Written by Jack Thorne And Stephen Graham
Directed by Philip Barantini
DI Bascombe: "It's crazy what your brain tells you what to do when you're a kid."
Last year, Netflix struck gold with Baby Reindeer. The seven part miniseries had something of a frank discussion on mental health and masculinity. It appeared that lightning can strike twice because Adolescence explored similar themes, albeit with a vastly different story.
Shot with a single camera format, the four part miniseries focused on the arrest of a teenager named Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper), much to the confusion of his parents Eddie (Stephen Graham) and Manda (Christine Tremarco) and older sister, Lisa (Amélie Pease).
The nature of Jamie's arrest by DI Luke Bascombe (Ashley Walters) and DS Misha Frank (Faye Marsay) was made apparent very fast. Jamie was believed to be responsible for the death of his classmate, Katie and the first episode tackled Jamie's arrest and initial questioning by the detectives. Jamie went out of his way to give them as little as possible.
The second episode saw Bascombe and Frank going to Jamie's school and interviewing other classmates. That included Jamie's best friend, Ryan (Kaine Davis), who was revealed to have supplied Jamie with the knife that killed Katie. There was also Katie's grief stricken friend, Jade (Fatima Bojang) while Bascombe's own son gave his father the run down on Incel culture.
Perhaps the highlight of this miniseries would be the third episode, focusing on Jamie talking to child psychologist, Briony Ariston (Erin Doherty). It's an extraordinary piece of television with genuinely captivating performances from both Owen Cooper and Erin Doherty, with the episode getting to the root of Jamie's views on women.
As for the last episode, it's an examination of the impact of Jamie's crime from the perspective of his family. With the backdrop of Eddie's birthday and a series of setbacks, there's a heartbreaking performance from both Stephen Graham and Christine Tremarco as Jamie's trial was drawing closer and he'd changed his plea. That last scene in particular ended this miniseries on a harrowing note.
- The story was a work of fiction, though influenced by recent events but not specifically adapting one.
- This miniseries was Owen Cooper's first acting role and he was picked out of 500 boys who auditioned for the role.
- Jack Thorne's other miniseries, Toxic Town is also available on Netflix, having come out two weeks prior to this one.
- Chronology: From the second episode onwards we went from three days to seven months to thirteen months since Jamie's arrest.
Adolescence will easily go down as one of the best shows of 2025. It's also one of the most important ones too with it's depiction of several worthy issues and stunning performances from the entire cast. The hype's justified with this one.
Rating: 9 out of 10
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