“Thanks for whatever this is,” student council president Kira (Clara Alexandrova) says to St. Dominic’s newest student, Yumeko (Miku Martineau). Yumeko has a cartoon-y confidence which is an asset in St. Dominic’s, a school where elite students love gambling. She climbs up the school’s leader board while others like Michael (Hunter Cardinal) abstain from gambling.

Michael is a useful and smart ally, a friend for Yumeko and she gets another with legacy kid Ryan (Ayo Solanke). Yumeko and Ryan’s friendship turns into love, which can be bad for two people who want different things. Her rise to the top is interesting to Kira, who has her own goal – to prove she’s worthy of her top spot.

Yumeko, like most of the students, wants to be on the leaderboards top ten, one goal of many for her. Her goal is to find whoever killed her parents, which means she has to ingratiate herself with the school’s elite. Those ‘other people’ are children of the people responsible for her parents’ death, which might make things a bit messy.

Messy is a good word to describe Bet, a show that harkens back to soap operas but with rich teenagers. Martineau’s unique performance sets the tone for this show, maybe too loyal to its source, a manga called Kakagerui. The point of this show, then, is to see when Yumeko drops the harajuku act and acts like a human.

A compelling protagonist makes an equally compelling show but its supporting characters help out too. And I can’t believe I’m bringing this up but Bet shows a balance of how young people see sex nowadays. Romance comes into the equation as Yumeko brings side bets into the mix. And one of the side bets involves Ryan losing his virginity.

Boyfriends and girlfriends, however, take the back seat as the main relationships here are friends and enemies, especially Kira’s. Bet divides its characters into movable groups but most of them are either Team Yumeko or Team Kira, or these students’ parents. One of the shows’ more interesting characters is Mary Davis (Eve Edwards), climbing her way to the top just like Yumeko.

Again, Bet‘s campy atmosphere may distract some viewers but the characters within it are compelling enough for me. These teenagers are wearing a confident facade but underneath are relatable people, maybe younger versions of ourselves. People who will do anything despite knowing they can’t control the world, people with a lot to prove, just like the world we live in.

Bet‘s first season is available to stream on Netflix.