Pop Culture Happy Hour - Crew Girl

Episode Date: September 16, 2026

The Netflix TV show Crew Girl follows in the footsteps of successful coming-of-age dramas like Sterling Point and The Summer I Turned Pretty. It follows Teagan, an ambitious high school rower (Miku Martineau) trying to fit in on the boys’ crew team at a fancy prep school. The show’s got a plucky fish out of water, a love triangle with two very different boys (Kyle Clark and Sam Braun), and a dreamy sunlit setting. But does Crew Girl sink, swim, or row?Looking for more teen coming-of-age stories? Check out these episodes:You’ll want more time in ‘Sterling Point’‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ has drama, romance and the music of Taylor SwiftThe delightful 'My Old Ass' seeks wisdom from hindsightConnect with Pop Culture Happy Hour:Letterboxd / FacebookOur weekly newsletterSupport public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Are there any O'Dame moments? No, but are there, heck yeah, moments. There are. The Netflix TV show, Crew Girl, follows in the footsteps of successful coming-of-age dramas, like The Summer I Turned Pretty, and Sterling Point. You've got a plucky fish out of water, a love triangle with two very different boys, and a dreamy sunlit setting. But does Crew Girl sink, swim or, well, row?

I'm Stephen Thompson, joining me today on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour, is culture critic Kristen Mineser. Hey, Kristen, Hey, Stephen, nice to see you again. Good to see you, too. Also with us, Margaret H. Willison. She's a culture writer who is also teaching a class about Jane Austen. Hey, Margaret. Hey, Stephen, it's great to be back. It is great to see you too.

So, Crew Girl sets its plot into motion pretty quickly. Tegan Tao is a wealthy and ambitious high school student who's enjoying success as a rower when disaster strikes. Her father is implicated in a massive financial scandal, disappears, forcing Tegan and her mom Ella to move back to Ella's hometown on the other side of the country. Tegan is played by Miku Martino, and Ella is played by Jessica Perre. But crewgirl isn't about a rich kid thrust into a world of Normies. Instead, the show has Tegan trying to fit in at a fancy prep school. The twist is that the school only has a boys' crew

team, leaving Tegan a tougher path to success. The situation also gives her some complicated romantic options. Does she date the team's brooding, financially distressed local boy Cam, played by Kyle Clark? Or is there something there with her and the arrogant, super-rich golden boy Josh, played by Sam Braun? Yeah, I saw you talking to the coach. I've been in the stroke seat since I've been at this school and suddenly I'm down to bow. Maybe you're not the best rower. Maybe you're not pulling your weight. Maybe you should keep your head in the boat instead of up your ass. Who the hell do you think you are? Who the hell are you? Who the hell are you? Crew Girl is streaming in its entirety on Netflix, Margaret H. Willison.

I'm going to start with you. What did you think? I mean, would I say this show is good? No. Would I say this show knows exactly what it is and that I like what it is? Yes. If you're a connoisseur of a soapy teen drama, like this one delivers. It's not as good as like a gossip girl. I wouldn't have put it on, say, the CW at its heyday. but it would have fit in comfortably next to ABC Family's classic show Greek. And like, that's a particular flavor, right? And it's one I enjoy consuming from time to time. So I felt like this was good. The actors are all pretty and charismatic.

The people who are supposed to have chemistry have chemistry. My mom always asks me why I'm obsessed with group, but I never know how to explain it. It's not an obsession. It's just who I am. Same. That's where I feel the most like me. Kristen is shaking her head at that. We'll come back to that.

It took me so long to recognize Jessica Perre from the show I'd known her in previously, the prestigious madman. Because here I was like, who is she? She looks so familiar. Have I seen her in a commercial? So I think that kind of gives you a sense of like the acting levels we're working with here. But I enjoyed watching all eight hours of this. And I think there are many who will also enjoy it.

Okay. How about you, Kristen? I think that you are correct, Margaret, that there are people who will enjoy watching this show. But I am not one of them. My first initial thought watching this is the lead has zero chemistry. The love triangle has no sizzle. There are plot holes left and right. Plus, most of the so-called teens look closer to 30 than 16, which really threw me for a loop.

This is an epidemic. across all these shows. Oh, it's so bad. They look like it's time for my first brokerage. But I will say, I do think this show has a place in the world. I noticed that cast members like Kyle Clark and Connor Wong were in the babysitters club. I think this is a nice next step show for viewers of that. It's kind of like Baby's First Soap Opera. This is great. If you're ready for my first soap opera, if you're 11, if you want something that's very predictable, very low stakes, everybody's pretty, even if they are middle-aged, this is probably the show for you. Even if they're middle-aged, they're still pretty. Wow, thanks, Kristen.

Come on, you don't really want middle-aged people sitting next to you in math class, do you? Oh. Not in high school. Certainly not. Unless it was Stephen, then I would have felt right at home. Yes. But Stephen, what did you think? Okay, so here's my thing with this show.

I think with any kind of romance, any kind of soap. opera, any kind of drama that's supposed to involve, you know, family secrets and forbidden romance and all that is, does this show pass the O'Dame test? No, absolutely not. Now, the O'Dam test is how many times in a viewing of this show do I, the viewer, see some sort of plot twist, some sort of development, some sort of shocking reveal, and say, oh, damn. And, you know, in a show like Sterling Point, it happens, you know, multiple times, kind of regularly enough that you're kind of mashing that, you know, watch next episode button.

The number of times I said, O-DAM, watching eight episodes of this show, was zero. Yeah. Yeah. And that's tricky. That makes it tricky for me as an O-DAM connoisseur to recommend this show. I found it pleasant enough to watch. I wasn't like, oh, God, I can't believe I have to watch it. another episode.

Like, because it kind of breezily rolls along. It's pretty amiable. I don't think the scripts are great. I think the performances are somewhat uneven, but there is charisma here. There are definitely actors on this. Is there? I think so. I think there are actors on this show that we will see in other things.

I think Sam Braun, who plays Josh, the kind of cocky Golden Boy character, I think he's got some, like, Nicholas Gallatin to his game, where you're going to see that guy pop. up as he man. You know, and I feel like there are actors here, we'll see in other things. And certainly actors that, as you've acknowledged, we've seen in other stuff. That element of it I basically enjoyed, but I kind of just from the premise on down, I just didn't really click with it. I kind of expected, okay, you know, her family suffers this fall from grace.

So now she's going to have to like learn to make do in a humbler environment. And they just send her to like to this extremely elite prep school. Yeah, she has the indignity of living in, like, a lovely pre-war house in a New England town. Right, and she's like, this house is terrible. And you're like, everybody I know lives worse than this woman is currently living. The bones are so good, you can tell. How dare you? Yeah, I'm like, oh, I am so sorry for you.

Right. So, like, right away, I'm not necessarily clicking with it. Right away, it's kind of the lifestyles of rich high school kids. And I just, that's never going to be as interesting. to me, but I did think, like, some of the rowing scenes and some of the, like, the general rowing culture and how they get into that, I think they, they managed to assemble for, for, you know, they have a kind of a team of athletes. And, of course, like, you only got eight episodes, you're going to give each of these guys one characteristic.

Yeah. And, you know, and, you know, and they're fun characteristics. But they're pretty fun characteristics. And I think some of those guys are pretty good. I think Connor Wong is fantastic. He's the fashionable one. Absolutely the standout character. So what are we feeling? Pedro Pascal Met Gala, Paul Meskul's swag, bad bunny, big swing. What's the vibe? Right? It was resonating. Every time he is on camera, everything lights up. He's got this it boy quality. I just wish the lead romantic guys had that same it boy quality because I did not believe for a second that, oh, I just can't resist you.

Oh, no, I can't resist you. I'm torn between both of you. it seemed like everybody was kind of a paper doll being moved across the table toward each other. Well, now it's your turn to be on the side of the table. Now it's your turn to be moved over here. And it just did not have that electricity that I wish it had. I'm sorry, guys. I don't need to just say bad things about this show. You have nothing to apologize for.

But also, I think one of my other issues was just there were so many plot inconsistencies. Like, you know how in episode one our least? Teigen, turns out she's a prodigy as a coxen. And then, like, by the time we're on episode too, she can't get any of the guys to row and sync with each other. I know this is a big change, but change can be good. Right? Yeah, this is going great. Cool. Like, there's all these things that change from episode to episode, like our townie who will do anything to get money to save his dad's business. But then later, when he's, he's, His enemy says, can you fix my car for me?

He's like, yeah, and I won't charge you anything. And it's like, what? What just happened? I don't know if that's so much the plot inconsistency. It's just like a poorly written character. It's like, well, we have to show he's noble. Of course he won't charge. And it's like, charge that man.

Redistribute that wealth. We don't need any money. It's like you don't understand how important the team is. All right. We've got a lot more thoughts on Crew Girl. We will be right back after the break. Welcome back. Margaret, what's on your mind here? I hear everything you guys are saying, and I'm just astonished.

We've gotten this far into recording. And I'm the first one to bring up the most important moment in this entire series, which is when Tegan's rich screw-up friend gets a birthday message from her parents. That is not, in fact, from her parents, but instead from the pop star Kesha, who actually appears on camera as Kesha in her phone. Hey, Julian. It's your girl, Keisha. I heard from your mom that it is your birthday. So happy birthday bitch.

There are moments like that throughout that really redeem it for me. Like, are there any oh damn moments? No, but are there heck yeah moments. There are. And a Kesha cameo is one of them. We did need more Kesha. I love Kesha. I really do. But she was not enough to save that. And it's not fair to put that on Kesha's shoulders. It's not fair to Kesha. I was going to say, we were putting an awful lot on what is essentially like a cameo-style cameo. Yes, I know. But look, it was the right thing at the right time.

I also think some of the details about the way these kids are rich are more fun than you guys are selling it. We have our incredibly fashionable rower who ends up falling in love with again, rich screw-up friend. Am I using their names? No. Is it because I watched this show

a week ago and I certainly don't remember their character's names? Absolutely, yes. They're gone from my brain, as they should be. Is it adorable when they both show up to the formal in the same high fashion outfit? Yes, it's incredible. It's incredible. That's a great detail.

Is it incredible? Yes, Stephen. Okay, if you guys want to say that my palette has been cheapened by being around my stepkids watching a lot of really bad Disney Channel TV shows. Like, can I argue with you? No. Kristen is absolutely right. Baby's first soap is so what this show is. This is a great next show after Babysitters Club.

Or let's say you're graduating past Hannah Montana reruns and you're ready for something a little edgier or more grown up. I could totally see this running on a Saturday morning after Hey Dude or, you know, a Nickelodeon show like that in reruns. I could totally see that. As soon as the girls stop going gross, every time they see someone kiss, the show is for them. So if you have tweens in your life, we're like quietly curious when characters kiss rather than being like, ew. stop kissing. This could be a great choice for your household. Yeah, it's great for the Bayside High Crowd. Yes, 100%. Right. Other than the fact that these kids are all drinking enormous amounts of alcohol, this is definitely a gateway show more than a destination show. It's very in between. There's a little bit of swearing. There's not a lot of sex.

You know, it's definitely a little bit more, you know, kind of tween digestible than maybe a show like Sterling Point. That's kind of a little more adult. But at the same time, I mean, if that's not really a factor for you, there are just better shows in this genre. Right. I think we can all agree if you only watch one teen drama this summer, make it Sterling Point. Make it Sterling Point. Yes. Or as my household calls it, inner banks. Yes.

Well, and it shares with Sterling Point a couple of kind of structural issues where because both series are eight episodes long, they feel rushed. And they're kind of forced to accept. accelerate the plot in ways that feel like character inconsistencies. And here, I think that's a considerably bigger issue here. And I think that in a way, these eight episodes feel just as rushed while accomplishing less, if that makes sense. Yeah, that definitely makes sense. It's a very fair critique. I also think, you know, we've mentioned the like misfit friend. I'm going to actually shout out the actress Olga Peta, who plays Juliet, who's like just kind of just showing up and kind of announces like, hello, I am your friend. That character to me has more

verve and inner life as one of the more minor characters on the show, a character who is not really involved in the crew team and kind of disappears for long stretches. But that character is eccentric. Not only does she find a way to introduce Kesha into the show, but she just brings a little more tension and unpredictability to the show. And they kind of all- She also brings humor to the show, important. actor. Much needed humor. And they kind of allude without spoiling anything. They kind of allude to potentially maybe a bigger role for her in the second season, if there is one. But I just, I wanted more idiosyncrasy. And so much of this show felt very, very boilerplate. Yeah. And I really don't mind

boilerplate if there are other things that make up for it. Like, I mean, if everybody was as great as Olga Petsa, who you just mentioned, or as good as Connor Wong, who we've mentioned, the fashion boy, If everybody was that charismatic on screen and that fun to watch, and both of those characters are also just a tiny bit unpredictable, which makes them fun, the whole show would be so much better. I will say, I think we are underselling the charm of Miko Martin. No, I think that that is one of the main reasons why this show work as well and felt as watchable for me, despite having all of the many shortcomings we all agree upon completely.

Like, do I think she's going to go on to be sort of a sensation in the way that Lola tongue from the summer I turned pretty is. No, I don't think she's going to do that. Do I think she could go on to star in a number of other Netflix original shows of about this quality and make all of those shows surprisingly watchable and sort of smooth flowing? Yes, I do think she could do that. And maybe she'll impress me and do something more. But at the very least, she's great at that. And I think that's harder than we realize. I, Margaret, this is so interesting. She just fell so flat for me. And unfortunately, I felt like the TV show relied too heavily on butt shots of her. Or, like, here's a profile of her as she, like, pulls on rubber bands or whatever so we can see how ripped her stomach is.

And that didn't make up for the fact that she just lacked a lot of the electricity that we said the other supporting characters have for me. You know, that is so fair, Kristen, that's so fair. We disagree on this, but I still respect you. Yeah. I think she's very pretty in the camera. likes to focus on how pretty she is and what a nice butt she has. It really does. But I just want more from her. I want more. I wanted more from this. I want her to bring what Olga does to the screen. I wanted more from the script. I just kept coming back to the script. I just thought some of that dialogue was so clunky. Look, let's say you're sick on a weekend. Yeah. This is a great show to watch if you're sick on a weekend. Or if you're like 13 year old is homesick from school. Great show to watch. Yeah. Let's say that you have to scroll some LinkedIn today and update your profile. and have something on in the background. Right. Maybe this is the show to have on in the background. Or to give it, it's due.

Or if you really want to be introduced to my first soap opera and you're 11, this is a great show for that. This is great if you're 11. Ringing endorsement. All right. Well, that brings us to the end of our show. Kristen Meinser, Margaret H. Willison. Thanks so much for being here.

A delight, truly. Thank you so much. This episode was produced by Mike Katzif, Liz Metzker, and Caden Mills, and edited by our showrunner Jessica Reedy. Hello, Come In, provides our theme music. Thank you for listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. I'm Stephen Thompson, and we will see you all next time.