YA drama from Netflix Crew girl Taking viewers into the ultra-competitive world of rowing, where 16-year-old Tegan Tao (Mikko Martino) leads the middle school boys’ crew as their outspoken and cool skipper. But as tension mounts, she finds herself caught in a messy love triangle.

If you are a fan The summer she turned beautiful and Find her edgeyou’re probably in a state of TV chaos right now, waiting for the next young adult drama, filled with the same sweetness and charm. And even though we’ve left summer behind us, Netflix is ​​keeping the warmth and sunshine in the spotlight with its cozy drama Crew girlfrom model Vivian Lin. This isn’t the kind of series designed to wow you or leave you breathless, but it will satisfy you with all the clichés you can get away with, especially with the messy romantic triangles. This time, it will draw you into the background of competitive rowing.

in Crew girlwe follow teenage rowing prodigy Tegan Tao (Martino), whose entire life is turned upside down by a family scandal involving her father, who is on the run from the authorities after dodgy business dealings. She was forced to move to a completely new city, where she attended a middle school where there was no women’s rowing team. She must join the boys’ crew as their leader in order to continue her training. There, she forms complicated relationships with the uptight crew, including the arrogant team captain, Josh Regis (Samuel Browne), and the local boy, Cam Dillinger (Kyle Clark), who is the team’s best player.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out how the show evolves from there. Crew girl He jumps into his story with confidence. This is a show that knows its audience inside out, delivering stories that deliver instant wins: a teen underdog from a dysfunctional family, competitive sports, and a love triangle. On that front, it’s pretty bland and predictable, but a lot of fun nonetheless.

First thing I noticed when watching Crew girl It was all too familiar. It’s a teen romance story about a young girl struggling in her family life, who finds comfort in playing her chosen sport – but inadvertently falls into a difficult love triangle with members of her team. If this sounds familiar, it’s pretty much the same basic story as Netflix Find her edge Earlier this year. Except, of course, Crew girl He replaces ice skates with rowing paddles. When I finished the series premiere, I then noticed it in the credits Crew girl It is executive produced by Jeff Norton, who served as showrunner on Find her edge. Not only do they share the same storytelling tropes, they have the same DNA behind them. Is Norton building a ‘YA sports drama universe’ for Netflix? Probably not, but the streamer is clearly happy to throw bags of money at the genre.

At this point, Miko Martino is well known to Netflix subscribers, particularly for her role in bet. Her casting in this series represents another triumphant moment in her short but brilliant career. She can be a very idealistic and vulnerable teenager, but when given the opportunity to lead the boys, she is definitely the confident and outspoken leader. After watching her performance, it’s hard to imagine anyone else delivering her lines with as much power.

The love triangle between Tegan, Josh, and Cam is perfectly serviceable, but over the course of an 8-episode series, I expected it to get a little hotter. The show prefers, and ultimately feels more comfortable with, exploring how romantic relationships evolve the crew’s dynamic as they race toward the regatta.

The series features characters we love, hate, love to hate, and hate to love. But beyond that, there is one character in particular that breaks the established mold. That character is Josh Regis. Heir to a business empire, forever in the shadow of his star rowing father, when we first meet Josh, he’s masking his insecurities with pure arrogance and nastiness. But then, as the show goes on, we see how deeply flawed — and emotionally volatile — he is, especially when life throws him bad. This is the character that everyone wants to throw a punch at. However, by the end of the season, the writers were able to get him He wins Our love. It’s a breath of fresh air to see a series like this play out a strong and honest story.

This doesn’t mean that the other characters are uninteresting in comparison. Kyle Clarke’s warm, boyish camera is nice as the other part of the love triangle, being a smarter alternative to Josh. Furthermore, the rest of the boys’ crew – including Ryder (Connor Patton), Baloo (Judd Wilson), Damon (Vincent Mueller), and Chris (Garrett Carlington) – have enough individuality to feel like strong, independent characters rather than people to fill out numbers in a boat.

For every story that punches above its weight, there’s another that falls flat like wet explosions. For example, the season-long phrase “Will-they-won’t-they?” The romance between Tegan’s mother Ella (Jessica Barrie) and Easton’s suave coach Hayden (Thomas Cadrot) lacks chemistry. Plus, Tegan’s criminal father seems like more of a motivator than anyone we’re supposed to have any feelings for.

while Crew girl Offering enough romance and plenty of blasphemy drama, the underlying theme of the series is quite clear. This is a show that explores commonalities and finding each other. Each member of the boys’ crew is different and unique with individual struggles and different reasons for wanting to succeed. They clash as often as teenagers do, especially under tremendous pressure. But the difference in this is that they have to continue working as a team. Rowing is the ultimate team sport. They have to paddle on exactly the same wavelength in order to win. With Tegan as their boss, she is responsible for keeping them all in line.

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Best player

Samuel Brown – It is very difficult not to cite series leader Mikko Martino as the best player; I wouldn’t argue too strongly against that either. But then there’s Sam Browne’s portrayal of Josh Regis, an initially mischievous teenager, who undergoes one of the best and most powerful emotional transformations I’ve ever seen in a series of this genre. Josh’s story and its development throughout the season are written with tremendous maturity.

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He watches Crew girl On Netflix if you want:

• Find her edge
• My Life with Walter Beuys
• The summer she turned beautiful

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Judgment

I can’t claim to be the target demographic for these young adult shows, but they certainly fall into a world Guilty pleasure Watches. Among the huge amount that I saw, Crew girl Shines brightly. Firstly, the paddling aspect is a breath of fresh air. Having Tegan as the leader of a team of uptight teenage boys builds the kind of tension that’s hard to achieve anywhere else. The writers manage to pull off a story that, while undoubtedly having all the bells, whistles and clichés of a cheesy teen drama, is truly poignant and emotional at times. These characters are not black and white but are complex and often flawed. This additional element came as a welcome surprise.

Is it a formula? Yes, but it’s one of the best implementations of the formula out there.

Plus, the show has me really interested in watching the biggest rowing tournament in the world, the Charles Regatta, next month. So, on that front, I imagine it will inspire a lot of viewers to take up paddling – or at least try it. In fact, when I spoke with showrunner Vivien Lin, she revealed that the entire team got involved in rowing while filming the series. Clearly, if this is a huge hit on Netflix, rowing clubs around the world need to get ready to embrace the sport.