Crew Girl follows a teenage rower who joins a boys’ crew team at an elite prep school, mixing sports rivalry with romance and family drama.
Netflix is taking viewers into the competitive world of teenage rowing with its latest YA drama, Crew Girl, a series that combines elite sports, romance, family conflict and the familiar social politics of a wealthy prep school.
Starring Miku Martineau as teenage rower Teagan, the series follows a talented athlete whose life changes after she transfers to the prestigious Easton Prep.
The school offers plenty of opportunities for academic and athletic success, but there is one problem for Teagan.
Easton Prep only recently became coeducational and does not have a girls’ rowing program. Determined to continue pursuing her ambitions in the sport, Teagan finds another way onto the water by becoming the coxswain for the boys’ varsity crew team.
That decision puts her at the center of a group of competitive young athletes while also introducing her to a very different social environment.
The setup gives Crew Girl an opportunity to explore the challenges of being a young woman entering a traditionally male sporting environment. However, the series often chooses familiar YA drama conventions over deeper exploration of its characters and world.
Teagan’s ultimate goal is to attract the attention of college recruiters and pursue her dream of rowing at Stanford. Yet the connection between becoming a coxswain and achieving that long-term ambition is not always particularly clear.
What the arrangement does provide is plenty of opportunities for the series to showcase its central sport.
Rowing is not simply a background detail in Crew Girl. The sport is at the heart of almost every major storyline.
The series spends considerable time showing the team training, competing and developing its complicated internal relationships. The picturesque lakes and dramatic rowing sequences also give the show a distinctive visual setting compared with many other teenage dramas.
For viewers who enjoy sports stories, that focus may be one of the show’s strongest features.
Teagan quickly becomes part of a close-knit group of male teammates, but two members of the crew receive particular attention.
Josh, played by Sam Braun, comes from a wealthy family whose name carries significant influence at the school. He represents the privileged side of Easton Prep and has an attitude that frequently puts him at odds with others.
Then there is Cam, played by Kyle Clark, who comes from a working-class background and feels increasingly out of place among the school’s wealthy students.
The contrast between Josh and Cam eventually feeds into another familiar YA television storyline: a love triangle involving Teagan.
On paper, the setup has all the ingredients of a conventional teen romance. In practice, however, the relationships do not always receive enough development to explain why the characters are drawn to one another.
The romantic storyline is therefore likely to feel familiar to anyone who has watched similar high-school dramas.
Interestingly, Crew Girl often feels more convincing when it concentrates on the team itself rather than the romance.
The camaraderie created through rowing gives the series some of its warmer moments. The athletes may have different backgrounds and personalities, but their shared commitment to the team gradually brings them together.
Teagan’s observation that people can become your people simply because you belong to the same team captures one of the show’s more effective ideas.
There are also several lighter storylines involving the crew members.
Baloo, one of the more outgoing members of the group, seeks advice from his teammates about how to approach someone he has met online. Another storyline involves Noah, the team’s more academically inclined member, attempting to organize a Roaring Twenties-themed murder mystery for the group.
These smaller moments help demonstrate that the athletes are more than just competitors.
However, the show’s biggest weakness comes when it tries to explore life outside rowing.
Almost every major conflict eventually connects back to the sport, whether it involves relationships, money, family problems or social status.
That narrow focus leaves several potentially interesting storylines underdeveloped.
One example is Teagan’s relationship with her mother, Ella, played by Jessica Paré.
Ella has been forced to rebuild her life after her wealthy husband leaves her following criminal trouble. She must begin again in a hometown she would rather have left behind, creating an opportunity for the show to explore motherhood, financial insecurity and starting over.
Paré brings plenty of personality to the role, balancing optimism with frustration and determination. Her scenes with Martineau also provide some of the more convincing emotional moments in the series.
Unfortunately, Ella’s storyline does not receive enough consistent attention.
The same problem affects Teagan’s friendship with Juliet, played by Olga Petsa.
Juliet is introduced as an artistic classmate with her own complicated family situation. Her introduction is deliberately dramatic, but she subsequently disappears from the story for long stretches.
That makes their supposed friendship feel less developed than it should.
Teagan herself can also fall into a familiar YA stereotype: the girl who effortlessly fits in with the boys while standing apart from more traditionally feminine characters.
The contrast is particularly noticeable in the treatment of Britney, Josh’s girlfriend.
Rather than giving Britney the same complexity as Teagan, the character is often presented primarily through jealousy, ambition and conflict.
That makes the show’s depiction of the teenage girls feel less nuanced than its portrayal of the boys.
Despite those shortcomings, Crew Girl does have an appealing quality.
The affection for rowing is obvious, and viewers who are interested in competitive sports may find themselves drawn into the training sessions and races.
The physical demands of the sport, the synchronized movement of the crew and the pressure of competition give the show an energy that its romantic storylines sometimes lack.
For viewers looking for a weekend binge, Crew Girl may therefore have enough ingredients to keep them watching.
It has an attractive setting, a recognizable YA cast of characters, competitive sports, romance and plenty of interpersonal conflict.
The problem is that most of those elements have been explored many times before.
Rather than reinventing the teen sports drama, Crew Girl largely follows a familiar route.
Its strongest moments come when it allows the rowing team to feel like a genuine community and when it explores the personal challenges facing the athletes.
Its weaker moments arrive when characters are reduced to familiar stereotypes or potentially interesting storylines are pushed aside in favor of another rowing-related conflict.
Ultimately, Crew Girl may be an easy series to watch, particularly for audiences who already enjoy YA dramas and sports stories.
But while Netflix’s new series has enough charm to make it entertaining, it does not always have enough depth to make it memorable.
For viewers searching for a light teenage sports drama filled with romance, rivalries and scenic rowing sequences, it may be worth adding to the weekend watchlist.
Those hoping for a more layered exploration of adolescence, family relationships and the pressures of elite sport may find themselves wishing the series had gone further.