'Adolescence' Looks Right Into The Eye Of Male Rage, Which Is Why You Should Watch It

Spoilers ahead. The whole shebang consists of merely four episodes. And cinema aficionados have gone to the extent of touting it as the show of the decade. We’re talking about Adolescence on Netflix–where the premise is exasperatingly wounding and revolves around a 13-year-old boy accused of brutally murdering a girl in his grade. Oscillating between despondent themes of toxic masculinity (or boyhood, in this case), cyber-bullying, parenting woes and perplexing circumstances that sprint away from any inkling of decipherment, this new talk-of-the-town boasts of a rawness which is incredibly refreshing, cinematically. 

Setting An Ominous Climate

What stands out are superbly-directed, one-take, continuous shots–probably the answer to why everything looks so real and hair-raising. Episode three will have you at the edge of your seat, squirming and fighting back tears. Actor Owen Cooper, who plays Jamie, and Erin Doherty, a visiting psychologist deliver a strong dialogue enmeshed in inconclusive overtones at the start, which disintegrates into informative splinters unmasking the killing–helping us delve into the juvenile criminal tendencies harboured by Jamie. To be honest, they don’t hide it, like ever. The ominous climate right from when the cops brutally batter the Miller household, establishes that the boy is indeed, guilty.

When does something so trivial like spending the entire day in your room in front of a screen as a newly-minted teenager turn into being embroiled in a nudes scandal concerning a fellow teenage girl. When does it turn into thinking she’ll accept your advances because she’s vulnerable at the moment? When does it turn into a strategic plan to scare her off with a knife? When does a romantic rejection turn into an unforeseen incident of rageful stabbing? When does one’s innocence perish?

Besides the technical accomplishments of the series, which stars Stephen Graham as Jamie’s dad, (who also happens to be the creator of Adolescence, by the way), the moodiness of the age of adolescence is captured superbly. Which is what nudges you deeper to probe when the problem actually kicks in. When does something so customary catapult into a criminal predicament? When does something so trivial like spending the entire day in your room in front of a screen as a newly-minted teenager turn into being embroiled in a nudes scandal concerning a fellow teenage girl. When does it turn into thinking she’ll accept your advances because she’s vulnerable at the moment? When does it turn into a strategic plan to scare her off with a knife? When does a romantic rejection turn into an unforeseen incident of rageful stabbing? When does one’s innocence perish?

The show won’t give you the answer to that last question, by the way. Maybe there is no answer to it, despite providing us some background information on Jamie's activities, including a combination of hormone turmoil, cyberbullying, and internet influence. 

What Goes On, In Young Minds?

Adolescence is timely because of its overt interest in incel culture. Finding the criminal or the person to blame for a family's dissolution is not the goal of the story. It aims to immerse you in the minds of people experiencing unimaginably intense and dramatic events. Your moral compass is the same, and you feel as much sympathy for the parents as you do for the child. In pockets. This is why episode four is a masterclass in dealing with accountability. A glimpse into the doom that reverberates passively, in a household faced with such tribulations. You see the parents try and move on with their lives a year post the incident, with Jamie now in a correctional facility. 

While it ends with him announcing to his parents that he’s ready to plead guilty, the culmination of the show with that agonising scene of the dad weeping on Jamie's bed begs a case for conversation. Raw, unfiltered chats between kids and parents today, so nothing is left unsaid, assumed or neglected. It’s a harsh world, these are dark times. Kids need to know that. So that the darkness doesn't envelop them.

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