Alrawabi School for Girls’ second season was released on Feb. 15, 2024. More than two years after the release of the first season, many people were upset with not seeing the same cast as season 1 in the trailer. Created by Jordanian Islam Alshomali and directed by Tima Shomali, it became one of the biggest Arabic-speaking shows in the world, streamed all across the world. With the topics of bullying, mental health, social media, suicide, sexual violence, and other problems that are taboo to speak about in the Arab world, she helped bring light to severe problems that are ignored. When you start watching the show, you see all the nice shades of pink and think it would be a cute show about friendship, but immediately after that, it takes a dark turn.
What makes the first season so interesting is the main character, Mariam, is the “antagonist.” But at the same time, almost everyone in the first season is an antagonist in some way. At the start of the show, Mariam and her best friend Dina are constantly being teased by a group of the most popular girls in school, Layan, Rania and Roqqaya, on the bus and in the classroom. While sitting in class, they are introduced to their new classmate Nouf, who is very quiet. But soon enough, the group of girls starts bullying Mariam while playing the victim. Due to the severe amount of bullying, she starts going through many issues with her mental health, which causes her to spiral out of control and make a revenge plan when she befriends Nouf to get back at Roqaya, Rania and Layan. The show goes from dark to even darker when she attempts her revenge, with you sitting on the edge of your seat because it’s so entertaining, leaving us on a cliffhanger in the last episode.
When the second season was finally announced, many people, including myself, were upset about the fact that there was a new cast to the show, especially because there was such a cliffhanger at the end of the show. But, the show was written so amazingly that once you start watching, that’s not what you’re focused on. At the start, we are introduced to the main character, Sarah, who is the “nerd” type of character who is introverted and doesn’t have many friends except Nadeen who is always there for her and looks out for her. With another group of popular kids, Tasneem, Hiba, a few other side characters and Tasneem’s cousin Farah, whom the group dislikes, there comes another quiet classmate, Shams. Sarah was sick of being known as a “nerd,” and made a video on social media which blew up overnight, with everyone seeing her as now one of the new “popular kids.” But, social media would only make things worse for her. The popular kids start trying to be friends with Sarah, but Nadeen trying to protect her friend, only makes the problem worse. Nadeen wanted revenge for her best friend betraying her. She befriends Shams and carries out their plan. The show makes constant connections with Layan about Sarah, which makes you wonder what the outcome will be. And after a surprise in the show, Sarah becomes her own villain.
Even through different seasons and different casts, all of the characters are really good actors which makes the show feel so real. Unfortunately, some of the problems faced are the reality for many young Jordanian or Arab children in school. While still entertaining, the series still shows us the moral of the story.