In January, Netflix released the new TV show “Spinning Out,” representing real life struggles for teenage ice skaters. Kat Baker (Kaya Scodelario), the protagonist of this show, is a young woman who has a passion for ice skating since a young age. Alongside her sister and mother, Kat deals with the most diverse issues in her life involving health, relationships, and career. While trying to conciliate everything and make the best out of it, Kat shows herself as a resilient and determined person. The show, “Spinning Out” approaches difficult topics in an awe-inspiring way and below I have listed five reasons why.
- Mental Health Is Openly Discussed
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In Spinning Out, mental health is portrayed in the same way it would be in real life, hidden. The show approaches the topic in a different manner, letting the audience discover for themselves that something is not right with Kat and her family. As the storyline goes on, it is clear that Kat and her mom suffer from bipolar disorder. When the medication is not taken regulating a severe crisis occurs. In Spinning Out, it shows how these consequences can impact not only their lives but also the ones that are close to them.
Spinning Out creates social awareness to openly discuss this issue. In many scenes, Kat practices self-harm as a way of “escaping” the pain from a situation. The same way her mom during a crisis makes her little sister train really hard. In general, the TV show is an eye-opener to those who are unaware of mental illnesses.
- The Competitiveness Environment And Its Effect
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Like any other competitive activity or sport, ice skaters are always under pressure to become their best within each training session. In Spinning Out, the reality is not different. The competitiveness makes its presence between best friends, boyfriends and girlfriends, and even siblings. The constant need for being the most exceptional skater gets in many of the skater’s heads. Most of the time, the family influences this behavior. In the TV show, Kat’s mom always talks about how her sister (Serena) is a better skater and more hard-working than Kat. It not only frustrated the older sister, but also the little one, as their mom constantly put them against each other.
- Dating Issues
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In this TV show, dating becomes an issue in innumerable situations. This first starts when Mitch, Serena’s trainer, comes in the scene. Many people deciding to draw their own conclusions and thought the two characters were having a relationship outside the ice rink. It became a polemic subject since she was 16, and he was an adult man.
However, Serena involved herself romantically with another older man which seemed to be a plot twist in the series. Her distance from her family and the absence of a role model, soon became an issue not only with the younger skaters, but also Jenn (Kat’s best friend). These dating issues affected them on and off the ice.
- Women Representation
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Different from many TV shows, Spinning Out focuses on representing women as empowered, independent, and capable of doing amazing things in life. Mostly all the characters are women and each one shows different situations and events which shaped them to be who they are.
When we watch, we seem to know them so well that we can predict their actions. As impressive as it sounds, it is hard to take sides in the script because you get to know everyone’s background which allows watchers to understand the characters better than they know themselves! Another significant observation is that the friendships between girls in the series do not always revolve around guys. The show is structured on various different topics, and man is not the main one.
- Dreams Are a Priority
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One of the main topics that I took away from this TV show is how everyone has a dream. It stood out to me how many times the characters gave up on different things to pursue their dreams. Marcus, Kat’s friend from work, always had skiing as his passion, but never thought of making it his career. That was until one day, he received a fantastic opportunity to train and possibly go to the Olympics. Marcus gave up going to Stanford to achieve his main goal in life that has always been there. The same goes for the ice skaters, they stayed persistent even in times of crisis.
What guides these young people is their dream, and they are willing to give whatever it takes to achieve it.
To top it off, Spinning Out has the most amazing choreographers, the most fabulous costumes and Jonathan Van Ness (from Queer Eye) makes a special feature in one of the episodes as the trainer of the opposing team to Kat and Justin.
The unfortunate news is that this past month Netflix announced the series got canceled. Although there was only one season with this fantastic ice skating drama, there was a lot to take away and think deeply about it!