Netflix’s Crew Girl might be trying to bring the world of rowing to a much wider audience, but some real life rowers are watching it and wondering what on earth happened, as they review the new show. Several rowers have now reacted to scenes from the show, and their complaints are remarkably specific. From the rowing technique and coxing to the boat positions and even the way the crews are filmed, they have picked apart some of the series’ biggest rowing moments. ‘What about f**king three seat?’ View this post on Instagram A post shared by Meataxe Rowing (@meataxe_rowing) Olympic rower Shaun Kirkham, who won a gold medal in the men’s eights event at the 2020 Olympics reacted to a scene in which the show describes eight seat as the place where you put your “best rower”. He said, “What about f**king three seat? What the f**k? The best rower in eight seat?” Then, reacting to another scene, he sarcastically imitated, “Coach, you can’t do this. I’m stroke seat.” He then added, “Any muppet that thinks they’re a big dog because they’re stroke seat is a f**king idiot. Imagine being the type of teammate that you swap seats and you’re angry because it went faster. Yet, you were still in the boat.” He continued, “And if you f**kers think that stroke seat is the most important seat in the boat and if you get moved out of stroke seat, you’re somehow a worse rower, that’s pathetic, okay. Get a grip.” ‘This is one of the worst pieces of media I think I’ve ever seen’ View this post on Instagram A post shared by Paddy Stevenson (@powerseatcoxing) But the criticism did not stop there. Paddy Stevenson, a current coxswain, also watched the rowing scenes and was even more blunt about what he saw. Stevenson said, “That’s not just one of the worst coxing I have ever seen; that is also some of the worst rowing I think I’ve ever seen ever. And this is one of the worst pieces of media I think I’ve ever seen ever, and that’s saying something.” He also said, “This shocked me that they looked at an Olympic-level class boat like the GB men’s eight or the Dutch men’s eight or any high-level eight and said, ‘ You know what yeah, this looks similar, or you know what, this looks not that far off of that.’” He added, “Because like there’s no way that they looked at Olympic level and ended with this. There’s no way.” Stevenson also questioned how the rowing was allowed to make it into the finished programme. “They had to have a supervisor of some kind look over it, and they didn’t.” He said, “The rowing was really bad. The coxswain was really bad. I think they could have gotten a JV level rower or coxswain to do it better on both ends.” The only thing that he liked was that Teagan “was wearing Oakley’s. Other than that, this was horrible.” He also urged people who wanted to get into rowing to not watch the show. But instead to watch or read Boys in the Boat. ‘The puddles are sh*t and so is everything else’ View this post on Instagram A post shared by Podium Days (@podiumdays) Another rower’s reaction came from Podium Days, an Instagram page covering sports history through a female lens. She said, “Her (Teagan) handles are so high, her blades might be at the bottom of the river. The puddles are sh*t and so is everything else. And what the hell is the 6-seat doing? He has missed every single catch.” She later spotted another problem. “Coxing also requires steering,” she said. “The fact that she could just get in the boat without a lot of steering practice is some nonsense.” She also questioned the choice of boats being used in the show. “Why are they rowing in stern-loaded fours? Are they at a 20 to start these pieces? Like, what?” The rowing in the scenes was bad enough, but she also questioned why a co-ed school that is supposedly so focused on rowing wouldn’t have a girls’ team. She said, “Teagan is supposed to be obsessed with rowing but didn’t check to see if they had a team. Didn’t email the coach? What in the Title IX is a prep school doing with only a boys’ team? You think rich parents aren’t using rowing to get their daughters into an Ivy League? Impossible.” The clothes did not escape her either. “What the hell is the uniform rule here? Is it just preppy clothes? I’m genuinely more confused by people wearing somewhat similar preppy clothes than the rowing issue.” Netflix’s Crew Girl has received mixed reviews overall, with some people actually loving it and others absolutely hating everything about it. Marmalade who? For all the latest film and TV updates and hot takes, like our Facebook page. Post navigation Next story
