If you thought living through adolescence was hard, Netflix is here to remind you with a new limited series about a horrible murder that kids today have it even harder.
The four episodes of the British miniseries “Adolescence” that premiered on Netflix last Thursday have taken the cultural conversation by storm – sitting at the top of the streamer’s show rankings, with a reported 24.3 million views in its first four days, and spinning up new interest in its stellar, somewhat unknown cast.
“Adolescence” stars Owen Cooper, who has no prior acting credits, as Jamie Miller, a 13-year-old who is arrested on suspicion of murder after one of his classmates is found fatally stabbed. His parents are played by Stephen Graham, who is also an executive producer, and Christine Tremarco.
What unfolds is more akin to a stage play, which makes sense since one of its executive producers, Jack Thorne, wrote “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” the play that takes place in the same world as the popular film series.
If other projects in the prestige thriller space hinge their watchability on crazy twists and moments that literally or figuratively go ‘boom,’ “Adolescence” builds tension in the white space of its narrative.
One entire episode is a conversation between Jamie and a child psychologist who is tasked with answering what detectives and his parents have been unable to – why? The result is a 52-minute episode of television that’s the equivalent of holding a 20-pound brick over your head for an hour – your muscles shake, you sweat and you’re so exhausted by the end.
The show’s rollout bears resemblance to that of “Baby Reindeer,” which was also British, hard to watch and seemingly came out of nowhere last year. In terms of content, however, “Adolescence” is a much different approach to story. Whereas “Reindeer” was a portrait of one man’s trauma, “Adolescence” asks viewers to bear witness.
When Jamie is booked for his suspected crime, the moment plays out more like a basketball game, where the ball is passed from one person to another as a dreadful moment plays out for all involved in mundane but harrowing detail. No one player ever overstays their welcome, including Jamie, who isn’t even seen in the show’s devastating final episode that focuses on his family and parents.
Parents, by the way, will, indeed, likely find this hard to watch. If some of us were born to parents from a “This will never happen to my child” generation, “Adolescence” exploits the anxiety of those who operate from a place of “This could happen to my child.”
The horror of “Adolescence” is that it’s a story about the problems that are easy to overlook until they fully mature.