If you’re in the mood for a devastating family drama that doesn’t offer answers but does offer some exceptional writing, performances, and directing, Adolescence, the new four-episode British miniseries on Netflix is for you. A shattering look at how a young boy, radicalized by the misogynistic dreck that exists on the internet, bullied by those he wants to be accepted by (who, he in turn, tries to manipulate using the toxic cocktail he finds online regarding how to treat and talk to women), destroys his family, his friends, and his community when he kills a fellow middle school student. This isn’t a fun or easy watch, but it is one of the best things I’ve seen this year, and in light of the current discourse in the wider world, it’s certainly something we should look more into.
Adolescence tells the story of Jamie Miller (an incredible Owen Cooper in his first onscreen role), a thirteen-year-old boy who is suspected of murdering a female classmate. The details behind why he committed this heinous crime slowly leak out over the course of the first three episodes, but without spoiling too much, it stems from the current online world of misogynistic folks like Andrew Tate, who tell young boys and men that the problem with their lot in life – be it a lack of a girlfriend, a lack of perceived respect, a lack of power, etc. – stems from a society where women have power.* The series presents Jamie’s own warped view of women and what they owe him in fits and starts, while also showing us the inner-workings of his school (where the adults seem to have little to no control or interest in the students they work with), his family (where, again, the adults think they understand their son but really have little to no idea just what he is feeling, thinking, or seeing online), and the overall community (again, where people isolate and don’t interact beyond a superficial level with one another). Never once does the series ask us to excuse or empathize with Jamie for what he has done, but the excellent writing (the series was created and written by Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham, the latter of whom also turns in a stunning performance as Jamie’s dad, Eddie) wants to make it clear that this isn’t some bad egg who broke bad. No, this is a seemingly normal young man who made clear choices that resulted in the death of a young woman and he doesn’t understand or accept his actions.
*Naturally, that’s a complete oversimplification of the entire misogynistic, red pill/blue pill cesspool that exists on the internet. But what is very real is that this group of entitled assholes are, in fact, indoctrinating many young men into believing all of this. And it has, on more than one occasion, been part of the reason behind attacks on women and schools both in the US and abroad. So, a real issue and something that I suspect a lot of adults aren’t even really aware of.
Joining Cooper and Graham in the series is a heck of a line-up, including Erin Doherty (The Crown and A Thousand Blows, which she starred in opposite Graham) as a psychologist working with Jamie, and Ashley Waters (another A Thousand Blows alumnus) and Faye Marsay (Andor and Game of Thrones) as the two cops who arrest and investigate Jamie. The performances are grounded and not at all flashy – something that can easily occur when dealing with stories like this that can need to feel sensationalized in order to connect. But everything here feels real. This feels like a normal family, a normal town, normal professionals just doing their job. Nothing feels over-the-top or too much. And a lot of that comes from the writing and the acting work. But the rest of that feel? Well, that’s from the pretty incredible way the series was filmed.
If you google the series, chances are one of the first things you’ll read is that each episode was filmed in a single take. As in, no cuts, everyone performed their lines, the cameras, lights, and sound all caught everything, and the entire hour-long episode was run straight through like a play. Now, “oners,” the industry term for a long, tracking shot that completes a scene aren’t new. In fact, there’s an entire episode in the upcoming Seth Rogen AppleTV+ series The Studio that is about a film trying to shoot a oner. And no, the opening sequence of season two of Severance was not a single shot – even though it was edited to appear as one – and was actually shot in pieces over the course of months. But, according to the Adolescence team, each episode of the series is a single uninterrupted shot. Which means no cuts, no camera tricks, every line was hit, every mark made, and every technical beat was ready – and that is an insanely complex feat for a five-minute scene. For an entire episode? That’s incredible.
But what it does from a story perspective is it makes each episode feel like a real slice of life. We’re seeing all of this play out in literal real time. Each conversation, each walk-and-talk, each revelation? That’s in real-time. There aren’t deductive leaps that would need hours to occur. There aren’t breaks to allow people a chance to cool off. It’s all happening in the here and now, we’re seeing characters interact, react, try to figure out their next moves as we watch them. And it makes the characters feel more real, the performances feel more authentic, and the story feel more grounded. When we trust that we’re seeing this story as the characters experience it, it hits different. And it hits much harder.
Adolescence isn’t an easy series to watch, and it’s even a harder series to sit down and binge. But it’s a great series. A necessary series. And it’s the best show you aren’t watching.
