On March 13, 2025, Netflix dropped a new, original, limited series called “Adolescence.” The story centers around Jamie Miller, a 13-year-old boy accused of murdering a girl in his school. As the investigation unfolds, the story delves deeper into his complex family dynamics, troubled school environment, and broader societal issues that led him to commit the murder.
One of the main actors in “Adolescence”, Stephen Graham, who plays Jamie’s dad, was actually one of the key writers and directors on the show. His inspiration for the show came from a series of real-life cases he saw in the news of young boys killing young girls, taking place in completely opposite sides of the country. These cases served as a wake-up call to him about the huge issues in our society that allow and cause tragic events like this and violence towards women to happen so often, and among all ages.
Graham wrote “Adolescence” to shed light on the real issues teens in our society face due to social media, toxic masculinity, and online misogyny. This show is not meant to be a “whodunnit” murder mystery, but rather a “why did he do it” story. It’s extremely important for people to watch this show, because it is very real and forces watchers to have vital conversations about sexism and social media and how they affect young minds.
Each episode is approximately an hour long, but rather than dragging on, the length of the episodes becomes one of the most captivating and interesting parts of the show. Each episode is one, continuous shot–there is not a single cut in the entire series. This is very impressive as everything must be extremely thought out and planned ahead. If someone messes up 30 minutes in, they have to redo everything.
This high pressure led the actors to do a lot of improvising in order to save the shot. Aside from being impressive, having no cuts adds so much to the overall heavy and dark tone of the show and intensifies the emotional weight of the plot. Actually experiencing the same timeline as the characters completely immerses you and makes you feel like you are truly there. As his parents wait in the police station for an hour at six in the morning and beg to see their son, we are waiting and begging with them. The audience gets to experience the same tense, urgent feelings that the characters do.
14 year-old actor Owen Cooper, who plays Jamie, is also a very impressive aspect of the series. For his first time ever acting, he gave an exceptional performance, truly capturing the complexity and nuance of his character: a young, fragile boy whose mind has been overtaken by violence from social media, affecting him in ways that he doesn’t even truly understand. He gives a very authentic, raw, and realistic performance that makes it hard to separate his character from his true self.
Overall, the Netflix Original series “Adolescence” is a must watch for the compelling, powerful, and thought-provoking experience. The performances, directing, and deeper meaning of the show was not only interesting to watch, but very educational and important to understand.
