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Adolescence tells the story of a 13-year-old boy who is accused of murder.
Adolescence has just become the talk of the streaming town. Since its announcement, it has been building on intrigue and a spectacular cast. Having dropped today, the expectations were sky-high. If the early reviews are any indication, it’s about to be hugely popular and then some.
Starring Stephen Graham and Ashley Walters, the four-part drama follows the raw and unflinching story of a 13-year-old boy named Jamie Miller, who is accused of murdering a girl at his school. What happens after and how they deal with it is what we witness.
The USP of the show has been its unique filming style. Every episode was filmed in one continuous shot, making it feel as if we were a part of the story, learning information along with the characters.
Is Adolescence a true story?
Following the incident, Jamie, played fantastically by Owen Cooper, is arrested and taken into questioning. His father, Eddie Miller (Stephen Graham) is on a mission to learn about the tragic incident. Who is responsible? Who committed the heinous crime? Why did it occur? The hunt for the answers takes Eddie on a journey that shakes his whole worldview and beliefs.
Adolescence isn’t based on one specific true story. It is based on real events in the U.K. Following the recent spike in knife attacks, the producers wished to hold up a mirror. Speaking to Netflix about the new show, Stephen Graham said: “One of our aims was to ask, ‘What is happening to our young men these days, and what are the pressures they face from their peers, from the internet, and social media? And the pressures that come from all of those things are as difficult for kids here as they are the world over.’”
He added: “We could have made a drama about gangs and knife crime, or about a kid whose mother is an alcoholic or whose father is a violent abuser, instead, we wanted you to look at this family and think, ‘My God. This could be happening to us!’ And what’s happening here is an ordinary family’s worst nightmare.”
He recalled reading about “an incident where a young boy allegedly stabbed a girl,” and it left him unsettled. It made him stop and ask himself: What is happening in our world where a boy stabs a girl to death? That single, haunting question was enough to set the wheels in motion.
Literary inspiration
Along with co-creator Jack Thorne, Graham began exploring the deeper issues behind such crimes. It wasn’t just about the crime itself – it was about the why.
Thorne, while writing the show, also found inspiration in Cries Unheard: Why Children Kill, a book by Gitta Sereny. The book dived into the case of Mary Bell, an 11-year-old girl who murdered two boys in the late 1960s. But it did not just focus on the crimes, it examined the circumstances that shaped her into a child capable of such violence. That theme, how a seemingly normal child could take such a dark path, became a major driving force behind Adolescence.
At its core, Adolescence isn’t just a crime drama, it is a mirror held up to society, forcing us to confront the reality that the so-called “role models” are not people to be looked up to or idolized, for they are responsible for the pressures that push young people to the edge.
Adolescence is currently streaming on Netflix.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
