Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Minerva Academy’ On Netflix, About Students At An Italian Military High School And One Cadet’s Search For His Missing Friend

In Netflix‘s new Italian series Minerva Academy, a group of teens are enrolled in an elite military 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.

MINERVA ACADEMY: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A fast push-in on the Minerva Military Academy. In an ornate room, a large group of teens in civilian clothes are there to take the entrance exam.

The Gist: 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. The cadets are there for different reasons. 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. Vincenzo (Biagio Venditti) is there because his father is a decorated military officer and he wants to have a similar career arc. Camilla (Margherita Buoncristiani) was sent there by her father after an incident back in her home city of 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. Three red marks on the uniform means a student is out. 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. But they and most of the others make it through and get the Smallsword.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Minerva Academy feels like a military-school version of Elite.

Our Take: 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. 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.

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. 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. 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.

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.

Performance Worth Watching: 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.

Sex And Skin: 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.

Parting Shot: Salvo finds evidence of a relationship between his missing friend Francesco, and Diego (Simone Secce), the older cadet who is now Salvo’s mentor.

Our Call: SKIP IT. 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.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.