Adolescence: Netflix TV series review. A well-placed slap, a series that opens the way to several reflections, all very current.
It is 6 in the morning on a morning like any other when the armed police, led by Inspector Bascombe (Ashley Walters), raid the home of a family and arrest the youngest son, thirteen-year-old Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper). His parents, Eddie and Manda (played by Stephen Graham and Christine Tremarco), watch shocked and helpless as Jamie is dragged to the local police station. Jamie is suspected of having killed a schoolmate, Katie.
Thus begins Adolescence, a Netflix series, written by Jack Thorne and actor Stephen Graham, and directed by Philip Barantini, which entered into the platform's catalog on March 14, 2025. The four episodes follow the consequences of an atrocious tragedy in a single shot, each set in a specific time and place.
Adolescence: Hell Gets Deeper
From the very beginning, Adolescence is a well-placed slap, it brings into play one of the terrors of any parent; the Millers cannot believe that their child has committed a crime, also because such a thing calls into question everything, even their own parenting (what did I do wrong? where did I go wrong? what did I not notice?). The viewer is thrown into a terrifying whirlpool: a teenager arrested for the murder of a schoolmate; a tragic and harrowing story.
Hell gets deeper and deeper, we enter the bowels of the earth, episode after episode. There are four, long (an hour each), inexorable, because you can't escape the truth, in fact, it comes to the surface immediately, after the first few minutes, uncomfortable and challenging to accept. Each episode has a different setting and time frame, thus managing to build the context within the story.
The first episode follows the early morning blitz of a small platoon of armed policemen. At the station, Jamie is stripped, examined and interrogated. The second focuses on Detective Bascombe who is looking for the murder weapon in Jamie's school, the "spectacle" he will face will be difficult to digest, the suspect's companions take everything as a game with a light, derisive attitude, others vomiting all the anger and violence they have in their bodies.
If the second episode is full of people, a hunt for something and maybe even someone, the third instead seems to be the opposite. At the center is the very tense meeting between Jamie and the psychologist Briony (Erin Doherty) who tries to "dismantle" all the scaffolding behind which Jamie is hiding. The last episode tells the day of Eddie's fiftieth birthday when the Millers receive decisive news on the case that will destroy them forever or perhaps make them do some soul-searching.
Adolescence keeps the viewer tied to the chair, bringing to the surface a series of complex themes, difficult to face and digest, adolescent violence, the relationship with family and school, toxic masculinity that is based on constructs that are difficult to eradicate, bullying and cyberbullying, social evils of these years that wear down and destroy without the possibility of being understood by those who do not live in that world and do not "live" in it, the incel male.
The Miller family is at the center of the story in the Netflix TV series
One of the first elements that clearly emerges is the relationship with the family. Jamie chooses the father as legal guardian, he doesn't think about the mother even for a moment, Eddie accompanies him convinced that the son is innocent and could not be otherwise perhaps.
It takes just a few minutes and the man will discover and see things, he will understand that he does not know his son. The series is built around these truths that are discovered, it is as if there were an eye, an observer who insinuates himself between the coils of this sad story and therefore also in the tragedy of a family.
The characters are followed, without giving them any respite, in a claustrophobic way so much so that we begin to lack air too. Eddie and the entire Miller family fall together with Jamie under the weight of an accusation and it is as if they too were guilty together with him, were in that prison together with him, and a little bit so is the viewer, constantly trapped and in a perpetual anxiety.
Adolescence: an analysis of Jamie's mind
Jamie is angry, very, very, too much - but we also see it in the whole generation he is part of -, and we see it, especially in the episode where he meets the psychologist. The series answers not so much who is guilty but the reason why a certain action was done, it is a deep analysis of what is behind Jamie's frustration and anger, a complex network of factors, an overexposed virilism to prove to be male, slut shaming and incel culture, overexposure to the internet and social media, an insecurity that festers inside and then becomes violence.
"80% of women only go with 20% of men. They don't even look at the other losers and this makes them bitches" This is what Jamie internalizes and becomes a budding misogynist. One of the pillars of the series is male fragility which translates into anger, violence, everything badly managed and which then leads to tragic events. Another truth emerges. We are all guilty, we are guilty because we pretend not to see, we don't really listen, we believe we have perfect children, siblings, partners and friends and instead, we all have to work to eradicate a systemic culture that does no good to anyone.
Adolescence is a second-by-second reflection on human psychology, on the anguish of parenthood and on the failures of all the systems that, apparently, should help and protect teenagers but in the end leave them alone, do not understand them and do not understand their dynamics. Each episode unfolds like a play (every event happens in real-time), but this pulls the thread of the narrative so tight that, at times, the story is unbearable and precisely for this reason it is necessary.
Adolescence: evaluation and conclusion
Adolescence is a drama about the state of the generation, it explores the timeless anxieties of growing up, but it also examines current concerns about the pervasiveness of misogyny and male anger in schools and on social media. The actors are perfect in interpreting their characters, from Jamie to Eddie, from Manda to the inspector, they manage to embody the fears, the torment and the deepest insecurities.
The episodes tackle complex issues with solemnity, sensitivity and an abundance of technical virtuosity, the series manages to conquer the viewer thanks to a well-written, frightening narration that moves the mind of the viewer.