Netflix’s Get Even Is a Perfect Blend of Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars

In my opinion, there’s a holy trinity of teen TV shows: Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars, and The O.C. But Netflix’s Get Even is now up there for me too, which means my trinity is now a quartet.

That’s a lofty statement, but I mean every word. Get Even—a British show that finds its American home on Netflix starting July 31—is just as dishy, intriguing, and addictive as GG and PLL. In fact, it’s essentially a perfect hybrid of the two.

The series centers on four girls—Kitty (Kim Adis), Bree (Mia Mckenna Bruce), Margot (Bethany Antonia), and Olivia (Jessica Alexander)—who attend an elite private school. They’re all in different cliques but have formed a secret club called D.G.M. (“don’t get mad”…get even!) that sets out to expose and take down bullies. But their vigilante work takes a turn after their latest target, a douchey jock, is murdered. Whoever did it has an axe to grind with D.G.M., as the murder scene is framed to make it look as though they’re the culprits. The only problem is no one—the cops, other students—knows who D.G.M. is. (Except for the viewers, of course. We’re in on the secret.)

Clockwise: Margot (Bethany Antonia), Kitty (Kim Adis), Olivia (Jessica Alexander), and Bree (Mia McKenna-Bruce) in Get Even.
Clockwise: Margot (Bethany Antonia), Kitty (Kim Adis), Olivia (Jessica Alexander), and Bree (Mia McKenna-Bruce) in Get Even.
Netflix

What transpires is 10 episodes of glossy melodrama served with a witty, British garnish. There are burgeoning romances, love triangles, mean-girl spats, and beautiful people vacantly lounging around—all the hallmarks of escapist teen fare.

It really is wild how on-the-nose Get Even is with Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars. You have an anonymous high-tech group keeping tails on students (GG), a murder mystery (PLL), enviable uniforms (GG), an actor who looks just like Alison DiLaurentis (PLL)… the list goes on and on. It’s as though the universe knew I’d been craving a show to fill the void Blair Waldorf and Hanna Marin left and gifted me Get Even. (But seriously, take a look at the actor who plays Olivia, below. Is she not Alison’s twin?!) 

Olivia (Jessica Alexander) in Get Even.
Olivia (Jessica Alexander) in Get Even.
Netflix

I don’t want to give too much away about what happens, but I guarantee you that if Manhattan’s Upper East Side and Rosewood were your poison, you’ll happily drink every ounce of Get Even. I gobbled up the first five episodes in record time and decided to slow down for the last half because I wanted to savor it. That’s how irresistible the show is. 

Get Even does trump Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars in one very important way: diversity. The main cast members of this show completely run the gamut in terms of race, although body diversity was lacking. But it is much closer to looking like a real high school than the Constance Billard School for Girls was. Minus the chic blazers and perfectly applied makeup, of course. There is a little bit of fantasy here, but that’s fine. It’s 2020. We all could use a little fantasy.

Black, Asian, and Latinx actors are rarely given the opportunity to play roles where their racial identity isn’t at the narrative core. On Get Even, they indulge in the same kind of frothy exploits we’ve watched countless white actors do on the CW for years. 

Margot (Bethany Antonia) in Get Even
Margot (Bethany Antonia) in Get Even
Netflix

It's quick watch (around 30 minutes per episode), which is ideal for the weekend, especially as temperatures rise and you want to stay cool inside. I am very curious to see what fandoms attach themselves to Get Even, because this is exactly the type of series that could spawn countless theories, fictional ships, friendship envy, and massive thirst—all the ingredients that turned Pretty Little Liars and Gossip Girl into cult phenomenons. The show is already a hit overseas, and it deserves to be one here. Not just because it champions diversity in a way all pop culture should. It’s because I finished it thinking, “Wow, I love all these girls and would jump in front of a bus for them.” I haven’t thought like that about a group of characters since the PLL gang. It feels so good to have a full-fledged obsession again.

Get Even is now streaming on Netflix and, well, you should really get into it. 

Christopher Rosa is the staff entertainment writer at Glamour. Follow him on Twitter @chrisrosa92. 

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Originally Appeared on Glamour