Spinning Out
A ten-episode series about figure skating, although it is chiefly about living with bipolar disorder.
I’m going to be spending a lot of time later this month at the World Figure Skating Championships, so I’ve been doing a media diet of skating books, web sites, and films. This is a terrific ten-episode film, made with sense and (some) taste. The writers wanted to avoid the convention in which the star has exclusive narrative rights, and they do a wonderful job of providing separate arcs for the (inevitable) minority sidekick (with a brilliant performance by Amanda Zhou, who shamefully lacks a Wikipedia page), for little sister, for Mom, for everyone. These are not one-episode shifts of focus, like The Bear does, but prolonged arcs. Unfortunately, in the late episodes this forced too much narrative into too little space. Lots of really fine acting, notably the brilliant Kaya Scodelario.