To think Adolescence was a little overblown with sketchy acting?

[Radish81]

I was interested in it and “enjoyed it”

but I thought it was a bit overblown and some of the acting…. Well, a bit shit really.

i feel like the only person on the planet to think this!

That person sounds…. Odd

I was very disappointed given all the hype. I thought it was quite slow and boring and with the exception of the lad that played the murderer the acting was pretty crap. Ordinarily I'd have turned off before the end of episode 1 but stuck it out in the hope it was going to get going and that I'd end up realising why it was raved about but it didn't come.

Based on all the reviews about it I thought it was going to delve quite deeply into important issues and the impacts of social media and influencers on young men and its impact on the main character but apart from a single vague reference to Andrew Tate and slight touch upon the possibility of bullying in relation to these idealisms it did not.

To me it felt rushed and with many key points just skimmed over and a lot was left unanswered. The ending seemed very abrupt and unfinished. There could have been so much more done with this storyline. I'm also curious as to where you can just run out of high schools these days, all the schools I know of are surrounded by 8ft metal fencing these days!

I honestly thought I was the only one who thought like this, glad to see its not just me.

He’s great at acting a troubled scouser. A lot of grimacing and rubbing of face and mouth

Regarding not delving further into the Andrew Tate stuff- to me it felt like the point wasn’t simply that stuff is out there and that’s the culprit. Every child with internet access can read things from the manosphere but not all of them do- what Adolescence did was displayed why a child would go looking for those things in the first place, or why they’d resonate with them so much.

Jamie felt misunderstood and unsupported by his family, rejected by a girl he fancied, and ugly and stupid amongst his peers. The incel side of the internet would have become a safe space for him, a place where he might have felt welcomed and understood- but just focusing on that without looking at all the other contributing factors is simplifying the issue.

Yes, exactly that. Our boys are aware of Andrew Tate but speak if him in a derogatory way. DH has been quite clear to tell them what he thinks about that kind of view point too. And of course DH does half the housework and we both earn very equal amounts so the children see adult role models who are enjoying a relationship of equals. I think it also helps that they have some very good role models around in their sports and other hobbies too. Men who encourage them to try new things but also don't flinch at emotion . When DS started a scout group where the leader was a bully with a misogynistic edge we pulled him out pretty swiftly (I realised when I helped out with a camp)

I read the Laura bates book “men who hate women” years ago and that’s way more insightful

but of course that’s not a MAN writing so less important ;)

Netflix always have some shite or other being hyped. The worst for me was that Sandra Bullock bollocks, Bird Box- complete dross, but the hype...

I think the problem with a lot of “overhyped” TV shows is that people will watch them, expecting very little but be pleasantly surprised, tell everyone how good it is so people set their expectations very high and it all becomes anticlimactic.

I watched Adolescence on the day that Netflix released it and was hooked by the style of filming and the fact that it’s a topic that I’m so familiar with (working in schools) but haven’t seen pictured in this way before. So I went and told everyone about it, they’ve heard it from me and several others, watched for themselves expecting something groundbreaking and have been understandably disappointed.

And what was bonkers with her leaving the room with her coat and bag in the room. That would not happen.

The therapist BICKERED

was it bonkers though? She could have left anything of value or could be taken in her car. It could be an empty bag. Maybe it was to establish a sort of trust for them she came back in. And of course he was being filmed the whole time. I think we have to assume nothing she did or said in the interview with him was unintentional.

She seems to have confidential information in her bag also her personal property so as a strategy it was a very dangerous one. If she ever worked with teenagers, she would know that but of course it’s a play she’s an actor.

You’re right, I expect I’m giving the show to much credit there. It was the best episode of the four though I thought.

Completely agree. I got the message but thought it was unrealistic and boring as hell. There’s a lot of talk about people being thick/stupid/naive/uneducated if they didn’t appreciate the cinematography or the fact it was done in one take 😂.

I've finished all 4 episodes now and to me the one shot camera thing just didn't work with the subject matter. It would have been more interesting to me if it was made up of different scenes. It could have been really good then.

I know a fair few people who have never even heard of incels or Andrew tate and the way it was mentioned so fleetingly would have gone well over their heads. So it missed the point. Sure parents of teens or even younger kids may well be discussing it with each other but there's plenty of people without school age kids that are no more clued up now than they were before. Which I think is a shame and a missed opportunity.

To the casual observer more was made of the fact his dad was embarrassed when Jamie tried to play football! In fact most of the "blame" seemed to land on the dad when it's really a societal issue. That's why it needed to be direct on the issues and not rely on subtlety imo.

So yeah all in all, I think it could have been a lot better.

I’ve just finished it today. I felt that the acting was very good.

I did appreciate that Jamie felt crap about his dad being ashamed him for not being ‘masculine’ enough and embarrassed by his sporting skills. And obviously being online till 1am, he was seeing dodgy things online. But I do think it was a huuuuge stretch that he’d immediately go to stabbing a girl multiple times. His home life could have been better but it was hardly terrible. I just don’t think there was enough of a build up to that jump, especially with it being a pre meditated murder

I'm just sick of hearing about it now. I watched it due to all the hype and I do have children. I expected to take more from it and learn something and be disturbed and gut wrenched like everyone else but now all I have came away thinking why do I not feel like everyone else 👀

Well for people who didn’t like it very much and thought it was overhyped, you’re all talking about it enough! I’m losing count of the number of threads on here about it, so it’s certainly stimulating conversation which was likely the whole point.

I don’t think it is stimulating any conversation at all. Because it’s totally unrealistic. And that’s why we’re talking about it because it’s irritating.

I thought the first episode was great, even if the procedures were unrealistic. But the subsequent ones were disappointing, even boring. The one take gimmick technique didn't work here and forced them to focus on just one area at a time which took away from the overall series. Massively overhyped.

I’ve said this on other threads, but I thought that episode four was the best one. Seeing the family trying to recover was far more affecting for me than anything else in it.

I thought so too.
Stephen Graham does a lot of grimacing and face rubbing