A screen adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’s novel of the same name, Less Than Zero follows the lives of wealthy young people in Los Angeles and, much like The Shards, is deeply rooted in the style and culture of the 1980s. At the center of the story is college student Clay, who returns home for Christmas at the request of his ex-girlfriend Blair. While trying to help his longtime friend Julian, who has found himself in serious trouble because of addiction and debt, Clay is drawn back into the privileged Los Angeles world he had tried so hard to leave behind.

Less Than Zero portrays essentially the same world of wealthy Los Angeles youth growing up with little parental supervision and spending their time surrounded by clubs, luxury, and pleasure, while revealing the problems hidden beneath that glamorous surface.

The series follows two parallel storylines: three teenagers from working-class families who, through a turn of events, get the chance to study at a prestigious private school, and a police investigation into a murder involving the school’s students. The privileged world of status, money, and glossy luxury is more than just a backdrop here — it plays an important role in the story and in shaping the characters’ motivations.

Like The Shards, Elite shows that successful and seemingly carefree teenagers often have far more troubled and complicated private lives. As the truth about the characters is gradually revealed, it changes the way earlier events are perceived while bringing them closer to solving the central mystery — the murder. The series became an international hit and even received an Indian adaptation titled Class. In total, 64 episodes of Elite were released on Netflix between October 2018 and July 2024, with the eighth season serving as the final chapter.

Teenager Davey Armstrong lives in a small town in Oregon and has long been fascinated by crime stories and mysterious events. When teenagers in the area begin disappearing, he grows suspicious of his neighbor, Mackey, a well-known and respected police officer. Together with a group of friends who are skeptical of his suspicions, Davey begins watching Mackey’s house and searching for evidence.

Beyond the obvious similarities in setting, the coming-of-age story here is directly tied to the search for a serial killer. In a similar way, Davey becomes increasingly obsessed with Mackey, just as Bret focuses on Robert in The Shards, making viewers question whether his suspicions are actually justified.

The series is set at an elite private school for the children of some of the wealthiest and most influential families, who practically establish their own unwritten rules within the school. Through a special scholarship program, a mysterious new student named Kang Ha arrives and, much like Robert Mallory in The Shards, disrupts the established rules and dynamics of a long-standing social circle.

In reality, Kang Ha’s arrival is connected to the death of the previous scholarship student, In-han. Determined to find out what really happened, he sets off a chain of conflicts and suspicions within the school’s isolated elite circle.

The series is presented in a distinctly 1990s retro style and constantly shifts between three different years — 1993, 1994, and 1995. After popular high school student Kate goes missing, quiet and unnoticed Jeanette gradually takes her place, becoming one of the most popular girls at school and growing close to Kate’s friends and boyfriend. When Kate is found alive the following year, she publicly accuses Jeanette of having seen her while she was missing and choosing to say nothing.

Like The Shards, Cruel Summer uses more than just its retro setting to create uncertainty. Events are not presented objectively but through the perspectives of different characters, constantly forcing viewers to reconsider what they have already seen. Alongside the serious crime mystery, the teenagers continue living their everyday lives, where friendship, rivalry, and jealousy remain closely intertwined.

In the wealthy Southern California town of Neptune, high school student Lilly Kane, the best friend of protagonist Veronica Mars, is murdered. Veronica’s father, the local sheriff, suspects the influential Kane family of being involved in the crime, a decision that ultimately costs him his position and leaves Veronica without most of her old friends or her place among the school’s popular crowd.

Doubting the official version of events, Veronica begins her own investigation with help from her father, gradually uncovering the hidden and darker secrets of the town’s most influential residents. Much like Bret in The Shards, Veronica finds that both the victim and the key suspects belong to her closest social circle.

Another mystery in which a criminal investigation unfolds within a high school alongside the everyday lives of its students. Brendan receives an unexpected call from his ex-girlfriend Emily, who tells him that she is in serious danger. When she is later found dead, a shocked Brendan, driven largely by personal motives and much like Bret in The Shards, decides to find out what really happened. His investigation draws him into the secret lives of his classmates and closed social circles that exist almost like separate worlds with rules of their own.

The film is also notable for being Rian Johnson’s feature directorial debut. He later became widely known for the Knives Out mystery films.