Drama
It’s Not Like That
Two families try to recover from a critical loss in the Wonder Project’s faith-tinged ‘It’s Not Like That.’ But the show has more content than you’d expect.
Ice skating can be quite enjoyable—and versatile, too. For centuries, people have been strapping blades to their feet and gliding across glassy surfaces. Sometimes, these people pick up sticks and shoot around a puck. At other times, they perform athletic leaps and spins. Still others transform skating into a coupled art form, dancing across the surface in perfect choreography.
Of course, as anyone who’s spent some time slipping and sliding in a rink can tell you, sometimes you fall. And lately, Adriana Russo’s spent a lot more time on her rump than her feet.
Adriana’s part of an ice-skating dynasty. Her parents, Sarah and Will, were figure-skating champions in their day. And her sisters—figure skater Elise and ice dancer Maria—are both Olympic hopefuls. They’re all part of Team Russo, a skating program where skaters live and train together.
But two years ago, Sarah passed away. And the family hasn’t been the same since.
Will is hemorrhaging the Team Russo’s cash with lavish parties and catered dinners, hoping to entice sponsors into taking on his daughters as clients. He’s cancelling rink reservations for paying customers to give the Russo girls more time on the ice. And he’s ignoring the coaching needs of the other skaters contracted with Team Russo.
Worse still, Will has been putting a lot of pressure on Adriana and her sisters.
Elise doesn’t seem to even like figure skating anymore. But it’s her job, so she’ll do whatever it takes to succeed. Maria still enjoys her time on the ice, but she’s rather put down by her dad’s clear disdain for ice dancing (a more artistic-focused discipline of figure skating akin to ballroom dancing). And Adriana has quit skating entirely.
Not long after Sarah passed away, Adriana went through a growth spurt, making her too tall to continue competitively skating with her partner (and boyfriend), Freddie.
“Partnerships are business decisions, not romances,” Will told her—never mind the fact that he married his own skating partner. So Adriana dumped Freddie as a partner and a boyfriend.
Adriana searched for a new partner for a while, but between her mom’s death and her dad’s fatherly withdrawal, she just couldn’t find enjoyment in the sport anymore. So now she contents herself with managing Team Russo and their family’s ice rink.
But when an expected injury puts the Russo family’s Olympic dreams at risk, Adriana steps up to save her family from ruin. She’ll do whatever it takes to find her edge again—even if that means partnering up with the “bad boy of figure skating,” Brayden Elliot.
Finding Her Edge is based on the novel of the same name by Jennifer Iacopelli. And this Netflix series is all about the drama.
Forget the traditional love triangle: Adriana quickly finds herself mixed into a sort of oblong love shape. First, Freddie rejoins Team Russo with his new partner/girlfriend (and Adriana’s childhood friend), Riley. Adriana clearly still has feelings for Freddie (and perhaps vice versa), but if she throws off Freddie and Riley’s chemistry, they could lose their competitive edge.
But Adriana also has a weird thing going with Brayden—who hooked up with Elise his first night in town and quickly moved on to another skater named Katya. Sure, it’s a business decision, not a romance, Adriana says. So Brayden’s romantic dalliances off the ice shouldn’t affect their ability to fake some harmony on it.
Even so, the skating duo has a certain je ne sais quoi that can’t be ignored, no matter what Adriana or anyone else may say.
Now, if Will was more focused on his daughters’ personal developments instead of their professional ones, he might provide Adriana with some insight—or at least supervision. But for a program that houses multiple hormonal teenagers under the same roof, there seems to be a dismal lack of adult chaperoning occurring.
Other content concerns include some light language, revealing outfits on teenage characters, LGBT characters, underage drinking and generally mean attitudes between people who are supposed to love one another.
All in all, this Netflix series could use a bit more sharpening to hone its own edge.
(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at letters@pluggedin.com, or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)
Adriana considers returning to the competitive world of ice dancing after her figure-skating big sis injures herself.
Adriana walks in on Brayden and Elise kissing and in a state of partial undress. She leaves, and we hear the teens giggle as they continue behind the closed door. Elise catches her dad flirting with a potential sponsor, but he defends that he’s just “networking.” Adriana and Freddie seem to still have feelings for one another even though Freddie has a new girlfriend. A few LGBT teens are part of Team Russo. Female skaters frequently wear tight and/or revealing outfits while training or competing. We see many female characters wearing cleavage and midriff baring outfits off the ice, too. Things seem to get intimate between skating partners during practices and performances.
A skater falls on the ice during a jump, hurting herself. She’s taken to the hospital, clearly in pain, but we don’t learn the extent of her injury.
Adults drink champagne at a party. Maria tries to sneak a glass for herself, but she ultimately puts the glass back for fear of being caught. Elise downs some whiskey even though she’s underage.
As manager of the rink, Adriana keeps an eye on her family’s finances, occasionally confronting her dad about his lavish spending. Will brushes her off, doing what he wants. It comes to a head when the bank repossesses the family’s vehicles due to missed lease payments. Even then, Will lies that the bank made a mistake and refuses to listen to Adriana.
Will ignores the advice of another skating coach. Adriana tries to coach Elise on her technique, but Elise ignores her and Will later dismisses her—to Elise’s detriment.
Someone calls Will a snob, since he doesn’t take ice dancing as seriously as he does figure skating. And his attitude (eye rolls and derisive snorts) suggests this is true. We hear that Adriana’s mom died from an illness. Teens generally act immaturely. Characters lie.
God’s name is misused once. We hear “d–n” and “h—.”
Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.
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