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Sports, romance, and the drama of starting over: Netflix's Crew Girl has it all, or at least everything you could ask for in a coming-of-age YA drama. Miku Martineau (Bet, The Miniature Wife) stars as Teagan Tao, a champion rower who flees a family scandal with her mother and ends up at a private school—but the school has no girls' rowing program, so, despite a lack of experience, she signs on as a coxswain on the boys' team, intending to show 'em all how it's done (while also managing a teen love triangle for the ages). If you're looking for more angsty teen dramas—some also with a sporty edge—try these other shows.
Finding Her Edge (2026 – )Another coming-of-age sports drama, this one shares with Crew Girl not just a Canadian origin but an executive producer in Jeff Norton. Oh, and also a love triangle—this time involving ice dancing partners. Madelyn Keys is Adriana Russo, scion of a family of competitive ice skaters fallen on hard times. Adriana and her sister hope to reclaim past glory, but things are complicated by her developing feelings for her new skating partner, Brayden, as well as reawakening feelings for her ex-boyfriend, now a competitor. Stream Finding Her Edge on Netflix.
Finding Her Edge (2026 – ) at Netflix Learn More Learn More at Netflix The Summer I Turned Pretty (2022 – 2025)Less about sports, but nevertheless one of streaming's most compelling teen love triangles. And it takes place near water, so I'm counting it. Adapted from the trilogy of YA bestsellers by Jenny Han, this series focuses on the coming-of-age of teenager Belly Conklin (Lola Tung), who is 16 as the series starts. Belly and her family spend every summer at Cousins Beach with the Fisher family, a tradition that's all well and good until she starts to develop a romantic attraction for first one Fisher brother (Christopher Briney), and then the other (Gavin Casalegno), planting the seeds for a love triangle that unfolds over the course of several summers, and which sees Belly grow into young adulthood to a soundtrack made up largely of Taylor Swift tunes. The three-season run is over, but there's a continuation movie on the way. Stream The Summer I Turned Pretty on Prime Video.
The Summer I Turned Pretty (2022 – 2025) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video Gossip Girl (2007 – 2012)Crew Girl co-star Thomas Cadrot (Coach Hayden) described the show as "Gossip Girl and Friday Night Lights on a boat," so our next couple of entries will follow that train. Teen drama at its finest and most bitchy, Gossip Girl follows the many, many scandals of a group of young Upper East Side socialites and hangers-on. The tangled teenage lives of Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively), her best frenemy Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester), scholarship kid Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley), and plenty more pretty young boys and girls are chronicled in meticulous detail by the title's mysterious, omnipresent Gossip Girl (voiced by Kristen Bell). The short(-er)-lived 2021 follow-up is also available on HBO Max. Stream Gossip Girl on HBO Max and Netflix.
Gossip Girl (2007 – 2012) at HBO Max Learn More Learn More at HBO Max Friday Night Lights (2006 – 2011)Speaking of: A show that survived on viewer affection and critical acclaim more than ratings (at a time when such a thing was still possible), Friday Night Lights ran for five seasons without ever being a particularly big hit, but it's had an impressive afterlife. A drama about small-town high school football rather than a comedy, the show nonetheless stays positive and inspirational, even as it captures the highs and (often heartbreaking) lows of life for the kids, coaches, and families around tiny Dillon, Texas. It's one of TV's most successful sports dramas, expanding the tragedy and triumph of the original movie into a long-form narrative. A reboot is in the works. Stream Friday Night Lights on Prime Video and Paramount+.
Friday Night Lights (2006 – 2011) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video Bet (2025 – )Not so much with the athletics here, unless we're going to count underground gambling at a private school, which, why the hell not? Our biggest link to Crew Girl is in series leads: both star (the very busy) Miku Martineau, here playing Japanese transfer student Yumeko Kamamoto. Based on a manga series, this one's a bit less grounded, but it's an awful lot of fun: St. Dominic's is an exclusive prep school where the social hierarchy is dictated by success or failure in its highly organized secret betting pools. Luckily, Yumeko is a pretty good gambler, which is no coincidence: Her parents were murdered by a member of the school's board of governors, and her motivation is to climb the ranks, figure out who the killer is, and get revenge. It's returning for a second season. Stream Bet on Netflix.
Bet (2025 – ) at Netflix Learn More Learn More at Netflix Off Campus (2026 – )More mature (meaning only that there's a bit more sex) than Crew Girl, Off Campus plays in the Heated Rivalry/horny hockey sandbox. The show stars Ella Bright as Hannah Wells, a music student who has a meet-cute with Boston Bruin-in-waiting Garrett Graham (Belmont Cameli) when she accidentally walks in on him naked in the gym showers. He needs a tutor; she needs to make the guy she has a crush on jealous...you get the picture. Stream Off Campus on Prime Video.
Off Campus (2026 – ) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video All American (2018 – 2026)Lots of romantic entanglements over the course of this show's eight seasons, but the heart of All American (for most of its run) is Spencer James (Daniel Ezra), based on real-life NFL linebacker Spencer Paysinger. A star player for his high school team in Crenshaw, he's recruited by the coach (Taye Diggs) of a team in Beverly Hills to come and play for them, forcing Spencer to navigate two very different worlds while trying to build a life and potential career. Stream All American on Netflix.
All American (2018 – 2026) at Netflix Learn More Learn More at Netflix My Life with the Walter Boys (2023 – )Not much of a sports angle here, but the premise and vibe are similar nonetheless. Nikki Rodriguez is Jackie Howard, a 15-year-old NYC kid whose parents and sister have recently died in a car accident. With nowhere else to go, she's invited to live with her mom's best friend and family on a ranch in Colorado—a very different world. Starting over almost from scratch at a young age, Jackie has to adapt to her new environment while grieving her loss; though, of course, there's some comfort to be found in hot brothers Alex and Cole, each of whom takes an interest in Jackie. Stream My Life with the Walter Boys on Netflix.
My Life with the Walter Boys (2023 – ) at Netflix Learn More Learn More at Netflix Forever (2025 – )Who does teen coming-of-age drama better than Judy Blume? This adaptation of her widely censored 1975 novel updates the setting to current-day Los Angeles and expands the novel's exploration of the complexities of teen love and sex to include the challenges of being young, exceptional, and Black in 2020s America. Keisha Clark (Lovie Simone) attends a predominantly Black private school and is working toward a track scholarship at Howard, while Justin Edwards (Michael Cooper Jr.) goes to school with white kids and is on his parents' track to go to Northeastern, ideally on a basketball scholarship. The smart show follows their budding romance in a way that feels real and compelling. Stream Forever on Netflix.
Forever (2025 – ) at Netflix Learn More Learn More at Netflix Twenty-Five Twenty-One (2022)The setting is very different both in time and place, but all that only serves to remind us that some experiences are universal. Told in flashbacks via a rediscovered diary, we revisit 1998, when Na Hee-do (Kim Tae-ri) was a champion fencer at her high school, until the IMF crisis that devastated the Southeast Asian economy forced the team to disband. Transferring to a new school, she meets Baek Yi-jin (Nam Joo-hyuk), heir to a chaebol family that went bankrupt during the crisis, who's readjusting to a life with no financial means to speak of. Career and romantic complications intersect with history over the following several years as we follow Hee-do's life into the (nearly) present day. Stream Twenty-Five Twenty-One on Netflix.
Twenty-Five Twenty-One (2022) at Netflix Learn More Learn More at Netflix