'Adolescence' Isn’t Just A Show — It’s Every Parent’s Worst Nightmare Come To Life
A 13-year-old is accused of murder, and it hits just a little too close to home.
Owen Cooper as Jamie Miller in Adolescence | Netflix You know, I am a huge fan of great cinema and TV — especially when it comes to writing. So, when Netflix came out with Adolescence to rave reviews, I got curious.
The show, a four-part miniseries out of the UK, has been causing up a stir online. On feminist boards, it’s raising a ton of questions and commentaries. On parenting boards, worried parents are beginning to question what their kids are watching online.
And on movie critic boards? Well, Rotten Tomatoes rated it 99 percent good, with a popcorn rating of 73. In the UK, students and the Prime Minister are both asking teachers to screen it in schools.
I mean, that’s powerful stuff. So, I watched it. And now, I think that everyone should.
The show Adolescence is every parent's worst nightmare come to life.
Strong Pictures / Shutterstock
Spoiler Alert: Scroll down if you don’t want to know the plot’s major twists.
Adolescence follows a shocking tale of a 13-year-old kid named Jamie accused of murder. At first, you feel bad for the kid. He keeps saying he “didn’t do anything wrong,” and begs his father to believe his innocence. That innocence falls apart when CCTV footage of Jamie is shown, stabbing his classmate to death. The flick then shows two detectives as they uncover the school politics, the quiet radicalization of Jamie to the world of Red Pill incels, and the fallout of the case.
DI Bascombe, who is in charge of the investigation, has a personal reason for his concern. His son Adam goes to the school where Jamie attended. Adam is affected by the murder and gives his father insider knowledge about how Jamie was being called an incel.
As the story unfolds, we get to see Jamie’s fragile mental state, his insecurities, the obsession surrounding women, and how the fallout of the murder affected the people closest to Jamie. By the end of the story, the person you feel the worst for is not Jamie or Katie, his victim. You end up wanting to hug Jamie’s dad. And you’ll see why soon enough.
Adolescence is one of the few fictional stories that made me wonder if this was a documentary.
Technically, the writers of the show were inspired by real violent knife crimes against girls in Britain — an ongoing issue in much of the Western world. With that said, while they were inspired by real cases, the series is not exactly focused on any one particular crime. Yet, it felt so real. The family felt real, right down to Jamie’s father, Eddie.
Eddie might be one of the best-written characters on the show. I mean, Eddie felt like a true blue-collar Joe Everyman. You could see him being your neighbor, even stateside. The same could be said of Jamie’s mom.
The thing that stood out to me the most was how clueless the adults in this series were. Some knew about the incel movement but none of them understood the emojis in messages, the slang, the culture of the students…and they suffered for it. It was very real. Because the premise behind it is real.
Ilija Ascic / Shutterstock
The effects that online radicalization had on Jamie were palpable, down to the very desperation he had for someone, anyone to say they liked him as a person. It goes beyond the bullying of yore. Jamie’s is a poisoned mind.
We live in a different world than preteens do. We have this weird assumption that keeping kids at home, with a computer, is the safest thing. In reality, it’s not. And it’s killing our mental health and our society.
Is Adolescence worth being watched in schools?
I will say this much: this movie is bleak. You have to watch Eddie, Jamie’s father, break down in tears. You have to watch Jamie’s family go through an absolute nightmare, as well as his former colleagues and community.
Adolescence hits like a gut punch for adults because you do get the feeling that you failed your kids. I mean, how can you not feel that way after watching the story unfold? We’re the ones who started internet culture, and it’s easy to feel powerless to stop it.
The only real way to prevent Jamies from happening is inoculation against Red Pill and incel ideologies. And that’s exactly what Adolescence is. If that doesn’t make it worth screening, I don’t know what would.
Ossiana Tepfenhart is a writer whose work has been featured in Yahoo, BRIDES, Your Daily Dish, Newtheory Magazine, and others.
