Netflix series “Finding Her Edge” arrives on the ice as a YA drama that mixes family legacy, elite sport, and a messy love triangle. The Canadian figure skating romance follows Adriana Russo, a former competitive ice dancer who laces back up to save her family’s rink and Olympic dream, only to find herself torn between two partners on and off the ice. With eight episodes, a TV-MA rating, and a Metascore in the mid-50s, this is positioned as a bingeable, mixed-but-intriguing entry in Netflix’s growing slate of teen sports dramas.
The show is based on Jennifer Iacopelli’s bestselling YA novel “Finding Her Edge,” itself loosely inspired by Jane Austen’s “Persuasion.” It has been adapted for television by showrunner Jeff Norton, whose previous work includes “Geek Girl,” alongside writer and executive producer Shelley Scarrow of “Degrassi: The Next Generation.” The series is produced by WildBrain Studios and premiered its first and so far only season on January 22, 2026, with all eight episodes released at once on Netflix.
At the center of the narrative is the Russo family’s Ontario ice rink, their crumbling finances, and an Olympic legacy built by Adriana’s late mother, Sarah. The Netflix series “Finding Her Edge” explores that family figure skating legacy by pushing Adriana into a high-stakes comeback that doubles as a survival plan for the Russo Rink.
Finding Her Edge Netflix cast: who’s who on the ice
The Finding Her Edge Netflix cast leans heavily on rising talent, with a few familiar faces from teen dramas and Canadian television. Madelyn Keys leads the ensemble as Adriana Russo, a former gold-medalist ice dancer who quit the sport after Sarah’s death two years before the events of the series. Keys, who has appeared in projects like “A Mother’s Lie,” gives Adriana both steel and vulnerability as she shoulders the burden of the family business.
Adriana’s sisters are played by Alexandra Beaton and Alice Malakhov. Beaton, known for “Single All the Way,” “The Next Step,” and other Canadian credits, portrays Elise Russo, the ambitious solo skater whose Olympic aspirations have consumed both her and their father Will. Malakhov, whose résumé includes “Anne with an E” and “Three Pines,” plays youngest sister Maria Russo, the emotional glue of the family who often finds herself caught between Adriana and Elise’s competing priorities.
Harmon Walsh plays Will Russo, the girls’ father and co-owner of the Russo Rink. Walsh’s television work includes appearances in “Gossip Girl,” among other series, and here he embodies a grieving widower so fixated on turning Elise into a star that he ignores mounting debts and repeated warnings about the rink’s looming collapse.
Olly Atkins steps into the role of Freddie O’Connell, Adriana’s former ice dancing partner and first boyfriend. Atkins is already familiar to genre fans from “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” and brings that same mix of charm and intensity to a skater who never quite got closure after Adriana abruptly walked away from both their partnership and their relationship.
Cale Ambrozic co-stars as Brayden Elliot, the so-called “bad boy of ice dancing” whose technical prowess and swagger make him the only partner capable of getting Adriana back into medal contention. Ambrozic has previously been seen in projects like “We Were Liars,” and his performance adds a combustible, sometimes arrogant energy to Brayden that plays directly into the show’s central love triangle.
Millie Davis plays Riley Monroe, Freddie’s current partner and a stabilizing force whose professionalism contrasts sharply with the emotional chaos swirling around Adriana, Brayden, and Freddie. The wider cast also includes Meredith Forlenza as Camille St. Denis, a coach and family friend who mentors Adriana; Ben Woo as Sean Chen; Yona Epstein-Roth as JJ Harmon; Nicole Volossetski as Katya Belikova; Niko Ceci as Charlie Monroe; Aidan Shaw as Weston Scannell; Miley Haik as Gillian Azarian; Kimberly-Sue Murray as Michelle Scannell; Rachel Martins as Maria’s skate double; Nicholas Buelow as Freddie’s skate double; Aria Murrell as Riley’s skate double; and Nadiia Bashynska as Adriana’s on-ice double.
The ensemble is rounded out by a pair of real-world Canadian ice dancing stars: Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier appear as themselves, bringing extra authenticity to the competition scenes. Their cameos tie the fictional Russo storyline to the actual 2026 Winter Olympics cycle, which is also the focus of the upcoming Netflix docuseries “Glitter & Gold: Ice Dancing.”
Behind the camera, Netflix and WildBrain Studios position the series squarely in the YA space: a young adult sports romance with strong family elements, built for fans of contemporary teen dramas. “Finding Her Edge” sits alongside titles like “Spinning Out” in the niche of figure skating stories, but also fits into a broader streaming ecosystem that includes swoony romances and high-stakes family dramas.
Plot: a family rink, a sponsorship deal, and a love triangle
“Finding Her Edge” opens two years after the death of Sarah, Adriana’s mother and a celebrated Olympian whose legacy looms over the Russo Rink. Adriana has stepped away from competitive skating and now spends her days helping run the family facility in Ontario. When she discovers that the rink is on the brink of foreclosure—utility bills unpaid, the ice maintenance system failing, creditors circling, and even the family cars at risk of repossession—she realizes that Will’s spending on Elise’s solo skating career has pushed them to the edge.
Will sinks money into high-profile coaches, stylists, photographers, and social media campaigns to brand Elise as the next big thing. He blames shortfalls on excuses like a stolen credit card, but Adriana understands that the problem is structural: too much money going out, not enough coming in. She takes on the unglamorous work of managing budgets, coordinating press events, and calculating costs down to champagne boxes for Elise’s showy appearances, while being told she is still just a child.
The solution, at least in Adriana’s eyes, is a return to the ice. Not for personal validation, but as a calculated way to attract sponsors, media attention, and prize money that could stabilize the Russo Rink. To do that, she needs a partner who can match her ambition and skill level. Enter Brayden Elliot, a gifted ice dancer whose previous partner has left to pursue a Broadway role and who is searching for someone who can help him “reach the top of the podium.”
The two meet at a grand Russo Rink party designed to relaunch the family brand. Adriana initially resists Brayden’s pitch, wary of his cocky reputation. Their early training sessions are rocky: mis-timed lifts, clashing approaches, and a constant tug-of-war between her precision and his bold improvisation. Camille St. Denis, played by Meredith Forlenza, pushes them to push past the friction, arguing that their styles could be unbeatable if they learn to trust each other.
As Cale Ambrozic explains, Brayden “puts up a facade that comes across as very confident—he thinks he’s the best.” Beneath that confidence, though, he carries his own family pressures and personal baggage that make his emotional arc more than just a one-note bad boy routine.
The wrinkle is Freddie O’Connell. When Freddie returns to the Russo orbit with new partner Riley Monroe, unresolved feelings between him and Adriana resurface. Their breakup never truly healed; Adriana’s abrupt exit from skating left Freddie abandoned both professionally and personally. Riley, played by Millie Davis, tries to maintain professional boundaries, but finds herself refereeing tension that predates her involvement.
Complicating matters further, Elise resents Adriana’s comeback and sees pair skating and ice dancing as inherently less legitimate than her own solo discipline. She undermines Adriana in practice, questions her skill, and eventually leaks damaging details about the family’s finances to the press. An anonymous article questioning Adriana’s consistency and mental focus later turns out to have used Elise as a key unnamed source, deepening the rift between the sisters.
By the time the national qualifiers roll around, Adriana and Brayden have embraced a fake dating sponsorship arrangement that plays well on social media but blurs lines off the ice. A viral photo of them kissing earns the portmanteau nickname “Braydriana” and leads commentators to christen them “the hottest couple on ice.” The publicity spike also invites extra scrutiny from judges who are wary of hype overshadowing athletic merit.
Breaking down the ending of Finding Her Edge
At the national qualifiers, Adriana and Brayden deliver a crowd-pleasing program that earns a standing ovation and a score of 89.27. That initially puts them in second place. Freddie and Riley then skate with remarkable polish and post a 90.54, nudging Adriana and Brayden down the standings. Sean and Destiny, a rival pair whose consistency has kept them near the top all season, hold first place.
Only the top two pairs qualify for the World Championships, which makes Adriana and Brayden effectively eliminated despite their strong skate. Backstage, Brayden lashes out at Adriana, blaming her for the negative press about the Russo family’s finances and the anonymous article that cherry-picked Elise’s criticism. The fallout threatens both their professional partnership and any personal connection that has grown between them.
The door to the World Championships opens again only after a doping scandal rocks the circuit. Evidence surfaces that Sean has been using banned performance-enhancing drugs. When Sean and Destiny are disqualified, their scores are wiped from the board, and the qualifiers’ standings shuffle. That retroactively elevates Freddie and Riley into first place and Adriana and Brayden into second, sending both pairs to Worlds.
In Paris, where the World Championships are held, Adriana and Brayden skate a technically sharp, emotionally controlled program that earns a 98.36, narrowly edging out Freddie and Riley’s 98.14. The gold medal cements Adriana’s competitive comeback and secures the sponsorship money needed to rescue the Russo Rink from collapse.
However, the victory does not deliver a neat romantic resolution. Adriana ultimately kisses Freddie in front of the press, signaling that her feelings for her first love remain unresolved. She later clarifies to Brayden that their relationship off the ice has been strategic rather than romantic, even if genuine affection grew between them.
Brayden, stung and exhausted, chooses self-preservation. He acknowledges that he and Adriana have been an effective team competitively but decides to end the partnership and leave Paris alone. His exit underscores that winning a gold medal has not magically fixed the emotional fallout of their choices.
Back at the rink, Adriana gets one of the show’s most resonant closing images. Wearing Sarah’s wing-shaped accessories on the ice, she performs a celebration skate that morphs into a family moment when Elise and Maria join her. The three sisters sharing the ice together visually restores the Russo legacy on their own terms, with the rink saved and their relationships on the mend.
How the cast sees Adriana, Brayden, and Freddie’s dynamic
Finding Her Edge’s love triangle hinges on three distinct perspectives: Adriana’s need for stability, Brayden’s growth beyond bravado, and Freddie’s unresolved heartbreak. Madelyn Keys emphasizes that Adriana’s comeback is rooted in practical necessity as much as passion. She notes that Adriana might never have started this journey without “the financial pressures that her family is facing,” and that pressure becomes “the spark” that reignites both her career and her sense of self.
For Cale Ambrozic, Brayden is defined by his armor as much as his talent. His description of a character who projects absolute confidence while quietly wrestling with family issues, new romantic feelings, and the fear of being sidelined helps explain why Brayden reacts so sharply when the sponsorship deal, media narrative, and his partnership with Adriana all feel precarious at once.
Olly Atkins’ Freddie, meanwhile, embodies the emotional cost of being left behind. His dynamic with Millie Davis’ Riley underscores the difference between a partnership built on clarity and one built on unresolved history. Riley’s insistence on boundaries and professionalism offers a counterpoint to the wildly fluctuating energy of Braydriana’s sponsorship romance, and her firm stance keeps Freddie from spiraling completely even as his jealousy flares.
Taken together, the performances position Finding Her Edge less as a simple “Team Freddie vs. Team Brayden” showdown and more as a story about young adults learning what kind of love and partnership they actually want. The finale’s bittersweet tone, with Adriana choosing her own future over either boy in the short term, underlines that focus.
Reception: mixed reviews and a Metascore of 56
Critically, Finding Her Edge has landed in the “mixed or average” zone. On Metacritic, Season 1 holds a Metascore of 56 based on four critic reviews, with all four classified as mixed and none listed as positive or negative outliers. The show is categorized as a TV-MA 2026 Netflix series, with drama, family, romance, and sport tagged as its primary genres and one eight-episode season available so far.
Individual critics highlight different strengths and weaknesses. Screen Rant’s El Kuiper points to episodes riddled with cheesy dialogue and predictable twists but notes that the series can feel more grounded and realistic than some contemporary YA dramas, with enough narrative material to keep viewers invested in Adriana and her sisters’ futures even when the love triangle underwhelms.
On the positive side of the ledger, Decider’s Joel Keller singles out the ensemble, writing that the performances are strong enough that viewers will have no trouble sitting down with this mostly easygoing family show. Collider’s Isabella Soares describes the series as “easy-to-watch, aimless fun,” framing it as a low-stress option for viewers who want YA drama without the heaviest stakes.
The harshest take comes from The Hollywood Reporter’s Angie Han, who calls the ice dancing drama “blunt, inoffensive and occasionally diverting” and suggests it is best enjoyed in the background while doing other tasks. That assessment underscores how, for some critics, the show never fully matches the intensity of its on-ice sequences with equally sharp writing and character work.
Netflix’s own positioning, through its Tudum coverage, leans into the show’s accessibility. The streamer pitches it as the perfect warm-up for the Winter Olympics and highlights its status as both a soapy YA series and “a layered family drama about a fractured family finding their path back together.” That framing aligns with TIME’s detailed breakdown of the ending, which emphasizes themes of legacy, economic pressure, forgiveness, and hard choices more than any single romantic outcome.
Metacritic’s “Related Shows” sidebar also situates Finding Her Edge in a broader canon of acclaimed television. The page lists titles such as “The Office (UK),” “Bo Burnham: Inside,” “The Staircase,” “Homicide: Life on the Street,” “The Sopranos,” “Bleak House,” “Samurai Jack,” “Fleabag,” “The Underground Railroad,” “Atlanta,” “Romeo & Juliet,” “My So-Called Life,” “This Is Going to Hurt,” “It’s a Sin,” “Borgen,” “The Wire,” “Adolescence,” “The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling,” “The Night Of,” “The Corner,” “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story,” and “Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal.” While the new figure skating drama does not share their universal acclaim, the grouping hints at the serious, character-driven tradition it aspires to join.
Has Finding Her Edge been renewed for season 2?
As of late January 2026, Finding Her Edge has not been renewed for season 2. Renewal and cancellation tracking site TheReviewGeek notes plainly that the show “has not been renewed for season 2 just yet” and, looking at the mixed critical reception and limited marketing push, predicts that it is unlikely to secure a second-season order.
Currently, there has been no official announcement from Netflix about the future of the series beyond its eight-episode run. TheReviewGeek points out that the streamer has a history of quickly cancelling YA dramas that do not break out with huge viewing numbers or social media buzz. With critical scores clustered in the mid-range and no immediate sign of a breakout, the site’s team “predicts that this will not be renewed for a second season.”
Story-wise, the season 1 ending functions as a soft landing if that prediction holds. Adriana wins a world title, the Russo Rink is saved, Elise acknowledges the damage she has done and begins repairing relationships, and Maria steps more fully into her own voice. Brayden’s departure leaves the door open for a possible reconciliation, while Adriana’s public kiss with Freddie followed by her insistence on charting her own path keeps the romantic stakes unresolved enough for a hypothetical second season without leaving viewers hanging on a cliffhanger.
At the same time, the series’ roots in Iacopelli’s novel and the structural resemblance to Austen’s “Persuasion” mean that its primary arc—the woman torn between past love and new opportunity, under crushing family expectations—has already been completed in broad strokes. Any continuation would need to build a new chapter in Adriana’s life beyond the direct beats of the book.
Where Finding Her Edge fits in Netflix’s YA universe
Marie Claire situates Finding Her Edge within a broader wave of swoony, sports-adjacent and romance-driven storytelling. The outlet frames it as a natural pick for viewers who enjoy complicated young love and family drama in shows like “The Summer I Turned Pretty” and enemies-to-lovers romances like “Heated Rivalry.” It also clusters the series alongside global dating and relationship titles such as “Single’s Inferno” season 5, K-drama and J-drama romances like “Can This Love Be Translated?” and “Culinary Class Wars,” and coming-of-age series including “The Boyfriend” season 2, “Physical: Asia,” and “Tell Me Lies.”
On the page, that positioning often extends into book-to-screen tie-ins and cross-medium obsessions. Recommendations around Finding Her Edge point toward novels like “Off Campus” and “People We Meet on Vacation,” as well as future TV projects including “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” in the expanding “Game of Thrones” universe and new seasons of “Emily in Paris,” where actors such as Eugenio Franceschini and Iris Apatow have captured similar audiences. Even fashion coverage, like Dsquared2’s Fall 2026 runway show and Marie Claire’s “Mogul Issue,” pops up in the same ecosystem, alongside profiles of figures like Princess Charlene and Prince Harry.
In other words, the show is being marketed not just as a niche sports story but as part of a lifestyle package: one that intersects with K-dramas, reality dating series, romance novels, prestige fantasy spin-offs, and fashion-world storytelling. That crossover strategy mirrors Netflix’s broader approach to YA: build interconnected fanbases across genres and formats, then feed them new titles that riff on familiar emotional beats.
Is Finding Her Edge on Netflix worth your time?
Whether Finding Her Edge is a must-watch depends on what you want from a Netflix YA drama. Viewers looking for gritty, high-stakes storytelling in the vein of the very best prestige series will likely side with Angie Han’s assessment that the show is often pleasant but rarely electrifying. Those who respond most to sharp dialogue and unpredictable plotting may also share Screen Rant’s sense that the scripts lean into cheese and familiar twists.
However, if you are drawn to sports romances, enjoy slow-burn sibling dynamics, or simply want a winter-friendly binge, there is genuine appeal here. The performances from Madelyn Keys, Cale Ambrozic, Olly Atkins, Alexandra Beaton, Alice Malakhov, Harmon Walsh, Millie Davis, and the rest of the cast have been singled out as a key strength, and the skating sequences themselves deliver satisfying spectacle even when the off-ice drama stumbles.
From an ending standpoint, the Netflix series Finding Her Edge offers closure on its central questions—can the Russo Rink be saved, and will Adriana reclaim her edge on the ice—while leaving enough emotional ambiguity to fuel post-binge debate. The Russo sisters’ final skate together lands as the story’s real victory, suggesting that this is ultimately a show about choosing family and self-definition over medals or boyfriends.
For anyone curious about the Finding Her Edge Netflix cast, the love triangle, and the show’s season 2 prospects, the eight-episode first season delivers a complete, if imperfect, arc. It may not rival the universal acclaim of the titles listed alongside it on Metacritic, but as a focused blend of skating, romance, and family repair, it carves out a distinct place in Netflix’s YA universe.
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