Adults have little clue what it means to navigate ‘Adolescence’
A Netflix series that parents should not miss
In March, Netflix released Adolescence, a four-part series that was based on real-life events where, two young boys, in disparate parts of England, each killed a female peer. While the series creates fictional characters, actor Stephen Graham and screenwriter Jack Thorne wanted to explore aspects of how the darker side of technology affects youth.
The series itself is a bit of a technical marvel. All four episodes are “one-shots,” meaning that each were filmed in one long, continuous take. The camera moves through hallways and in and out of vehicles and in and out of buildings, taking viewers along each step of the way. The effect is to immediately pull the audience into the guts of the story.
Episode One begins with police bursting into the Eddie Miller family home where they arrest 13-year-old Jamie. He’s arrested for killing Katie, a female classmate. Jamie is dragged from his bedroom, down a flight of stairs and stuffed into a police van. The camera seldom leaves his face.
Once Jamie and the police arrive at the station, viewers follow the young boy through processing. Jamie’s family arrive at the station, and we see, as does Jamie, his distraught family in the next room. Later, Eddie joins his son in the interview room where, despite Jamie’s protestations of innocence, the truth comes out.
The second episode focuses on the police visit to Jamie’s school, where Detective Inspector Bascombe and Detective Sergeant Frank try to find the knife that Jamie used and to find Jamie’s motive for killing Katie.
A well-meaning but ineffectual teacher shows the two around the school. Bascombe and Frank try talking to students who were friends of either Jamie or Katie. The visit proves frustrating until Bascombe’s son, Adam, an older student at the school, tells his dad that he’s going about the case all wrong.
“Dad. . .you’re not getting it. You’re not reading what they’re doing. What’s happening,” says Adam. There’s a world of teen knowledge and experience that eludes the detectives, the son says, and that world is the “manosphere.”
Simplistically put, it’s a sub-culture for young men who feel both threatened by and rejected by women. There they discuss their hatred of women. If you’ve heard of the Tate brothers, Andrew and Tristan, these are figures that young boys and young men look up to in the manosphere. In this world of hyper-connected disaffection, emojis serve as code for how young girls react to young boys.
The scene is an uncomfortable encounter between a father who is too caught up in his work to spend enough time with his son. Bascombe interrupts and interjects his own thoughts, too unsure of having to face the fact that, in this case, he is inadequately qualified to do a good job. The father’s discomfort is palpable. The scene also reveals more nuance between Jamie and the girl he killed. It is also masterfully acted, written, and directed.
Episode Three focuses on Jamie’s visit to a forensic psychologist that will raise hairs on the back of your neck. It’s an acting tour de force for actor Owen Cooper, who plays Jamie. He vomits hurt and rage, and the forensic psychologist, while trying to determine if Jamie understands that he did wrong, sees all too well that Jamie is deeply damaged by his exposure to this dark world.
The final episode focuses on Jamie’s sister and his parents who, although Jamie has been in prison over a year, try to enjoy the father’s birthday by doing ordinary things. But simmering neighborhood anger and the family’s own grief and guilt prevent such from happening.
Jamie’s father, played by Stephen Graham, realizes too late that he didn’t know anything about his son’s life. It’s the same message that DI Bascombe receives from his son. It’s likely a message most parents of teenagers would hear.
We’ve given our children devices that connect them to values and strangers in ways we would never intend if we had understood how technology could shape their thinking.
Parents of teenagers should watch this series and then watch it again with their kids. Everyone will likely be uncomfortable, but good conversations could come from seeing it together.