We Need To Talk About 'Adolescence' on Netflix
The harrowing 4-episode Netflix series left me fascinated as well as shook but that's all the more reason to start watching now.
Let me say right up front that I’m writing this before watching the fourth and final episode of Netflix’s new limited series, Adolescence. I thought maybe I should wait until I watched the entire U.K. series, which follows a group of people involved in a case with a 13-year old accused of murder, but sometimes you just have to get out what you’re feeling about the show when you’re feeling it. Trust me, it’s a good feeling.
Harrowing is a word that comes to mind when watching Adolescence but not because it’s outwardly graphic (in a visual sense, no) but because as an adult who left adolescence behind so long ago, you’re given a window into what it’s like to be a young person growing up in the modern age that includes social media and it’s anything but pleasant. Also, each episode has felt different as various elements of the case are explored as the detectives try to piece things together and just when you think the show can’t get better, it does as we learn and see more about all the characters and the crime at hand.
The series starts with a bang as a group of law enforcers, led by Detective Inspector Luke Bascombe (a terrific Ashley Walters), bursts into the Miller household where they take 13-year old Jamie (a fantastic Owen Cooper) into custody for the murder of one his classmates with his plumber father Eddie (Stephen Graham, who co-created and co-wrote the series with Jack Thorne) and mother Manda (Christine Tremarco) watching helplessly. Jamie is driven to the local police station and we are walked through the early stages of the booking and then investigation from Jamie being explained what’s happening, getting his fingerprints taken and then questions about the crime.
It doesn’t take long to figure out that Adolescence is telling this story differently than a Law & Order or any other crime procedural would do it since each episode is a continuous shot with no breaks, no edits, just a moving camera following the action. The device isn’t necessarily new but here it feels incredibly fresh as it brings with it an intimacy in the story as it’s unfolding since, to sort of quote Hamilton, we’re in the room where it all happens but without quick edits or an abundance of underscoring music to tell us what we should focus on and how to feel. The camera still silently does that as it moves in for close-ups at times or gives us a wider view when necessary. In short, the lack of editing gives the series a raw feel that only adds to the overall compelling nature of the series. Bravo to director Philip Barantini, who utilized this same method of filming with his 2021 film Boiling Point (which also starred Graham) and beautifully directed all four episodes here.
Without spoiling too much, the first episode focuses on Jamie being taken into custody with Bascombe and Detective Sargeant Misha Frank (Faye Marsay) starting to piece together the case and interrogate a shocked Jamie. We start out wondering if Jamie is innocent and what the facts are in the case and that’s where the mystery element of the show rests as details are revealed to the audience and the overall story starts to take shape. However, Adolescence is not so much a whodunit as it is a why-dunit as the facts come to light pretty quick and the bigger questions is what and who fed into the crime happening in the first place.
The second episode starts 3 days later as Bascombe and Frank head to Jamie’s school to talk to students and get a sense of the world in which these kids live in in hopes of figuring more out about Jamie’s actions. The third episode takes place seven months later and is centered on a meeting between Jamie and therapist Briony Ariston (Erin Doherty) that is almost like a play you can’t look away from with two characters talking for most of the installment. (Seriously, put your phone and way and watch this show) The fourth episode begins 13 months after the incident and from what I can tell from watching the first few minutes before pausing to write this post, it will focus on the Miller family to hopefully give us an even better understanding of Jamie and his actions.
Like I mentioned earlier, besides the continuous shot of each episode, there is also very little music other than the main titles (featuring photos of who we’re going to see in the episode) but when it does come in, it only adds to the overall feeling you’re experiencing with the show. For example, at the end of the second episode, an off-camera children’s choir sings Sting’s 1987 song “Fragile” will chill you to the bone. “On and on the rain will fall/Like tears from a star, like tears from a star/On and on the rain will say/How fragile we are, how fragile we are.”
Overall, as brilliant as the series is, I found myself not bingeing too quickly (though I still devoured the show over 3 days). I needed a break between episodes, which isn’t a criticism or a bad thing since I was also aware from the start that there would be only four episodes and I personally like to savor a series when it gets a hold of me like Adolescence has done. But now that I’m writing about it, I’m going to shut my laptop and go watch the last hour. After watching three sharply written and directed episodes, I have a feeling I won’t be disappointed though I may be even more shook than I already am. Is it too soon to hand out Emmys to pretty much everyone involved here?
One idea I had about something I’ll have to write about soon is how many great shows are doing a great job of drawing us in as viewers so you leave with the feeling that you can’t get enough. For example, I’ve seen 14 of the 15 first season episodes of MAX’s excellent medical drama The Pitt and I have a good feeling that when that season finale, I’ll be left dying for more. Again, it’s a good thing.
If you need more evidence that Adolescence is a show worth checking out, here’s the trailer:
Have you watched Adolescence? Let me know your non-spoilery thoughts in the comments below. Did the show grab you as much as it grabbed me? Did it take you back to your own school days? Which performance blew you away the most?
Until next time…
I watched the first episode that hooked me immediately and decided to binge watch the rest, unfortunately I haven’t been well and discovered I have pneumonia !!
Nonetheless, like a book you just cannot put down I binged the last three episode the following day and what an amazingly harrowing and heartbreaking 3 hours it became.
I am the father of two adult sons and an adult daughter all born during the “web age” but thankfully not the era of the now with all its “dark web”, and people like Andrew Tate and the cyber bullying that takes place.
Each episode was epic in its own way but as I used to work in mental health, frequently having to perform assessments as shown in this episode, I found myself holding my breath at the raw accuracy of what was unfolding before my eyes as I watched Jamie switch back and fore between the innocent 13 year we first met to the “angry” almost sociopathic individual he became in the moment he “slaughtered” Katie.
I believe every parent of teenagers should be encouraged to watch this show and that it should also be shown in high schools.
Finally I do not want to appear as if I’m justifying the horror what Jamie did but, as this show focussed on Incel young men responding to the 80/20 phenomenon and I certainly do not blame Katie in any way for her demise but I feel not enough attention was given to the on-line and face to face bullying that she subjected Jamie to.
Just watched episode 2. Why does a drama that purports to tell us something important and true about a current real life issue do so by portraying police, teachers, school nurses and teenagers behaving in completely unbelievable ways (which I thought was pretty insulting towards all of these groups)?