Finding Her Edge Review
Director: Shamim Sarif
Date Created: 2026-01-22 23:20
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Finding Her Edge Review: Directed by Shamim Sarif and adapted from Jennifer Iacopelli’s novel, this Netflix teen sports drama has 8 episodes, running around 45–50 minutes each. The series is led by Madelyn Keys as Adriana Russo, alongside Cale Ambrozic as Brayden Elliott, Olly Atkins as Freddie O’Connell, Alexandra Beaton as Elise Russo, Alice Malakhov as Maria “Mimi” Russo, Millie Davis as Riley Monroe, and Harmon Walsh as Will Russo. Set in the world of competitive figure skating, the story follows the Russo family legacy on thin ice, emotionally, financially, and professionally, as Adriana tries to restart her skating career and chase a shot at the world stage.
Finding Her Edge Review
The central concept of Netflix’s Finding Her Edge exhibit will immediately grab your attention. The characters in the story are forced to endure a lengthy wait until they find their own personal success. This creates natural attraction to the audience. Adriana’s return to the rink is about regaining something she lost, having stopped skating and trying to get back in shape. The emotional journey she takes, from a period of fun until the ultimate emotional challenge when they all share the same passion, is very impactful on all the characters.
The Netflix series Finding Her Edge knows that skating serves as its most valuable asset, which creates enjoyment for audiences when they watch the series’ skating scenes. As a result of the combination of rapid and graceful movement, each time the audience sees an ice scene, they experience a sense of increased energy for each of the characters. Every scene is rooted in suspense with anticipation of making a mistake before the end of each sequence.
The characters also glide and spin without worrying about sponsorships or the actual title of being a professional. When they perform on the ice, they lose focus on what is happening outside the rink and discover the true confidence that can only come from the capabilities that God has given to each of them on this blessed stage.
The main conflict revolves around three people: Adriana and her new partner, Brayden, and Adriana’s former partner, Freddie. There are multiple conflicts that combine romantic tension with issues relating to Adriana herself as a professional and as a person. The love triangle introduced new ways of exploring these conflicts; however, it could have also been used as a means to enhance the characters rather than being used simply to delay the progression of the plot.
Ultimately, the overall premise of the love triangle finds itself creating an immediate emotional conflict, which becomes an ongoing battle between two sides needing to be related to by action in order to continue their ongoing dramatic development as characters.
The show has great promise and possibilities of providing a unique and potentially outstanding viewing experience, though it is trying to portray itself as a modern-day version of Teenage Drama through the incorporation of contemporary ideas and elements of previous generations, along with its links to the classic novel Persuasion. The Finding Her Edge series could not successfully fulfil its obligation of providing the viewer with a full understanding of the relationships among the characters, mainly due to a fear of pushing forward in the development of character relationships and providing a full understanding of what is actually driving those relationships.
The series depicts many intricately emotional moments and complicated family dynamics; however, the authenticity and pain that would be felt from this kind of experience do not come across because of the way it presents these events through very short durations of time and the result. While the show does convey to the audience that their goal is to establish a connection with emotion through how they tell the story, this ultimately does not allow them to realise the emotional potential of the script.
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The relationship between the Russo sisters is a good example of how a concept could be done well, but falls short of that emotional value. The older sister, Elise, by creating a prickly character with a behaviour that spirals out of control, the screenwriters had options to create a more exact look through her behaviour toward other characters in her life, yet still demonstrating internal conflicts with herself.
On the other hand, the younger sister character, Mimi, demonstrates two kinds of personality traits, an intelligent, rebellious and restless nature; however, Mimi never has a major effect on her environment or where she lives (since she is not a major character in the main storyline). The conflict that this family has is displayed in an ineffective way; instead of showing the real emotions attached to the characters, it shows all of the standard, or required, elements present in teen drama. The show has also created a visual breakdown of identity by how it uses different style elements in the show.
The series has a polished look and feel, creating an artificial impression (the visual design using elements associated with the series aimed at teenagers in the 2000s). However, the show’s aesthetics convey an extremely modern, si̭mple style, making it feel too clean and polished for the type of grittiness that the story needs. The world of skateboarding exists as an extremely competitive environment requiring participants to deal with physical pain and endure prolonged physical stress due to extreme fatigue, as well as a commitment to constantly face obstacles. The story attempts to show serious situations where people face death, but the overly sweet tone of the characters fails to match the urgency created by those situations.
When the show gets to the climax, the writing suffers due to the breakdown of the narrative logic. The series includes numerous instances in which the viewer should assess the seriousness of events taking place in the storyline; however, those instances rely on items chosen for use that fail to reflect the level of criticality that the situations would imply. This contradiction is so distracting that it interrupts one’s engagement with the narrative, and ultimately, viewers lose the emotional weight of the story after this point in time.
While the entire cast performs their roles well, Madelyn Keys is particularly fun to watch on-screen for her warmheartedness toward Adriana, making her a character that viewers will want to support. This is because the show portrays her engaged in an ambitious pursuit rather than simply making her decisions based upon romance. Unfortunately, the scripts allow little time for actors to do their jobs. The characters express themselves mainly through basic expressions of angst, jealousy, and confrontation rather than the complex writing that allows other teen dramas to stay relevant over time.
Netflix Finding Her Edge Review: Summing Up
The series Finding Her Edge has enough strengths to inspire viewers to desire higher quality. The skating scenes provide a thrill, and the actors fit their characters, but the true heart of the show, which ties all parts of the plot together, revolves around Adriana’s return to competitive skating. The pacing issues arise when the show keeps revisiting the same romantic conflicts without adequately exploring the complexity of the emotions that keep the characters engaged.
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