My Thoughts on the Netflix Series Adolescence

Describe:

 I watched the Netflix crime and drama series Adolescence. The show stars actor on the rise Owen Cooper as Jamie Miller, Stephen Graham, the co creator and who you may know from his roles in Snatch (2000) and This Is England (2006) as Eddie Miller, Ashley Walters known for being a member in the rap group So Solid Crew and for his role in Top Boy (2011-2013) plays DI Luke Bascombe, and Christine Tremarco from The Leaving of Liverpool (1992) and Swallow (2001) as Manda Miller. The first episode throws you into the nightmare of being woken up by a police raid. The Millers are scared and confused as the police take Jamie into custody on murder charges. The episode follows the chaotic process of getting booked and interrogated. Jamie denies it and his dad Eddie obviously believes him until the police show them a video of him committing the crime where the episode ends with both of them crying. The entire episode is shot in one continuous take, no cuts, no edits. In fact across the four episodes there are only four shots, one for each episode. As for why they chose to make filming as hard as possible an article by Variety explains, "Lewis and Barantini shot everything as one continuous scene to create a feeling of tension and nervousness as the story, and Jamie’s intentions, reveal themselves." 

Interpret:

While I watched the series one thing stuck out to me the most: how real everything felt. The attitude throughout the whole show was that of real life, especially the first episode in the police station. It truly seemed like everyone involved was just a real person doing their job. The dialog felt natural and not over dramatized, like that's how it would actually go if you where in that situation. I wanna be clear I'm not saying it was boring, I think the fact that it feels so real enthralls the viewer even more and draws you into the story as if it was happening to you. There are other shows that focus on crime and murder, on Netflix for example the show You follows a stalker and serial killer, but what setts Adolescence apart from the other dark crime shows is its realness and the fact they don't focus on how the crime was committed but why it was committed. 

I think Adolescence very purposefully uses stereotypes. The Miller family is a very stereotypical English family, A working class dad who loves sport and a good full English breakfast, a mother who is gentle and loves cheesy 80s music, A uninterested teenage daughter, and a younger son who spends all day on his computer. They make the Millers so normal and familiar to show how this could happen to anybody, and the problem of younger boys being aggressive towards women and falling into the trap of the manosphere doesn't only happen in extreme circumstances. 

I don't think the show had a super specific target audience since its a social commentary. They want to get their message out to the general public. That being said it definitely isn't a show for a younger audience. Within the general public I think that parents probably are a lot of the viewers. With the show they hope parents will maybe be more aware of their kids and it could even encourage them to have a talk to them about some of the things the show includes, like cyberbullying and dangerous internet rabbit holes. 

Evaluate:

Adolescence is a great show and a poignant reminder of the dangerous misogyny happening online and its real world effects. I've already talked about how real the show feel making it an even better reflection of todays society but one of the best parts of the series I haven't talked about is the acting. I can only imagine how much harder it is to act and memorize lines when it all has to be in one take which makes it that much more impressive. For me the star of the show is Stephen Graham, I don't think ill ever get the last shot of him crying and apologizing to his son for failing him out of my head. He conveys unimaginable emotions in such a vivid and realistic way. It seems like the majority of critics and reviews agree with me that the acting is great in Adolescence. One review by Margaret Lyons in the New York Times says, "The performances here are superb, with varsity weeping and real sense of heft and verisimilitude." A lot of big words, I had to look up a few, but she is in agreeance that the show has great acting. 

Engage:
Since It is only four episodes I was able to binge it in two days. So far no one I've asked of my friends and family have watched it which is unfortunate because it would be fun to hear what they thought of it and see if they drew some of the same conclusions I did or what they thought the main message is. As for its use of social media I really couldn't find much. It doesn't have an official website and most of the advertisements come from Netflix not the show itself. I did find some very interesting behind the scenes videos on YouTube of how they were able to film it in one take and what the production was like. Its insane how much effort they put into it all for a somewhat minor aesthetic choice of having it in one take. 

Unfortunately it seems as though Adolescence is somewhat polarizing online. from what I can tell the vast majority of viewers do come to the conclusion that its a story about the dangers of the 'manosphere' and the misogyny spread online to young boys, but a loud few feel like its an attack on men, or even white men specifically. It honestly scares me that people watch this show and think its 'propaganda' or an attack on masculinity. The people who feel that way ironically highlight why the message of the show is pertinent. There's a YouTube video with over one million views calling Adolescence a product of demonizing masculinity and claiming its complete fiction pushing a "woke" point of view. I wouldn't recommend watching the video, he makes wild statements claiming they're facts despite never giving real evidence. The fact that it has one million views with comments full of support terrifies me.

Conclusion:

One of my main takeaways from this assignment was that you can really takeaway a lot from an episode of TV if you want to and ruminate on what you've watched after. I wrote a lot more than I thought I would and had way more opinions on what I had watched than I originally thought. The series also surprised me with how much went into making it happen and how hard the entire crew had to work to make it happen. I was also surprised in a bad way by some of the reactions people had to the show and what they thought the shows message was.

If you have the time, and the mental fortitude to deal with four insanely tense and stressful episodes, you should give Adolescence A watch. It makes you think about the media you consume and the media others consume and how drastically it can effect your outlook and actions.

Photos (in order):

Adolescence Episode one

Adolescence Episode four

Adolescence Episode three