Adolescence — Series Review

A family's world turns upside down when 13-year-old Jamie Miller is arrested for murdering a schoolmate. The charges against their son force them to confront every parent's worst nightmare.

Stephen Graham stars in and co-writes Netflix’s latest series with Jack Thorne (His Dark Materials), directed by Philip Barantini (Boiling Point), who brings his acclaimed style by filming each episode in a single continuous shot. At the heart of this raw, emotional drama is a powerful exploration of incel culture and the disturbing realities children face online today. The series tackles uncomfortable topics with bold writing, and the actors deliver intense, compelling performances.

From the very first episode, I was hooked. The fluidity and intensity of the scenes felt like watching live theatre. Barantini’s direction captures incredible performances, bringing the passion of the stage to the screen.

Owen Cooper makes an impressive acting debut, tackling heavy material with remarkable maturity. His performance strikes a perfect balance between the darker aspects of his character and the vulnerability of a child arrested for murder. After seeing this, I am looking forward to seeing him as Young Heathcliff in Emerald Fennell’s upcoming adaptation of Wuthering Heights.

The stellar cast also includes Stephen Graham as Eddie Miller, Christine Tremarco as Manda Miller, Ashley Walters as DI Luke Bascombe, Erin Doherty as Briony Ariston, Faye Marsay as DS Misha Frank, and Mark Stanley as Paul Barlow.

I went into this show expecting a murder mystery or a dramatic twist, but the answers of what happened are answered by the end of episode one. Instead, the creative team of this show decides to highlight the aftermath of such a horrific crime and the ripple effects it has on everyone involved and the wider community. This was such a refreshing take on this genre and Thorne and Graham penned some truly amazing character moments.

As much as I enjoyed this series, I have to say Episode Three was the most impactful episode. With it being almost entirely a two-hander scene between Owen Cooper and Erin Doherty, it truly feels like watching two seasoned actors live on stage. The emotion of the ramifications of what Jamie (Cooper) did and his mental and emotional capacity gets explored in depth throughout this script in particular.

Doherty plays a clinical psychologist delving into Jamie’s psyche to uncover the truth. Her calm composure makes Cooper’s unnerving switches between nice and sinister was brilliantly played. I would be very interested to see these two on screen together again as entirely different characters — perhaps playing siblings or mother and son — because they delivered such great performances.

As I said previously, this show deviates from familiar crime tropes and instead focuses on the tragedy of the crime. At the heart of this story is a family navigating the complexities of his son’s situation, the detectives and psychologist trying to make sense of such a violent act and what makes a child become a murderer.

As there are big narrative leaps between episodes, the gap between them being days, months and even over a year in the story’s timeline. The scripts give audiences an hour with these characters at pivotal moments that give an unflinching look at the aftermath of grief. There was only four episodes, but the writing and acting that was captured in one take was truly an incredible piece of cinema.

The ending of Adolescence doesn’t give a clear message or solution to the problem of incel culture. This plays out more like a cautionary tale of the darker side of the internet and not having open communication between parents and children.

Adolescence has definitely sparked conversations about this subject on the news and online, which may go a way in preventing such tragedies in real life. However, this truly is television at it’s finest and it was a show that deserves the hype it’s getting for its bold and compelling storytelling.

My Rating for Adolescence: ★★★★★

Adolescence is available to stream on Netflix now.