Parents' Guide to Snakes and Ladders

TV Netflix Drama 2025
A brunette middle-aged woman with glasses in a uniform vest in front of a chessboard-like background with people and snakes placed in different cubes

Common Sense Media Review

Weiting Liu By Weiting Liu , based on child development research. How do we rate?

age 16+

Sex, dark humor, scandal in guilty-pleasure school drama.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 16+?

Any Positive Content?

  • A dark-haired woman points and screams at a crowd of clamoring elementary school children

Parent and Kid Reviews

See all

What's the Story?

Set in an elite elementary school in Guadalajara, SNAKES AND LADDERS follows Dora (Cecilia Suárez), a principled but overlooked school prefect who dreams of becoming headmistress. When a fight between two students––and their powerful parents––throws the school into scandal, Dora seizes the opportunity to climb the political ladder. But as she's pulled deeper into backdoor deals and moral compromises, Dora faces pressure from all sides: scheming administrators, controlling families like Vicente (Martiño Rivas) and Tamara (Marimar Vega), and even her own son, Toño (Benny Emmanuel), who's begun to have his own secret. As schoolyard politics unravel into full-blown chaos, Dora asks herself how far she would go to win in a world where everyone's already playing dirty.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say : Not yet rated
Kids say : Not yet rated

This dark dramedy is confidently made but ultimately empty. From the pristine, glassy school hallways to the curated interiors of wealthy families' homes, every frame oozes polish in Snakes and Ladders. The rich lifestyle on display is designed to dazzle, and it succeeds visually. The show doesn't pretend to be subtle or profound––it's outrageous, messy, and purposefully heightened. And for what it is, the cast gets the assignment: this is about gossip, betrayal, and status games.

But while it may be self-aware, there's little beneath the glossy surface. The plot leans hard on shock value, without giving viewers much to think or feel about. It's not so much mindless entertainment as it is soul-less entertainment––drama for the sake of drama. For viewers seeking trashy fun, it might scratch the itch for a weekend binge. But once it's over, it leaves mostly emptiness behind.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the moral issues Snakes and Ladders addresses. Can integrity survive in a system built on privilege and corruption? The show follows Dora's slow moral decline––but is her compromise inevitable, or could she have made different choices?

  • From Toño's closeted queerness to Juana's manipulative tactics, the series explores how children absorb and replicate adult power dynamics. How do social hierarchies affect young people's sense of self-worth and identity? How do you stay true to yourself when negative influences tell you otherwise?

  • How do irresponsible institutions use morality as a brand, not a practice? The elite school positions itself as nurturing and values-driven, but behind the scenes, everything is transactional. Does this reflect a broader truth about modern institutions? How do we build good systems that actually help society?

TV Details

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by

A brunette middle-aged woman with glasses in a uniform vest in front of a chessboard-like background with people and snakes placed in different cubes

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

See how we rate