‘Crew Girl’ Review: Netflix’s YA Rowing Drama Struggles to Find Its Rhythm
Teagan Tao’s life takes a dramatic turn long before she ever sets foot in a boat. After her father’s financial troubles force her and her mother to leave their comfortable life in Los Angeles and return to a small Massachusetts town, the sixteen-year-old single sculler loses not only her sport but also her friends and her sense of identity in a single summer.
‘Crew Girl’ picks up from this pivotal moment, following Teagan as she enrolls at the prestigious Easton Prep, only to discover that the school lacks a girls’ rowing team. To navigate this, she becomes the coxswain for the boys’ varsity crew, a chaotic and status-driven group that she must whip into shape while also dealing with family issues at home and a slow-burning rivalry that evolves into romance with two of her new teammates. This setup could easily have devolved into a lengthy underdog sports montage, and there are moments early on where it almost does.
What truly keeps the show afloat is its commitment to using rowing as a metaphor for the various challenges in Teagan’s life. Throughout the initial episodes, she learns that control doesn’t equate to doing everything herself. Watching this lesson unfold through the dynamics of a boat, where one selfish stroke can disrupt the entire crew, provides the series with a backbone that many teen dramas often lack. This structural choice is more intelligent than the genre typically receives credit for, even if the dialogue doesn’t always match the depth of the premise.
Miku Martineau carries the weight of the show with impressive skill. Her portrayal of Teagan is stubborn yet relatable, wounded but not overly mopey, and the series wisely allows her character to be prickly rather than instantly likable. However, the supporting cast doesn’t fare as well. Josh and Cam, the two boys vying for Teagan’s affection, are primarily defined by their rivalry rather than as individuals with lives beyond the boathouse. As the season progresses, the show’s tendency to filter nearly every subplot through the lens of competitive rowing begins to feel less like a thematic choice and more like a lack of creativity.
The production’s visual elements deserve commendation. The rowing sequences possess a physicality and clarity that many sports dramas struggle to achieve, and the effort put into making the racing scenes feel genuine rather than staged is evident. However, the show stumbles in its connective scenes, which aim to enrich the world beyond the water but often rely on genre clichés instead of earning their emotional moments authentically.
Despite these shortcomings, ‘Crew Girl’ is not a bad watch. It serves as comfort television in the truest sense, a series you can binge over a weekend without feeling the need to think too deeply. There is genuine craftsmanship in how it incorporates its central sport rather than merely using it as a backdrop for a teen soap. However, I wish the writing had as much faith in its characters as it does in its premise.
Overall, ‘Crew Girl’ is a solidly entertaining debut season that never fully realizes the potential suggested by its best ideas. I would rate it 7 out of 10, reflecting a series with genuine craft and a star-making performance, but held back by a supporting cast and a script that rarely rows in sync with its main character.
Did ‘Crew Girl’ win you over or leave you drifting? Share your thoughts in the comments.