Massive overreaction to a TV show

[Kilroyonly]

I have watched Adolescence but don’t feel it was in any way relevant to my life nor my children It’s a very good show but it doesn’t resonate & I don’t understand the hype

My children are 12 & 16. They both asked if it ok to watch. I asked what they thought they said it was ok but didn’t really seem realistic or relevant. They weren’t moved by it I suppose.

100% this

Haha, yes I get that not everyone watches everything, and might not be interested, but this show has been very heavily promoted and there are articles and comments on it in just about every media source.

I'm also surprised that you don't know anything about Andrew Tate - again, he is in the news a lot.

Excellent post

but don’t feel it was in any way relevant to my life nor my children

That’s quite sad OP. I mean, It’s perfectly fine to have your opinions on the show -however I’m not sure why you’ve posted this thread. Are you wanting people to agree with you?

The epidemic of male violence against women, rise in incel culture, knife crime amongst minors, the badly managed and poorly funded academy state schools (just to name a few) are points that were portrayed so brilliantly and realistically that the general public of the UK need to realise. We need to make changes.

I don’t know what your daily life consists of. I don’t know what type of school your children go to. I don’t know what your children’s friends are like and I don’t know what type of stuff your children are accessing on the internet BUT …. I generally think you need to realise that even though the topics in Adolescence don’t resonate with you, they will for the majority of ordinary working/middle class families and that is a scary thing.

Oh come off it.
Are you actually not aware of the issues surrounding teenagers having smart phones and social media? Bullying, access to inappropriate/illegal content, photos being shared w/o consent to name just a few.

It might not be relevant to you and your children, but to be astonished it's even remotely relevant to anyone smacks of ignorance.

And now do you know it's not relevant to your children? You haven't said how old they are. At least high school age to be old enough to watch the drama (it's a 15 I believe) and younger than full grown independent adults? If you are confident none of the issues are relevant to them then you must at least have had conversations about safe internet use. Or do they not have phones or access to the internet at all?

I watched it with my 16 yo son and we had a good talk about what goes on in his school and within his friendship group.

Are there human beings in your world? Yes? Then it’s relevant. You say it’s not relevant to your children. Another poster said ‘it’s not relevant until it is’ which is horribly accurate. Do they have friends? You have neighbours? Relatives? People living in your road, town, village? If something like that happened in your world you would be very much affected by it, like it or not.

If you don’t like it, just say ‘I don’t like crime drama’ but don’t say it’s not relevant.

>"why does everyone keep saying it’s about toxic masculinity but you wouldn’t know unless you read a review of it?"

Bang on. It's a great series and TV watch, but the incel spin seems like a last minute addition to gain publicity with a few hints that isn't well conveyed in the story.

It would resonate much more genuinely and generally if it represented how misplaced teen boys feel in the world, how weapon availability is an issue and the fatal consequences (for boys and girls, factually more often for boys than girls). Yes the internet play a bigger part in every part of life these days but "young man kills someone because of being rejected sexually by someone else" is a story going on for centuries.

We get it. You are very cool. Reminds me of when I was at school and some people had to vocally dislike everything that was popular to try and stand out.

It wasn't for you, lots of things aren't for me, but I don't have to tell everyone.

If you don't think the issues raised in the show are relevant then you are deluding yourself. It just makes you sound ignorant.

What sort of school do they go to?
I'm quite surprised your 12 yo wasn't quite strongly affected, it was quite hard hitting.

@Kilroyonly did you like gamesmaster back in the day ?

Congratulations?

Which bits didn’t you understand?

The show wasn’t supposed to be for entertainment, so I’m unsure why someone would find it “boring”. It was suppose to portray a real-time slow paced realistic “everyday life” of what happens to the people affected after a catastrophic event.

How anyone can be a parent or teacher and think that Adolescence is irrelevant absolutely blows my mind tbh.

I was planning to watch it, it’s on my watch list but TBH I think it’s been too overhyped and I CBA. The total meltdowns people are having that their sons will be murderers is ridiculous. Fucking restrict smartphone use, raise them with respect and kindness and show them you value honesty.

Would be a terribly boring TV show if they just filmed the life of a normal 13yo who games on an evening and eats enough toast to feed a small army.

Well, you might not think it's relevant to you but it's all over the news so it's certainly relevant to many other people in society right now whether you recognise it or not.

If you have only sons, perhaps you have the privilege of not having to think about this stuff or worry about it. For parents of daughters, or females, it is always relevant.

I'm absolutely astonished at your naivety.

I'm well past that stage with my kids but I really enjoyed watching it. Thought the ending was a bit meh, would have preferred an explanation from the kid (won't say more than that to avoid spoilers).

The coverage tends to get amplified in the media which leads to media-driven moral panics. I think that explains a lot of what's being reported...

See, this is why I think the problem has got so bad. It's not necessarily teacher' fault if they are in the dark about this stuff, but it's very concerning if they are. The last government neglected to legislate decent sex and relationship education and school heads have neglected to address issues like Andrew Tate, incels and the manosphere.

Some schools have. My dds' school had Laura Bates address them. There's been plenty of research. There's been knowledge of what's going on by those who inform policy. But too little had been done. No teacher should not know who Andrew Tate is.

Thought this was going to be about the shock pregnancy announcement in Peppa Pig. Imagine my disappointment when it turned out to be just the eleventy billionth Adolescence thread in two days

Bizarre to not enjoy a show because it’s not relevant to your life.

If your children don’t use smartphones and are homeschooled then it may not be relevant to them but if they are at school then they will have classmates who have completely free access to the internet and watching the darkest material out there.

I think it’s more aimed at parents and adults who don’t grow up with social media and the internet. Those of us with internet in the 90s had a very different experience to the youngsters today than go are fed nastier and nastier stuff thanks to algorithms and almost instant ability to share stuff without parents knowing.

I’m gobsmacked at the teacher not knowing who Andrew Tate is 👀 My ds left secondary last year and influencers like AT were covered in PSHE a few years ago at his school and still part of the syllabus today. I saw something online about boys in year 6 being aware of him these days which is depressing.

I watched it for two reasons. Firstly, the young lad who played the main boy is the youngest son of my DH’s cousin, so wanted to celebrate family doing something to be proud of.

Secondly, I think it’s such an important topic that we have to become more informed about as a society in order that we can act and intervene quickly should we begin to see signs of such troubling behaviours in our own young family members.

I don’t have any children myself but do have 1 niece and nephew on my DH’s side and 1 niece and 3 nephews on my side, the elder two in their teens I’m especially close to. The 16 y/o has over the past year or so made the occasional worrying sexist/misogynistic comments about women. Obviously this is such a crucial age, one where he is so impressionable and has so many sources of information (both positive and negative) so easily accessible.

My DBro and SIL, my parents and my DH and I whenever we’ve heard such comments have been quick to pull him up on what he’s said and tried to explain and educate him, as we don’t want those views to become deep rooted.

Whilst I wasn’t totally blown away by the series (wasn’t a fan of the filming style) I think anything that stimulates a conversation about this stuff is surely only a good thing?

Well Jamie's parents would have said it had no relevance to THEIR lives until he killed Katie.

Now obviously I am NOT suggesting anything there, I'm just saying that some of the people who say it isn't relevant to their lives are right (fantastic) and some of them are naive. Hopefully it will never be relelvsn9to you, your kids, your grandkids, your friends kids, etc. But that doesn't mean it isn't a huge issue.

So what? Surely a television programme doesn't have to strike chords with your life to be found interesting and enjoyable. I'm 75 so it didn't resonate with me but I thought it was great, I felt for all involved, I found the procedures very interesting. I've recently watched 'Mr Loverman' twice. I'm not a 74 year old closet gay West Indian man but I felt every bit of every episode. That is the point of good drama, it engages.