‘Finding Her Edge’ Review: Netflix’s YA Ice Dancing Drama Could Use More Passion and Drive

There are shows that demand your attention, and reward you richly for it. They ask you to keep track of elaborate storylines, to explore the nuances of the setting with curiosity and patience, to get invested in the plights of the people you’re seeing onscreen, and in return they deliver thoughtful ideas or enthralling escapes or the giddy thrill of finding a new person to love or hate or love to hate.

Then there are the ones that expect none of that — that seem designed less for you to lean into than lean back from. Finding Her Edge, the new ice dancing YA drama from Netflix, is just this kind of series, and by that standard it’s not half bad. Blunt, inoffensive and occasionally diverting without ever being completely engrossing, it’s probably best enjoyed in the background while you commute or fold laundry or (let’s be real) scroll your phone.

The story, adapted by Jeff Norton from the books by Jennifer Iacopelli, centers on teenaged Adriana Russo (Madelyn Keys), the overlooked middle sister of a skating dynasty. Though she once showed great promise as an ice dancer, she quit after the death of her mother, Sarah (Celia Owen), two years earlier — to seemingly very little objection from her father Will (Harmon Walsh), a former Olympic figure skater who can hardly keep the sneer off his lip any time he’s forced to pronounce the phrase “ice dancing.”

These days, Adriana helps Will run the family’s training facility, which, despite his allegedly incredible coaching (which mainly comes down to spouting motivational poster catchphrases), is on the verge of foreclosure. The clan’s best hope for salvation lies with self-absorbed eldest sister, Elise (Alexandra Beaton), a contender for Olympic gold and the sponsorships that come with them. But when injury derails those plans, Adriana reenters the arena herself with a new partner, the arrogant but talented Brayden (Cale Ambrozic) — just as her ex-partner and ex-boyfriend, Freddie (Olly Atkins), moves into Russo Rink with his new partner, Adriana’s childhood bestie Riley (Millie Davis).

You can probably guess where it goes from there. Adriana’s arc reads like a word cloud of tropes from similarly toned YA dramas like The Summer I Turned Pretty or My Life With the Walter Boys: sibling rivalry, a love triangle, a social media scandal, a fake dating scheme. But to the extent that Finding Her Edge, well, finds an edge, it’s in the ice dancing.

The sport offers many convenient opportunities for photogenic young people to trade intense gazes or brush up against each other or almost kiss (everything that happens both on and off the ice falls well within the TV-PG rating). Moreover, unlike a certain other recent drama about the romantic potential of winter sports, this series takes the time to admire their work as athletes — even if the hilariously obvious use of body doubles only adds to the sense that we’re meant to be half-watching on an iPhone while waiting for soup to come to a boil.

Likewise, while these arcs make sense in broad strokes, they look disjointed up close. Finding Her Edge offers enough moments of sweetness and humor to make watching more blandly pleasant than painfully boring. I particularly enjoyed the rare bits of Brayden and Freddie getting along, or less rare ones of the Russo sisters bonding under pressure. But just about the only character who seems consistent and believable across all eight hours is Camille, a coach and family friend played by Meredith Forlenza with an endless wellspring of warmth and patience.

Otherwise, the ensemble is plagued by iffy performances and inconsistent line readings. Brayden, the supposed “bad boy of figure skating,” seems more flaky than rebellious, and Ambrozic’s chemistry with Keys, while affable, hardly lives up to the in-universe description of the pair as “the hottest couple on the ice.” Will, a supposedly loving father who’d do anything for his girls, puts so much on Adriana’s shoulders that you might mistake her, in early episodes, for a pre-godmother Cinderella. And with everyone blowing hot and cold all of the time, whether any two people get along at any given moment is always anyone’s guess.

Taken as a whole, the sharp pivots can make the Russos and their friends seem kind of like assholes — which would be fine, if the show were not insistent on framing them as entirely sympathetic and lovable people.

Still, the inconsistencies only matter if you’re actually paying enough attention to notice that Riley has seemingly nothing to do but wait for Adriana and Freddie’s endless will-they-won’t-they to play out. Or that Adriana seems awfully careless for a girl who’s constantly tearing into Brayden for his lack of professionalism, or Elise for her disregard for other people’s feelings. Or so on.

They’re less likely to bug you if you’re just looking for a distraction unburdened by the ambition to pretend it’s anything much deeper than that. In which case, you could do worse than Finding Her Edge, which is at least blessed with a mild enough tone to keep it from ever getting too sappy or mopey or otherwise intense. But with the roughly million other YA dramas of wildly varying quality in existence already, you could probably do better, too.