The four-part series presented in several long takes is a gut-wrenching achievement in television drama.
Plot: A crime drama filmed in an ambitious real-time, one-shot. It tells the story of how a family’s world is turned upside down when 13-year-old Jamie Miller is arrested with the murder of a teenage girl who goes to his school.
Review: Being a parent is an incredibly hard job. When you add the complexity of shepherding impressionable minds in our fully integrated and constantly online culture, things that were difficult decades ago become infinitely more so today. The four-episode limited series Adolescence is a chilling portrait of what could happen to even the most caring and attentive parents. Co-created by star Stephen Graham, Adolescence is a masterpiece of acting and writing that also serves as a technical achievement, with each episode filmed as a single, long take. There are so many fantastic stories on television, but Adolescence is easily one of the best productions ever created for the small screen. You will be unable to pull yourself away from this series and will be left emotionally scarred once you finish it.
Adolescence opens with Detective Inspector Luke Bascombe (Ashley Walters) and Detective Sergeant Misha Frank (Faye Marsay) leading a raid on the home of Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper), the 13-year-old son of Eddie (Stephen Graham) and Manda (Christine Tremarco). Accused of the brutal murder of a female classmate, Jamie is taken into custody, where he elects his father to serve as his “appropriate adult” during the interrogation. Eddie, Manda, and their daughter, Lisa (Amelie Pease), are shocked at the accusations and are thrust into the whirlwind of activity involving evidence collection, meeting with a public defender, and learning the shocking facts of the case against Jamie. Over the sixty-five-minute opening episode, we see the emotional toll on the Millers and the investigators. By the end of the hour, the truth begins to come into focus, setting up the episodes that follow.
Episode two is set a few days later at Jamie’s school. Bascombe and Frank question Jamie’s friends and those close to the victim, giving the audience a look into a school focused on troubled teens and how their online-heavy culture impacts the case against Jamie. The third episode shifts seven months ahead and centers on Jamie’s interactions with psychologist Briony Ariston (Erin Doherty), who delves into the teenager’s thoughts that led to his current circumstances. The final episode shifts another six months as Jamie’s trial is set to begin. It shows the ongoing ramifications and impact of the crime on the Miller family, notably Eddie, as he approaches his birthday. With each episode set over a single hour, we are given much information to digest through the characters’ performances on screen. Some episodes boast large casts, notably the second entry, while the third is almost entirely focused on just Jamie and Briony.
There is a lot to unpack in Adolescence. The emotionally devastating story is one that no parent can watch without a strong reaction. Wanting to believe in the goodness of your children is something every parent feels the moment they have a kid, but learning that your offspring may not be the person you thought they were is a chilling and terrifying prospect. Stephen Graham and Christine Tremarco are exemplary as they try to navigate the emotions any parent would endure in a situation like this. Graham, who came up with the idea for Adolescence after an uptick in violent crime against girls by male youths in England, is heart-wrenchingly good as Eddie comes to terms with who Jamie is and how he got that way. As the police initially suspect Eddie could be to blame for Jamie becoming a criminal, the horrifying concept of the “Manosphere” and internet subculture surrounding incels becomes monstrously real.
The series also showcases amazing performances across the entire cast. Graham is sensational, which he has repeatedly proven in his recent series A Thousand Blows. However, Adolescence also has a great turn from Ashley Walters as the investigating officer with a son close to Jamie’s age. Erin Doherty, Graham’s co-star in A Thousand Blows, is also brilliant as the psychologist who gets close to Jamie but begins to see the dual nature hidden beneath his teenage facade. As good as everyone is, Adolescence is a showcase for Owen Cooper. Making his acting debut in this series, Cooper is chillingly layered as he plays Jamie’s shifting emotions that will have you feeling sympathy, empathy, and revulsion, sometimes within the same scene. The third episode is anchored by an extended back-and-forth between Cooper and Doherty that may be one of the best two-character sequences in any television series this year, possibly this decade.
Writer Jack Thorne reunited with Stephen Graham to write all four episodes of Adolescence. Thorne and Graham previously worked on the three This Is England mini-series and The Virtues. The duo delivers a masterclass in scripting dialogue and creating realistic interactions between police, parents, children, and more. Every single scene feels authentic and never dips into feeling like melodrama. It can be hard to watch the series sometimes, but none of the violence occurs on screen. All of the intensity comes in the form of emotionally resonant performances from every cast member. The direction from actor-turned-filmmaker Philip Barantini is also impressive, with each episode structured as a single take. Barantini, who directed Graham in the 2019 film Boiling Point and is slated to helm Enola Holmes 3, blends the workmanlike approach to small-screen direction with the technical prowess of other long-take efforts. The lack of edits or breaks in the story keeps each episode’s momentum churning towards a heartbreaking conclusion, none more so than the final chapter.
The timely subject matter of Adolescence is striking, raw, and utterly unforgettable. This series is a powerful and shocking look at what has been hinted at through the news for years and is presented in a way that will have you wondering if something this devastating could hit closer to home. Stephen Graham and Jack Thorne have crafted a series that had me broken by the end of the fourth and final episode. Adolescence is hard to watch but is very important to experience. I know I have not been this affected as a parent by a narrative work since Alfonso Cuaron’s Children of Men. Adolescence is easily one of the best television productions of the year, the decade, and possibly of all time.
Adolescence is now streaming on Netflix.
