---
title: "Spinning Out"
year: 2020
kind: "series"
canonical: "https://film.one/tv/spinning-out"
fi1m_id: "spinning-out"
imdb_id: "tt9117054"
tmdb_id: 83050
wikidata_id: "Q57253578"
fi1m_score: 56
critics_reviews: 2
published: "2026-10-07T04:21:34.019066+00:00"
updated: "2026-10-07T04:21:43.071128+00:00"
region: "EE"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Spinning Out (2020)

Created by Samantha Stratton · Drama, Sport

## Identity

Spinning Out

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/tv/spinning-out
- **Type:** Series
- **Fi1m ID:** spinning-out
- **IMDb ID:** tt9117054
- **TMDB ID:** 83050
- **Wikidata ID:** Q57253578
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9117054/, https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/83050, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q57253578

**Fi1m score: 56** · Critics: 2 of 6 reviews so far

*In a sentence:* Everyone in Sun Valley has a secret, a diagnosis or a trust fund, and several of them have all three

> Samantha Stratton’s skating drama begins as a serious, well-acted account of two women managing bipolar disorder in a sport that punishes any wobble. By its sixth episode it has become a soap with ice in it, and the ice was the point.

## Synopsis

Kat Baker (Kaya Scodelario) is a singles skater in Sun Valley, Idaho, who took a bad fall that left her with a head injury and a fear of jumping, and now works at the local rink to pay the bills. Her mother Carol (January Jones), a former skater, has bipolar disorder, and so does Kat, and both of them hide it from the sport. Her younger sister Serena (Willow Shields) is the family’s remaining hope, coached by Mitch Saunders (Will Kemp). When the Russian coach Dasha Glushenko (Svetlana Efremova) suggests Kat switch to pairs with Justin Davis (Evan Roderick), the rich, undisciplined son of James Davis (David James Elliott) and stepson of Mandy (Sarah Wright), Kat has to decide whether she can trust a partner, a coach and her own head, with the competition season about to start.

## Review

Samantha Stratton has created and written a ten-part drama about a figure skater who fell on her head and has not jumped properly since. Kat Baker (Kaya Scodelario) is working at the rink in Sun Valley, Idaho, when a coach proposes she give up singles and skate pairs with Justin Davis (Evan Roderick), the rich, careless son of James Davis (David James Elliott), who has money and a new wife, Mandy (Sarah Wright). Kat also has bipolar disorder, as does her mother Carol (January Jones), and the two of them manage it with pills, lies and a shared talent for disaster. That is a good set-up, and for about four episodes the series knows it.

The two women are the reason to watch. Scodelario plays Kat tight and watchful, somebody who has learned to check her own mood the way other people check the weather, and when the mood does turn she lets the performance go loud without asking us to admire it. Jones is better still. Her Carol is a former skater who gave the sport up and has never forgiven anyone, least of all her daughters, and Jones plays her with a flat charm that keeps curdling. There is a stretch in the early episodes where Carol comes off her medication and gets brighter, funnier and more generous by the scene, buying things, flirting, promising her younger daughter Serena (Willow Shields) the world, and we felt the dread arrive a full episode before Serena did. That is good acting and good writing working together, and the series does not manage it often enough.

The skating is a problem the production never solves. Mirosław Baszak shoots the rink in a cold blue-white that suits it, but the jumps are plainly done by doubles, and Don Cassidy has to cut away on every take-off and come back on a face after every landing, so the one thing a skating drama ought to be able to show us, a body in the air, is the one thing it keeps hiding. Suzanne McCabe’s competition dresses and Gordon Barnes’s rink, with its hoardings and tired changing rooms, are convincing; the thing happening on the ice between them is a magic trick we can see the wires on. Ohad Benchetrit’s score swells in those moments, doing the work the camera cannot.

Around the fifth episode the series starts adding plots as if afraid of the one it has. Justin’s friends and lovers multiply. Kat’s friend Jenn Yu (Amanda Zhou) is given a hip injury she hides. Marcus Holmes (Mitchell Edwards), a skier and the most decent man in town, is kept around chiefly to be let down. Serena’s coach Mitch Saunders (Will Kemp) is the centre of a strand we will not describe, except to say it belongs in a different and nastier programme. Each of these might have carried an hour on its own. Piled together they turn a drama about illness into a soap about secrets, and the two do not mix, because a soap needs its characters to be stupid on cue and a drama about bipolar disorder needs us to believe they are not.

We were absorbed for four hours and by the eighth we were checking how many were left, which for a series that runs to ten is not where you want to be. Svetlana Efremova’s Dasha, the Russian coach with a past and no patience for feelings, is the one late pleasure. She gets the dry lines, and she treats the romances with the contempt they earn.

As television about sport goes, this sits closer to the teen melodramas than to anything with the discipline of its subject. Figure skating is a sport of repetition, of doing the same six things ten thousand times, and a programme that understood that would have been slower and harder and better. Stratton clearly knows the world; the rink politics, the costs, the way a coach’s favour is traded, all ring true, and the series would have been better for staying inside it.

Watch the first four episodes for Jones and Scodelario, who deserve a steadier vehicle. If you are still interested after that, the 15 certificate is a fair warning of what the back half gets up to, and the skating will not get any more convincing.

*Fi1m score 56, published 7 October 2026.*

## Straight answers

**Is Spinning Out worth watching?**

*Spinning Out* is worth watching for its first four episodes, where Kaya Scodelario and January Jones give a serious, well-acted account of a mother and daughter hiding bipolar disorder from the sport, and we scored it 56. After that the series piles on secrets and affairs until it is a soap with ice in it, and the skating itself is always done by doubles and cut around.

**Where can I watch Spinning Out in Estonia?**

*Spinning Out* is streaming on Netflix in Estonia. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service.

**How violent or frightening is Spinning Out, and is it suitable for children?**

*Spinning Out* carries a UK 15 certificate, and it is a drama about mental illness and adult relationships rather than a violent one: the hard parts are a mother coming off her medication, hidden injuries and a late strand involving a coach that the certificate is a fair warning for. It is not for children, and younger teenagers would do better elsewhere.

**How does Spinning Out compare to I, Tonya?**

[*I, Tonya*](https://film.one/film/i-tonya) is the better of the two, and the skating drama *Spinning Out* wanted to be: funny, rude and honest about what the sport costs, with the skating shot like a chase rather than hidden behind doubles. The series is quieter and kinder to its women, and January Jones and Kaya Scodelario are its reason to watch, but it loses its nerve halfway through where the film keeps its edge to the end.

**What should I watch after Spinning Out?**

After *Spinning Out*, try [*I, Tonya*](https://film.one/film/i-tonya) (2017, Fi1m 70): The skating drama this one wanted to be: funny, nasty and honest about the cost. Then [*Friday Night Lights*](https://film.one/tv/friday-night-lights) (2006, Fi1m 86): Small-town sport, family and money handled with the patience Spinning Out lacks; and [*Black Swan*](https://film.one/film/black-swan) (2010, Fi1m 82): A performer’s body and mind coming apart under a coach who wants more.

### Reviews we read (2)

- **The Hollywood Reporter**, Robyn Bahr (70/100, inferred): Bahr finds the series uneven but mostly engrossing, praising its humane treatment of mental illness and family conflict. She especially singles out January Jones’s layered portrayal of Carol, while criticizing the excess romance and wandering second-half plotting. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-reviews/spinning-review-1265351/)
- **Variety**, Caroline Framke (30/100, inferred): Framke finds Spinning Out disappointing, especially as its season loses momentum and fails to make its stories feel earned. She praises its premise and compelling actors, but says clunky writing undermines the characters and relationships. [Read](https://variety.com/2020/tv/reviews/spinning-out-netflix-dare-me-megan-abbott-review-1203450164/)

## Details

- **Created by:** Samantha Stratton
- **Creator:** Samantha Stratton
- **Writer:** Samantha Stratton
- **Cinematography:** Mirosław Baszak
- **Editor:** Don Cassidy
- **Music:** Ohad Benchetrit
- **Production design:** Gordon Barnes
- **Costume design:** Suzanne McCabe
- **Cast:** Kaya Scodelario as Katarina Baker; January Jones as Carol Baker; Willow Shields as Serena Baker; Evan Roderick as Justin Davis; Sarah Wright as Mandy Davis; Svetlana Efremova as Dasha Glushenko; Mitchell Edwards as Marcus Holmes; Will Kemp as Mitch Saunders
- **Release (Estonia):** 1 January 2020
- **Genres:** Drama, Sport
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmdnhR1Ie7g

## Where to watch in Estonia

- Netflix: streaming

*Checked 2026-10-07.*

Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, AZ, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, ID, IE, IL, IN, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, SK, TH, TR, UA, US, VN, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## If you liked this

- *I, Tonya* (2017), Fi1m 70: The skating drama this one wanted to be: funny, nasty and honest about the cost. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/i-tonya.md)
- *Friday Night Lights* (2006), Fi1m 86: Small-town sport, family and money handled with the patience Spinning Out lacks. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/friday-night-lights.md)
- *Black Swan* (2010), Fi1m 82: A performer’s body and mind coming apart under a coach who wants more. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/black-swan.md)
- *Yuri!!! on Ice* (2016): Japanese animation that shows the jumps in full and understands practice.
- *Dare Me* (2019): Teenage athletes, a coach with secrets, and a far surer grip on tone.

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/spinning-out