Netflix: “Adolescence”

“Adolescence” (Netflix) is a fictional crime drama but it feels as authentic as a documentary. The series is terrifying, brutal and often unwatchable. But if you’re a parent with kids who are addicted to social media—and even if you’re not a parent—the show is a must.

Created by actor Stephen Graham and screenwriter Jack Thorne, the four-episode series begins with the arrest of Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper), an 11-year-old from a modest Leeds suburb. The police barge into his home at 6 am, whisk him off to the police station, as his stunned parents and sister follow.

Jamie has been accused of murdering Katy, a fellow middle-school classmate, in a car park the previous evening.

Once at the police station, Jamie is fingerprinted, has his mugshot taken, and is assigned a solicitor. He is then questioned by Detectives Luke Bascomb (Ashley Walters) and Misha Frank (Faye Marsay). Jamie denies he has anything to do with the murder, and Jamie’s blue-collar father Eddie (played by Graham himself) wants to believe him.

In Episode 2, the police show up at Jamie’s grimy school in search of possible accomplices, a murder weapon, and a motive. The students are up to speed on what has happened and are understandably traumatized. During a tense gathering of the entire school on the playground, Jade (Fatima Bojang) Katy’s BFF, physically assaults Jamie’s buddy Ryan (Kaine Davis), accusing him of complicity.

Episode 3 fast forwards us seven months as we find Jamie in a psych hospital awaiting trial. He has a one-on-one with Briony (Erin Doherty), a forensic psychologist, and the session quickly accelerates into a shouting match.

The final episode takes us to Jamie’s family trying to eke out a normal existence 13 months after the crime, and shows the effect Jamie’s action has had on their lives. “Could we have done better?” Eddie asks his wife Manda (Christine Tremarco).

You don’t have to be a parent to feel the horror that social media can wreak on an introverted friendless little boy. In the digital “mano-sphere,” young males like Jamie are exposed to alphas, “incels”, MRAs (men’s rights activists) and PUAs (pickup artists) along with controversial Internet celebrities like Andrew Tate. They learn about “red pills”, “truth groups” and they follow conspiracy theories like the 80-20 rule (which suggests that 80% of women are attracted to 20% of men).

The performances of the youngsters are, without exaggeration, astonishing. Owen Cooper as Jamie—a kid with no previous acting experience— can go from sympathetic to monstrous in seconds. Fatima Bojang takes the show to the next level as Katie’s best friend Jade who expresses her grief in violent physical and verbal outbursts.

The best of the adult performances is given by Graham as Jamie’s bewildered father. Graham is such a skillful actor, that he carefully holds back tears until the very last scene. I guarantee you will be sniffling along with him.

“Adolescence” uses a technique of one-shot filming, seen most memorably in “Birdman,” which won the best picture Oscar in 2014. Every episode is shot in one take—without any cuts. Shooting was planned through multiple rehearsals. Each episode was filmed approximately 10 times, and took three weeks to complete.

The idea for “Adolescence” came to Graham after a spate of stabbings committed by young males against teenage girls in northern England. “It really hit my heart,” Graham said at the show’s premiere in March. “I just thought: ‘What’s happening? How have we come to this? What’s going on with our society?’

If you’re not afraid to find out why, watch the series, which makes every other show you’re streaming seem trivial. Nothing speaks louder than the truth. Bravo, Netflix.

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