Credit: Special arrangement
What do you write more about a series that has everyone who has seen it rushing to their keyboards to type out their feelings furiously? That it is perfection? That it is hard to find any flaw even if you deliberately set out to? That your tears will fall, hardened cynic that you may be?
This review is for those who are unaware of the storm the series has created and for those who have scrolled past it, unimpressed by its bland title.
Adolescence is that rare beast that arrives only once in a while and takes every viewer on a harrowing journey into dark corners, unlocking fears on the way and throwing questions for which there are no answers. And to think that its technical brilliance — each episode of the four-part series is a single take — is nothing compared to its performances and its deeply disturbing, frighteningly real script. This is a story that tackles teenage masculinity, cyberbullying, youth violence and incel culture with only show and no tell. Episode 3 is a stand-out where the 13-year-old boy Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper in a stunning debut) accused of murdering a classmate has a tense interaction with his psychologist. This is when the viewer gets to see the rot of misogyny in the young boy’s calculative eyes one second, his regret the next second, and his conniving aggression a little later.
However, ‘Adolescence’ gets its five stars because of how it lets us into the world of his parents and lays bare their utter helplessness, (we made him, didn’t we, the mother asks the father brokenly), their grief and their painful attempts to piece together the shattered pieces of their life. Watching is mandatory. In fact, the UK government is contemplating screening it in all schools.