Reviews for 'Spinning Out' (Netflix's Figure Skating Drama) - who's watching?

[Sylvia]

‘Spinning Out’: TV Review

Netflix's gritty figure skating drama 'Spinning Out' stars Kaya Scodelario as a plagued athlete fighting for her last chance at victory.

www.hollywoodreporter.com

Netflix's 'Spinning Out' Is More About Family Than Figure Skating

In the first five minutes of Spinning Out, the Netflix series about figure skating that dropped in its entirety on New Year’s Day, Kat Baker jogs through snow flurry to the same symphony that was playing when she cracked her skull on the ice a year…

www.bustle.com

Spinning Out: Netflix's Figure Skating Show Is Bad but Fun

Come for the over-the-top drama, stay for the Johnny Weir guest appearances

www.tvguide.com

‘Spinning Out’ is the Trashy Ice Skating Drama You’ve Always Wanted

It’s not good, but it is great.

decider.com

Official site: https://www.netflix.com/title/80201590

 

[Sylvia]

Does The Cast Of Spinning Out Really Skate?

The skating stunts in "Spinning Out" are so seamless it's hard to tell when the stars are skating and when doubles take over.

www.refinery29.com

Relevant excerpts:

Two of the show's stars who are definitely doing all their own skating are Johnny Weir, who played Gabe, and Jonathan Van Ness, who played Bruce. Weir is a two-time Olympian in figure skating, which means no skating double was required for his role. Van Ness is not a professional skater, but he has been training on the rink for some time. Bruce didn't pull any moves on the ice that JVN himself couldn't do.

... January Jones' skate double was Emma Cullen, a young Canadian skater. Meanwhile Scodelario's character Kat had four skating doubles throughout the 10 episodes. Her jump double was Kim Deguise Léveillée, a Canadian skater and coach who was the 2014 junior national champion. Léveillée was also the skating double for Kat's sister Serena. Kat's regular skating double was Michelle Long, another Canadian skater. Two women also played Kat's pairs skating double. In episodes 3 and 4, Elizabeth Putnam did the pair skating as Kat. Putnam is a two-time Canadian bronze medalist in pairs skating with her partner Sean Wirtz. In episodes 7 and 10, Evelyn Walsh was Kat's pairs double.

Walsh performed alongside Justin's (Evan Roderick) double Trennt Michaud. The duo was especially good at Kat and Justin's signature move — the lasso lift. That's when the woman does the splits above the man's head and he spins her around. "I think we did 20 lasso lifts [to get it right for one scene]. It was awesome," Walsh told The London Free Press of her Spinning Out stunt double role [article link]. Justin's regular skating double was Dylan David Moscovitch, who won a silver medal at the 2014 Olympics with the Canadian team.
The other two doubles used throughout the series were Lilika Zheng, who skated for Jenn and Madeline Schizas who skated for Leah.

Walsh/Michaud, Long and Schizas have qualified to compete at Canadians later this month. DeGuise-Léveillée competed at Challenge last month.

 

[MacMadame]

I read every single review because I'm a glutton for punishment. (And also procrastinating.) A few of them mentioned that Justin's family is paying for Kat's skating! I guess because it's so hard to find a female skater to skate pairs with?

 

[Tahuu]

Just watched the first two episodes. I think I may finish watching the show. It seems to have all the skater-parent, parent-parent, skater-skater, male coach-female skater dramas. The end of the 2nd episode was Kat told Justin as she pushed his hand away from her hip in their first lesson together:"We are just partners. OK? That's never, ever, happening again." Warning to parents - both episodes I watched have sex scenes.

 

[MacMadame]

It's sssssooooo sssslllloooowwww! (I'm in the middle of the second episode.)

 

[Foolhardy Ham Lint]

I miss movies like Ice Castles and Champions: A Love Story.

 

[TanithandBenFan]

These girls are at least 21 (they're shown drinking in bars) and are just now taking their senior tests. Also, Regionals is three months away and there's ten feet of snow on the ground. It's the details that kill me in these skating movies/shows.

 

[kwanfan1818]

Mervin Tran tweeted about the first two episodes. Tarah Kayne asked him if he would live tweet:

Mervin Tran on Twitter

“First 6 min of watching #SpinningOut, The girl walking through rotations in her living room with the aggressive mom has the wrong leg in front for the direction she's rotating.”

twitter.com

 

[MacMadame]

And Kat had all her triples but had never passed her Senior test?

 

[TanithandBenFan]

Mervin Tran tweeted about the first two episodes. Tarah Kayne asked him if he would live tweet:

Mervin Tran on Twitter

“First 6 min of watching #SpinningOut, The girl walking through rotations in her living room with the aggressive mom has the wrong leg in front for the direction she's rotating.”

twitter.com

I'm not sure how Mervin could call this show "accurate." Sure, a lot of the off-ice drama with the crazy mom, the self-harm, and the medical issues are realistic, but so much of the skating stuff is not.

 

[Immortelle]

Spinning Out is to figure skating as The Tudors/The White Queen was to 15th/16th C England

 

[gkelly]

And Kat had all her triples but had never passed her Senior test?

Well, that I could believe . . . if she had been competing seriously as a junior when she was injured and then stepped back from the sport for several years before deciding to test out.

I just watched the first episode so far. I'm not clear on the backstory timeline, or whether that will ever become clear or important.

 

[made_in_canada]

I watched the first couple of episodes. The skating errors I haven’t found distractingly terrible which is more than I can say for lots of shows that feature figure skating.

 

[Coco]

"Toe pick"

 

[AliasJohnDoe]

Binged all 10 episodes of "Spinning Out" on Netflix New Years Day. Enjoyed it....but....too many plot lines going on at once. Especially climaxing at the most crucial time in every scene. That said, hope there's a second season. The "look" of the oldest sister reminds me of a combination between Nancy Kerrigan and Ashley Wagner.

 

[genevieve]

I've only seen the 1st 2 eps so far. Very happy that this is more in the vein of Flesh and Bone than Ice Princess.

As always, the technical parts of skating are just ridiculous but I am here for it.

 

[Cant Skate]

Skating mom down rinkside talking with coach while daughter is competing?

Rigggggghhhhht......

 

[Prancer]

My favorite part (so far--I've seen four? episodes) is the coach telling Kat that if she works very hard, they will make Nationals in two years.

We are talking US pairs here.

 

[Sonata]

After watching episode 1 and half of 2, my impression is that the show is very uneven. For example, within the first 5 minutes, there’s a lot of swearing (including the c-word) that made me roll my eyes. It’s like they want to signal right away that this is a “serious”, “gritty”, “real” drama. Just seemed like lazy dialogue to me. But then, at other times, there are stereotypical teenage mean girl scenes and follow-your-dream scenes as well as a Cutting Edge-type storyline.

Overall, IMO there are too many melodramatic storylines at once. Drugs! Alcoholism! Skater mom! Sibling rivalry! Mental illness! Self harm! Hooking up! PTSD! Financial burden of skating! Skaters not having a long term plan and not getting an education! Inappropriate coaches! Rink gossip! Teenage pregnancy! Child abuse! Overtraining! Somehow all this was squeezed into the first episode. The melodramatic music doesn’t help.

Don’t get me wrong - I enjoy some melodrama (I am a figure skating fan, after all) but like any good skating, it’s all in the execution.

And on a skating note, how is the fact that the main character’s best triple jump is a triple toe a good thing? It’s the easiest jump.

 

[sequin]

spoiler for episode 9 enclosed


that doctor storyline... with the grooming and everything... they really packed in every single ounce of skating drama possible into ten episodes

 

[georgiana08]

Binged all 10 episodes of "Spinning Out" on Netflix New Years Day. Enjoyed it....but....too many plot lines going on at once. Especially climaxing at the most crucial time in every scene. That said, hope there's a second season. The "look" of the oldest sister reminds me of a combination between Nancy Kerrigan and Ashley Wagner.

Me too. If it's even mildly successful, I feel like Netflix would be stupid not to have the fictional Olympics in the show line up with Beijing.

 

[Immortelle]

I’m just waiting for the 15 yr old with quads to come in and spoil the party...

 

[dramagrrl]

This show is terrible and awesome at the same time, in the same way Make It or Break It was for gymnastics. I watched every episode of MIOBI with guilty pleasure glee, and I will likely do the same with this.

 

[Lilia A]

I’m just waiting for the 15 yr old with quads to come in and spoil the party...

I binge watched all 10 episodes. Imma use spoiler tags

Spoiler

no quads, but two girls with triple axels show up to sectionals. No triple axels shown on screen. The 3As are not impressed.

Also, loved the "you must work on your triple toeloop

Spoiler

but then she can do triple flips and lutzes like nothing

I, too, had to at the fact that it was the boy desperate for a good girl partner. Also had to at the fact that a short guy wants a fairly tall girl, who's never done pair skating, to be his pairs partner.

Anyway, this was interesting

Spoiler

and yeah, the crooked doctor part was a major yikes element here

. A lot of things don't make sense, but it's a show, so it doesn't matter. I wonder if there will be a season two. I want to know if

Spoiler

tall girl and short guy made it nationals and beat Johnny

and whether

Spoiler

the mom gets arrested for wacking the doctor with a bat; although he's better off keeping his mouth shut as his punishment would be far greater

and of course

Spoiler

speaking of the creepy doctor, will Jenn stop being an idiot? Hey, what if the doc is lying about her never skating again?? Hmmm I mean, why not?

That's all folks. Not the first, and won't be the last, time I binge watch Netflix. Good day and good night.

 

[Wyliefan]

Skating mom down rinkside talking with coach while daughter is competing?

Rigggggghhhhht......

Based on Tursymom, perhaps?

 

[Foolhardy Ham Lint]

Drugs! Destruction! Drama!

Instead of Spinning Out, the creators should have called the show, Walley Of The Dolls.

It sounds like must-see trainwreck TV.

How I would have preferred Jennifer Cormeaux's books to be brought to the small screen instead. Her talent for plot and character development is first-rate.

 

[alchemy void]

Based on Tursymom, perhaps?

You beat me to it.

Instead of Spinning Out, they creators should have called it Walley Of The Dolls.

I had little interest in this until reading this thread, now I'll definitely have to check it out this weekend.

 

[Sylvia]

Choreographer Sarah Kawahara's role is explained in this article:

How ‘Spinning Out’ Used Ice Skating as a ‘Conduit’ for Emotional Storytelling

"They want to feel like you're on the ice with them or that you are them or you are the character," says Sarah Kawahara.

variety.com

Excerpt:

Kawahara’s first step was to find “a team of coaches” who could work with her actors before she got to meet with them. Scattered across Vancouver, London and Los Angeles, these coaches and actors trained together for approximately two months before they all got together in January 2019. Kawahara shares that she had about three weeks in January before production began where she could really focus on choreographing “them as to how they would move in the beginning” and to ensure they were “learning the language” of skating.
Scodelario and Roderick not only had to learn to figure skating, but they also had to learn to pair skate, which Kawahara says is “no small feat, even for two people who have been skating all their lives.” Additionally, Kawahara worked with many skating doubles for the actors because there were just some moves they couldn’t perform themselves. Zhou, Kawahara shares, did all of her own skating except for the jumps, while Scodelario had three different doubles because her role “demanded three different levels of skating.”

Someone on Twitter told me today that Grayson Long, the current Canadian Pre-Novice Men's champion who trains with Brian Orser, "also had a small role as Eddie."

ETA:

How I would have preferred Jennifer Cormeaux's books to be brought to the small screen instead. Her talent for plot and character development is first-rate.

Comeaux.

 

[Theoreticalgirl]

I watched the whole thing. It's gloriously trashy TV in the vein of "Nashville" or "Melrose Place," with occasional skating. Not everything is accurate, but I am impressed by how much they got right.

 

[Miezekatze]

I've only watched the first 2 episodes and it IS really trashy, but it's definitely also very entertaining, so I'm definitely finishing it.

I think the best moment was the accident of rich boys first partner getting her toe pick stuck in her other foot dramatically Kats own accident seemed relatively unlikely too, but that one certainly topped it.

I don't find the skating stuff soooo terribly unrealistic as in other movies on skating, but I think the problem is that there's all this drama and everybody wants to compete at Nationals or get to the Olympics , but while the skating looks ok, everybody still skates on the level of people who peak at like 26th at Europeans or something. Something between Kemp & King and Tugba Karademir or something (nothing against her level of skating).

But from an entertainment of view, it's a fun show and I suppose people who don't have an idea about skating, won't notice the unrealistic stuff anyway.