To ask if it’s worth watching Adolescence ?

They can't cover everything.
His behaviour is definitely part of the problem, loads of people are talking about the way he behaved and how his wife had to keep pacifying him, and then he'd be sorry, etc.
This is the reality in lots of homes but they don't all go on to have murdering sons.
I found Stephen Graham's "parenting" and husbanding one of the most disturbing aspects of the show.
And I thought Owen Cooper was phenomenal as Jamie.

And what actions do you think the girl in the drama should have considered to avoid getting herself murdered? Never turn a boy down who asks her out? Or if she did, make sure she stayed home with the door locked and her fingers crossed he'd forgive her?

I love a Harlen Cobden. Nothing wrong with that at all.

I thought Adolescence was lacking in direction, detail and had itself confused. What did it want to be about? Too many of the scened were dragged out with unnecessary waffle, all to fit into the single shot brief. Form over function.

This could have been a great storyline but it missed by miles. I suspect the only reason it made nr 1 on Netflix was successful promotion and nothing to do with the actual quality of the production.

I’m also really annoyed it has been Stephen Graham who is paraded about as the main adult actor. Christine Tremarco has been seriously overlooked and her performance was way better.

IMO no but some people have been blown away by it. Even though incels have been around since the 90s, they've never heard of it and they didn't realise that it was unhealthy to give kids unlimited access to harmful online content.

In that sense it's been important, but it's very hyped for something so mediocre.

It's entirely necessary I think.

what has that got to do with a mother of two teenage boys?

And girls don't need to consider their actions?

First two episodes were fantastic last two were awful so boring

I think it was a good drama with an effective PR campaign behind it.

I agree.

Men are scared women will laugh at them and women are scared that men will kill them - Margaret Atwood

This sums up the show. For some boys/men women laughing at or rejecting them does lead them to want to kill them. It is realistic.

He didn't kill her for bullying him. He asked her on a date. He killed her when she refused him. The motive for murder was misogyny, his fury at being rejected by a girl who even though 'flat' and 'weak' still refused him, not bullying. Hence the focus.

Yes you've totally hit the nail in the head there for me.

If it wasn’t supposed to be a “whodunnit” why make the viewer doubt his guilt?

I thought the boy, especially in episode 3 was an amazing actor. He flipped from little boy to angry/teen in an extremely realistic way if you know this age group. And doing it without breaks by an unknown was fabulous.
The rest is something we might know but don’t always fully believe.
And the bit about adults not understanding what teens are really saying.
It’s a good reason why we should ban smart phones for youngsters and more parental controls. It is scary, and I regret not having more restrictions on my own children at those ages.

I don't think there has to be something wrong with someone if they don't enjoy the same things other people do? Otherwise there wouldn't be different genres of TV/film.

I understood it wasn't a 'whodunnit' and that it was a 'whydunnit' but I didn't feel like I really understood why he did it at the end. I got that he was bullied and rejected by a girl. But it seemed a bit of a leap from one rejection, we needed (in my opinion), more background of him being radicalised.

It's one of those series like Time that you have to treat as a long movie and watch all in one go. I'd say it's worth a watch, it's not fantastic or the best show ever but it's watchable and slightly different.

I think the focus of the reaction has been misdirected, it's not a story about a boy falling under the spell of male toxicity, it's more of a story about how everyone in society is partly culpable when a boy stabs a girl. The teachers, the family, the police, even the victim are partly to blame for what happened.

Shaun’s mum?

I agree so much. Don’t know why his performance is so applauded but maybe it’s more the script’s fault. It’s so badly written.

The simpering teacher at the school was bloody awful as well.

Yes. Very much so.

I loved it, binged it in one sitting.

I think that was deliberate on the part of the writers - his face wasn't shown in the video and he kept protesting his innocence. Why they did that when it was never a whodunnit but a 'whydunnit' is another example of how it didn't work.

I mean the first episode was good but it was downhill after that. Implausible scenes, cringy dialogue and sorry but the boy's acting is not up to the demands of the role

I agree, the one-shot 'look at us and how clever we are doing it in one take' placed a lot of limitations on the show. The pacing, how realistic the timings/sequences of events were, not being able to really delve into specific influences but sort of dancing over lots of them with a light touch were all impacted.

I'm a bit torn about this. Part of me wonders whether the one shot thing was used as a PR angle - the media latched onto it as the primary thing to run a piece on at first, and the message of the show was secondary. The message wouldn't have been heard if people didn't watch it in the first place, and it came to their attention because of the media latching onto the one shot technique iyswim. All of the early articles I read about this were praising Jamie's acting and pushing how each episode was just one take, not so much what the show was actually about - that was said as something of an afterthought.

If the PR team just said to various media 'we've got a new show about toxic masculinity/male violence/misogyny' etc would there have been as much uptake and coverage? A huge proportion of their audience (males, mothers of teen boys) would automatically feel alienated and 'attacked' or just dismissive, but this way it kind of snuck in the message using a shield of 'look at this technical marvel and fantastic acting with no mistakes'.

But it restricted their ability to keep the attention of a lot of people, felt incomplete or superficial at times, and like a self indulgent pet project quite a bit of the time.

Nah. Was looking forward to watching it because of the hype but it lost me after the first half an hour.