won't get a sequel but more of an anthology continuation. They kept hyping the new season up so much for 2.5 years but what we got was underwhelming the least to say and many people are rightfully disappointed and frustrated.

• I'd like to pay special attention to the time they took to make this season. 1 year of writing and 8 months of editing and *this* is the result? People in the producer's team clearly decided to spare her feelings on more than one occasion, judging by the result. Also how on earth does it take 8 months for a team of professional video editors to put together *6* episodes?

The bottom line is that it's hard to repeat the success of something undeniably remarkable and it's even harder to admit that you tried and failed.

I can't in good conscience give the show less than 7/10 and I only take away 3 stars because of season 2.