TV-MA, 4 Episodes
Creators: Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham
Director: Philip Barantini
Starring: Owen Cooper, Stephen Graham, Ashley Walters, Faye Marsay, Erin Doherty, Christine Tremarco, Amelie Pease
Sometimes the algorithm works in your favor. Adolescence was nowhere on my radar, and yet it was a pop-up recommendation after watching Errol Morris’s new mind-numbing documentary about Charles Manson. As a recent Netflix original the recommendation could have just been to attract eyes, since this British miniseries revolves around a stabbing death and its aftermath.
Not reading the premise, I went in blind. A few minutes into the first episode and I didn’t notice a cut or transition. Maybe I got distracted – I did look down at my phone – guilty of not giving the program my full undivided attention. I went back and watched the opening raid performed by a S.W.A.T. unit in a suburban neighborhood. Not a single cut. I continued watching. Eventually, I stopped looking for edits. My eyes were glued. Focused. The movement, the blocking, the performances.
Everything starts out calmly. Detective Inspector Luke Bascombe (Ashley Walters) is standing outside his cruiser listening to a voicemail left by his teenage son. Biting into an apple as his son asks to skip going to school, he returns to the squad car getting back in to character after telling his partner he’s pretty much a softy when it comes to family matters. Minutes later, DI Bascombe enters a home and arrests 13-year-old Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper) on the suspicion of murdering a female classmate.
Young Jamie is scared and sniveling and denies the allegation as he goes through processing. The Miller family sits in the station’s family room shell-shocked and sobbing. Eddie (Stephen Graham), the father, sits next to Jamie during interrogation and remains steadfast about his son’s innocence until he’s shown CCTV footage. Graham’s resoluteness wilts when Cooper comes in for an embrace. It’s a powerful image that lingers. You can feel his suppressed anger as he shudders. Fathers should be role models for their sons. What does this say about Eddie as a father? What does it say about Jamie, his youngest and only son?
Adolescence isn’t a whodunit about a crime, though insinuations are briefly held in the interrogation room. This is a whydunit. Every episode goes to a different setting and timeframe. The story, brilliantly plotted by creators Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham, contextualizes the crime through different lenses. The first episode is the arrest. The second episode takes us inside a school with Bascombe and his partner, Detective Sergeant Misha Frank (Faye Marsay), visiting classrooms and with students who were friends with the victim and Jamie. Questions asked don’t lead to answers sought. More like obfuscation. Bascombe is somewhat surprised by the misogyny being spread among juveniles on social media. The growing fear of rejection has become a mitigating act of murder.
Getting back to the single take approach, the decision to present a second-by-second examination is a bold choice and could be taken as visual gimmickry – hey, look what we can do! – and become boring. I personally love “oners” and applaud the degree of difficulty in pulling them off. The second episode ends in such a way I just shook my head in amazement.
Director Philip Barantini is no stranger to the single take. Back in 2021, he made Boiling Point, a ticking drama set in a restaurant kitchen with Stephen Graham as the head chef. Four years later, he goes full-bore in his execution. Barantini isn’t showing off, he’s showing out for a miniseries that asks its viewers to not to look away from the subject matter as the narrative thread becomes taut.
The episodes feel like one act plays, but the third episode is on another level with the performances. Jamie meets with a psychologist (Erin Doherty, unwavering in composure) who is writing a pre-sentencing report. Cooper, a whimpering mess when apprehended, starts dialing it up as the minutes pass. A teenager riding those hormonal highs and lows: he is friendly, he is furious, he is timid, he is loud and immature, and by the end he is ushered away. The delineation between boy and man still uncertain.
HBO’s Boardwalk Empire may be Stephen Graham at his acting peak playing gangster Al Capone, but 2025 might be his peak as a performer with the double whammy of this and Hulu’s A Thousand Blows. Not bad for an actor I immediately associate as Tommy from Guy Ritche’s Snatch, released a quarter century ago. He brings a certain acuteness as a father trying to grasp what his son is accused of, how it will effect the family, and ultimately questioning his job as a parent. The fourth episode is his showcase and I love how its ending dovetails perfectly with how the first episode closes.
Thorne and Graham exploring incel culture and misogyny, topics that don’t scream must-see TV, is exactly why audiences should watch Adolescence. This exceptional drama is flawless in its execution. A great binge even if the subject matter will make you want to purge.
Grade: A+
