While hundreds of web series are released across various streaming platforms, seldom does a series come with such strong writing, message and performances that it grips you thoroughly, stays with you long after it ends and actually makes you ponder over the deeper aspects of the show. The ‘Adolescence’ on Netflix is one such series, and has already taken the whole world by storm. The mini series, which revolves around the investigation of a teenage girl’s murder, highlights some pertinent aspects that an adolescent child undergoes, especially regarding his feelings for the opposite gender (quite natural at this stage). In this blog, I will elaborate on what makes this series one of the GOAT, and why it is so important in today’s digital age.

Premise

The show opens with a hard-hitting scene, where the police storm into a house while investigating the murder, and the youngest member of the house, 13-year-old Jamie Miller (played by Owen Cooper), is the main accused. The police enter his room and arrest Jamie, who looks dead scared as the police arrest him in front of his family. Until this point, the viewer believes that Jamie is innocent and wonders how such a small boy can kill someone so brutally. but, as the show and the subsequent investigation unravel further, all presumptions fall off, and everyone is left in shock and despair.

As the investigation progresses, the officer finds out a deep, dark and secret world of the adolescent kids, which is completely unknown to even their parents, despite how good they think they know their child. For example, in a scene, the officer is told by his own son about the actual meanings of some of the emojis used by teenagers in today’s digital age, which have much deeper meanings than what they appear to be. For example, the ‘100’ emoji, which everyone thinks is just normal, actually has a misogynistic and problematic meaning that 80% of girls only have sex with 20% of men. Similarly, the cracker emoji actually refers to the term ‘incel’ (will explain this in detail later).

Stephen Graham as Eddie Miller, in one of the most heartbreaking stills from Adolescence (Photo: Netflix)

Hard-Hitting Subjects

Further, ‘Adolescence’ touches on two separate and very important aspects. First, the show delves into the impact the episode has on Jamie’s family. It shows how Jamie’s parents, who perhaps did no wrong in raising their beloved son, realise the uncomfortable and hard fact that despite how much the parents do, it’s eventually the child who charts his destiny, and maybe even your best is not enough. It also makes everyone realise that one needs to keep emotions aside while dealing with the children, as despite how innocent they look, they can still lie with a straight face, as Jamie does to his father.

The other thing the show touches on is the evolution of a child’s mind during adolescence, particularly regarding the opposite sex. It exposes the toxic online culture of the ‘manosphere’ (an ideology that opposes feminism and promotes sexism among young boys), in which teenage boys develop a hatred for girls after undergoing ‘romantic failure’ or rejections.

The powerful and hard-hitting interrogation scene, which is an absolute carnage and a masterclass (Photo: Netflix) 

The show also makes a veiled reference to problematic influencer Andrew Tate, a big name in the ‘manosphere’ world. For more context, Tate has openly advocated for violence against women and is banned from all social media platforms. but, still, his influence is so strong that a report says 80% of 16-17-year-old boys had consumed Tate’s content; in contrast, only 60% of the same age group knew of the UK Prime Minister.

The other important and lesser known topic, ‘Adolescence’  talks about is the ‘incel culture’. now, ‘incel’ is a term that refers to a situation, where a person (mostly boys) remain devoid of ‘sex’ for long. As the person sees his counterparts in his age group enjoying life with girls, his craving for intimate relationships grows even further and takes a dangerous turn. The boy starts believing that girls only establish relations with good-looking and rich men. This feeling of insecurity stems violence and leads to incidents where men assault, kill, rape women (many incidents have occurred, in UK, India, other parts too) just out of frustration, and more importantly with no regrets. As we also see in ‘Adolescence’, Jamie does not regret his action, justifies it instead, and doesn’t even realise that a person can’t come back after death.

A BTS still showing the intense camerawork and set design involved in the filming of the show (Photo: Netflix)

Facts and Making

By now, everyone would have known that ‘Adolescence’ comprises four episodes, each shot in single takes. Now, there is a lot of one-shot content, mostly movies, but what makes ‘Adolescence’ special is that unlike most of the famous one-take contents like ‘1917’ and ‘Birdman’, this show was ACTUALLY shot in one takes (yes, you heard that right). What happens in most one-take movies is that the team shoots some parts in one take, and then the shot is cut, taking the aid of a dark portion (room, cave, light getting off scene) and eventually, all the scenes are added up during editing to produce the one-shot movie.

However, all of this was not the case with ‘Adolescence’, as while filming this, each of the episodes was shot in one single shot from the start to the end. It was more like a play with a lot and lot of rehearsals. Of course, it wasn’t possible in the very first attempt, and this extremely tedious task was executed in multiple takes. But, now, you would have understood how much preparation had gone into memorising the script, tuning the perfect coordination, and bringing the whole idea from paper to screen.

The whole ‘Adolescence’ team deserves an award for the epic one-take masterpiece they have delivered (Photo: The Hollywood Reporter)

Performance for Ages

Now, the less I talk about the performance of the actors in this show, the better. I mean, is there any way that every single actor who is a part of the show gets an Emmy this year? That’s how good everyone has acted in the series. And I would be very, very surprised if ‘Adolescence’ doesn’t end up sweeping the whole Emmys next year. And, Owen might just become one of the youngest to win an Emmy, if not the youngest.

Starting from Owen Cooper (over 15 now and around 13 during the shoot), who plays protagonist Jamie Miller. Those reading for the first time here would be surprised to know that it was Owen’s first acting role, and he had NO acting experience before this. The strong interrogation scene in the third episode was shot first, and it was the first time when Owen EVER faced a camera in his life. The biggest standout of Owen’s performance is the way he has somehow managed to keep the portrayal of Jamie layered, uncomfortable at times, and yet not entirely allowing you to start hating the kid.

15-year-old Owen Cooper delivered one of the greatest performances in the history of television (Photo: Netflix) 

Stephen Graham, who plays Jamie’s father and is also a co-creator of the show, has also done a commendable job. The way he has portrayed the accused’s father, from undergoing shock to disbelief to finally acceptance, is simply brilliant. The scene where Eddie watches the footage of his son and realises what actually happened that night and the last scene, where Eddie grieves the harsh reality of his son, are extremely heartbreaking and difficult to watch.

Also, as I already said, every actor who is a part of the show deserves every possible accolade. Erin Doherty, who portrays the role of the therapist, is too good at showing the vulnerable side of dealing with criminals. At the end of the one-shot interrogation scene, Doherty craftly portrays how deep an impact Jamie’s confession left for her. Ashley Walters, as the investigating officer, is also top-notch, as he navigates through different witnesses of the case. Similarly, all other characters, whether from Jamie’s family, or his school, have been aptly cast and, as a result, have delivered captivating performances.

The Message of Adolescence

The ‘Adolescence’ has received rave reviews and terrific responses globally, and everything from the show’s writing and performances to the pertinent points highlighted are being hailed as the greatest in the history of television. The show — which is topping the charts on the platform in almost every country — also made its way to Downing Street, as UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer praised the show and backed the idea of screening the show across the schools in the country and encouraging national conversation on the pertinent issues raised in the series. I wish leaders in our country had also supported such good content instead of whole useless bunch shitty propaganda movies, but well…that’s a discussion for some other day.

The main theme of ‘Adolescence’ is raising awareness towards the criticality of today’s digital age and highlighting the importance of keeping a check on the content being consumed by kids, especially in the ‘adolescent’ years, as what they watch/hear now ends up shaping their narrative towards the world. Now, despite how much of a breach of privacy it may sound, I say with full responsibility that it is extremely important to monitor the activity of kids and teens till they attain a certain level of maturity. This has become all the more important today, when there are hundreds of stupid and even evil people calling themselves influencers on social media (Andrew Tate was just one example). I would even suggest the idea of screening the series in all schools in India too making all adoelscent kids watch it with teacher and parental supervision, because that’s how important it is.

At the end, hats off to the whole ‘Adolescence’ team for making such a courageous and important show and start discussion on this uncomfortable but important topic. I would end my blog with a very important line I saw somewhere, “If you don’t guide your children through this world of internet, someone else will”.