Teenage years are supposed to be about awkward crushes, bad haircuts and regrettable fashion choices—not, you know, murder. But Netflix’s Adolescence isn’t here for nostalgia. Instead, this four-part gut punch of a series yanks you into the darkest corners of modern boyhood, where toxic masculinity and online radicalisation lurk behind every click.
And just to ensure you don’t look away, each episode unfolds in a single, unbroken take—like a slow-motion car crash you must watch. At the centre of it all is 13-year-old Jamie Miller, a seemingly ordinary kid accused of murdering his classmate, Katie Leonard. But Adolescence isn’t interested in a courtroom drama—it wants you to sit in the wreckage of a boy’s psyche and ask: How did we let this happen? Enter Stephen Graham as Jamie’s father, Eddie, a man unravelling in real time as he grapples with his son’s monstrous transformation.
Advertisement Christine Temarco, as Manda Miller, is the embodiment of a mother on the verge—desperately taping together the cracks as her world crumbles. Graham delivers a blistering performance, capturing the anguish of parenthood amidst crisis. Meanwhile, DI Luke Bascombe and DS Misha Frank fumble their way through the minefield of teenage social media, trying to decode cryptic Instagram posts.
Advertisement Then there’s Jamie (Owen Cooper), whose chillingly brilliant performance unveils a boy shaped by online misogyny and peer-fed poison. But the real gut punch? His exchang.
