10 TV Shows Like ‘Crew Girl’ You Should Watch Next
Sports, romance, and the drama of starting a new life: the Netflix series Rowing Crew has everything, or at least everything, you could want in a coming-of-age drama. Mika Martino ( The Bet , The Petite Wife ) plays Tegan Tao, a champion rower who flees a family scandal with her mother and enrolls in a private school—but the school doesn’t have a women’s rowing program, so despite her lack of experience, she becomes the coxswain of the all-male crew, determined to show them all how it’s done (and also navigate a teen love triangle that will make history). If you’re looking for more dramatic teen series—some of which also have a sports twist—try these other shows.
Finding Your Edge (2026–)
Another coming-of-age sports drama, this one, like Team Girl, has Canadian roots and also reunites with executive producer Jeff Norton. Oh, and there’s also a love triangle—this time involving figure skating partners. Madelaine Keys plays Adriana Russo, the heiress to a struggling figure skating family. Adriana and her sister hope to reclaim their former glory, but their situation is complicated by her budding feelings for her new skating partner, Brayden, and her rekindled feelings for her ex-boyfriend, who is now also a figure skater.Watch Finding Your Edge on Netflix.
The Summer I Became Beautiful (2022–2025)
Less about sports, but still one of the most gripping teen love triangles on streaming platforms. And it’s set by the water, so I’m counting that. Based on Jenny Han’s best-selling young adult novel trilogy, the series follows 16-year-old Belly Conklin (Lola Tung) as she comes of age. Belly and her family spend every summer at Cousins Beach with the Fisher family, a tradition that’s all well and good until she develops a romantic attraction, first to one Fisher brother (Christopher Briney) and then to the other (Gavin Casalegno), setting the stage for a love triangle that unfolds over several summers, with Belly coming of age to a soundtrack largely composed of Taylor Swift songs. The three-season series has ended, but a sequel film is in the works. Watch “The Summer I Turned Beautiful” on Prime Video.
Gossip Girl (2007–2012)
“The Girl in the Crew ” co-star Thomas Kadroth (Coach Hayden) described the series as ” Gossip Girl meets Friday Night Lights on a boat,” so our next few articles will follow that tradition. Teen drama at its best and most caustic, “Gossip Girl” chronicles the numerous scandals of a group of young Upper East Side socialites and their hangers-on. The tangled teenage lives of Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively), her best friend-rival Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester), scholarship student Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley), and a host of other attractive young men and women are detailed by the mysterious and omnipresent Gossip Girl (voiced by Kristen Bell). A sequel, released in 2021, is also available on HBO Max. Watch “Gossip Girl” on HBO Max andNetflix .
Friday Night Lights (2006–2011)
Incidentally, Friday Night Lights survived more on audience love and critical acclaim than on ratings (back when that was still possible). It ran for five seasons without becoming particularly popular, but it has an impressive history of success since its end. More of a small-town high school football drama than a comedy, the series nonetheless remains positive and inspiring, even as it explores the ups and (often heartbreaking) downs of the lives of kids, coaches, and families in the tiny town of Dillon, Texas. It’s one of the most successful sports dramas on television, expanding the tragedy and triumph of the original film into a sweeping narrative. A reboot is currently in the works. Watch Friday Night Lights on Prime Video and Paramount+ .
Rate (2025 – )
It’s less about sports and more about underground gambling at a private school, though why not? Our main connection to “Crew Girl” is the lead cast: both series star the (very busy) Miku Martino, who plays Japanese exchange student Yumeko Kamamoto. Based on a manga, this series is a little less realistic but still very engaging: St. Dominic’s is an elite prep school where social hierarchy is determined by success or failure in carefully organized, secret betting games. Luckily, Yumeko is quite a gambler, and for good reason: her parents were murdered by a member of the school’s board of governors, and her motivation is to rise through the ranks, discover the killer, and get revenge. The series is returning for a second season.Watch “Bet” on Netflix.
Off-campus (2026–)
More mature (meaning, a little sexier) than Team Girl , Off Campus is set in the world of Hot Rivalries and raunchy hockey. It stars Ella Bright as Hannah Wells, a music student who accidentally meets future Boston Bruins player Garrett Graham (Belmont Cameli) when she catches him naked in the gym showers. He needs a tutor; she needs to make the guy she’s crushing on jealous… you get the idea. Watch Off Campus on Prime Video.
All-American athlete (2018–2026)
Throughout its eight seasons, “All American” featured numerous romantic entanglements, but the heart of the show (for much of its run) was Spencer James (Daniel Ezra), based on real-life NFL linebacker Spencer Paysinger. A star player at Crenshaw High School, he receives an offer from the coach (Taye Diggs) to play for the Beverly Hills team, forcing Spencer to balance two very different worlds while trying to navigate his life and potential career.Watch “All American” on Netflix.
My Life with the Brothers Walter (2023–)
There’s no overt sports theme, but the plot and tone are nevertheless similar. Nikki Rodriguez plays Jackie Howard, a 15-year-old New York girl whose parents and sister were recently killed in a car accident. With nowhere to go, she’s invited to live with her mother’s best friend and her family on a ranch in Colorado—a completely different world. Starting virtually from scratch at a young age, Jackie must adapt to her new surroundings while coping with loss, though she finds solace in her attractive brothers, Alex and Cole, who each take an interest in her.Watch My Life with the Brothers Walter on Netflix.
Forever (2025 – )
Who better to tackle coming-of-age dramas than Judy Blume? This adaptation of her censored 1975 novel sets the action in contemporary Los Angeles and expands its exploration of the complexities of teenage love and sex to include the challenges of being young, different, and Black in 2020s America. Keisha Clarke (Lovie Simone) attends a majority-Black private school and aspires to earn an athletic scholarship to Howard University, while Justin Edwards (Michael Cooper Jr.) is a white student and follows in his parents’ footsteps, aiming to attend Northeastern University, ideally on a basketball scholarship. The clever series explores their budding romance in a way that feels realistic and gripping.Watch Forever on Netflix.
Twenty-five twenty-one (2022)
Set in a vastly different time and place, the story reminds us that some experiences are universal. Told in flashback through a discovered diary, the story takes us back to 1998, when Na Hee-do (Kim Tae-ri) was a champion fencing player at her school until the IMF crisis, which devastated the Southeast Asian economy, forced the team to disband. Transferring to a new school, she meets Baek Yi-jin (Nam Joo-hyuk), the heir to a chaebol family bankrupted by the crisis, who is struggling to adapt to life without any financial resources. Career and romantic complications intertwine with the story over the next few years, and we follow Hee-do’s life up to (almost) the present day.Watch Twenty-Five Twenty-One on Netflix.