Netflix’s Crew Girl emerges as the newest contender in the streaming world of competitive teen drama. The series invites us away from the turbulent ice to the uncharted waters.
While its competition tackles figure skating or ice hockey, Crew Girl deals with the unexplored rowing culture. We enter it through the eyes of 16-year-old star athlete Teagan Tao(Mika Martineau). After the sins of her father publicly ruin her life, she and her mom are forced to move to Easton for a fresh start. She tries to join the girls’ rowing team at her new school, only to be hit with more disappointment – There isn’t one.
A door opens when she becomes the coxswain for the dysfunctional boys’ team. Now she must rally the unruly team on her path for healing and normalcy. Along the road to redemption she gets caught in the middle of the team’s best rowers: cocky rich boy, Josh Regis(Sam Braun), and the passionate local, Cam Dillinger(Kyle Clark).
Written by Vivian Lin, Crew Girl is a riveting coming-of-age story with a unique, charming personality and multilayered narrative. Viewers can easily be pulled into the plot within the first five minutes of the pilot episode. The series rows in a direction that rises with personal stakes and the talent in front of it. Mika Martineau, Sam Braun, Kyle Clark, and most of the cast succeed in making their characters organic while we invest in them.
Crew Girl Rows On Rocky Waters With Purpose
The girl joining the boys’ sports team to show everyone what she is made of is a TV trope we have seen done before numerous times. Many of us are tired of seeing recycled plots, while others find comfort in familiar elements. Lin rises to the challenge of taking something old and creating something new with Crew Girl. She has thoughtfully written the teen drama with relevant, mature themes to revolve around the politics of a sport rarely depicted on screen.
Crew Girl makes rowing interesting and exciting by treating it as a character. This central plot device feels like a powerful living being that Teagan, her team, and other characters share a kinship with, for better or worse. For Teagan, the sport she loves represents stability. When her life implodes she immediately fixates on getting back to her goal because it is the one thing that keeps her centred in all the chaos. To Josh and his family, rowing is more than a sport – It is power. As for Cam, he sees it as a way out. Overall, rowing is a common goal and religious covenant, contextualized on screen.
The storyline regarding this niche sport is handled with gravitas that competing YA dramas lack. Genre tropes involving love triangles, family drama, mean girls, and enemies-to-lovers are present, yet dignified in a way that respects its targeted demographic. Crew Girl stimulates viewers intellectually and emotionally, seldom relying on sex appeal. This series is anything but predictable as it astutely subverts expectations through misdirection and character development.
Crew Girl and her Crew
Mika Martineau’s Teagan Tao is a tragic protagonist when you consider that she is forced into a redemption arc on behalf of someone else. She is not perfect, but she never did anything worthy of misfortune. Martineau nevers plays Teagan as a victim or typical fish out of water. She conveys her as the hero of her story, trying to figure things out and atone for her father’s sins. You can’t help but root for her when she becomes coxswain and organically earns the boys’ trust and respect over the course of the season.
Sam Braun’s Josh Regis is the second best character. On surface he is an arrogant, rich white boy who thinks he is the almighty Zeus reincarnated. Pardon the hyperbole because that is not at all who he is. For the majority of the season we see him pretend to be the Regis his family expects, or demands. In all honesty, he is the unhappiest person on the show, just putting on a show himself.
Kyle Clark’s Cam Dillinger is an honourable, boy-next-door type with everything on the line. He is not as priveleged as Josh or any of his teammates, and constantly gets reminded of it. Imagine David who never got chance to slay Goliath, that is exactly how Clark plays Dillinger. He has a stifled warrior spirit, itching to break free.
If there is one thing obvious in Crew Girl, it would be the love triangle between these three. Regis and Dillinger duel each other in organic chemistry with Teagan. There is an order to this mess because of how rhythmically they play off each other to the story beats. Online discourse on which pairing being “endgame” is imminent.
Rowing to Victory
Although Crew Girl is worthy of praise, it stumbles a bit when it comes to the adult characters. Despite the best efforts of the actors, most of them are one-dimensional. It is a gripe that can go unnoticeable due to their supporting roles in main character arcs. The Regis parents are a prime example of this. They lack personality but provide much needed context for why Josh is the way he is.
Crew Girl is ultimately a comfort watch that is unafraid to deal with discomfort. Actually, it embraces it. Vivian Lin crafted a nuanced female-driven tale about turning pain into power in an unfamiliar competitive world that resonates with young adults. The series arrives at the perfect time in the boom of YA sports drama, following the likes of Finding Her Edge, Off Campus, and All American. Mika Martineau commands infectious talent as Teagan Tao, demanding the same dedication from her peers.
Viewers will be pleasantly surprised by this series, for its writing and direction. Crew Girl is on the verge of igniting a new fandom.
