Adolescence: The Netflix drama that will have every parent talking - Join our watch thread plus Q&A with producer and cast

[CeriMumsnet]

Premieres 13th March 2025

Read Hannah and Christine's answers to your questions here.

If you’re after a gripping new series to get stuck into, Adolescence is set to be the show of the year - and it’s one that will chill parents to the core. This tense British crime drama begins with the shocking arrest of 13-year-old Jamie Miller for the murder of a classmate. But as the investigation unfolds, the series delves into the unsettling realities of modern masculinity, online radicalisation, and the pressures facing today’s teenagers.

Filmed in South Kirby with a raw, unflinching realism, Adolescence isn’t just another crime drama - it’s a conversation starter. If you were lucky enough to catch the Mumsnet exclusive preview, you’ll know just how haunting and thought-provoking it is, with themes that resonate long after you finish watching.

Watch the trailer here:

Q&A
Adolescence Executive Producer Hannah Walters and actress Christine Tremarco who plays Jamie’s Mum will be joining us for a Q&A in the next couple of weeks, so make sure to share your questions about the show for them below.

• Hannah Walters is an actress, producer and co-founder of Matriarch Productions, an entertainment production company who aims to provide a much-needed platform for underrepresented voices and stories in the UK. Their credits include BOILING POINT (2021) and most recent TV series for the BBC. Hannah has two children with her husband Stephen Graham.

• Christine Tremarco is a British actress who along with playing Jamie’s Mum in Adolescence can also currently be seen in Channel 4’s drama series, The Gathering and in the BBC’s Kidnapped: The Chloe Ayling Story, directed by Al Mackay. Other screen credits include the BBC’s Responder opposite Martin Freeman, a series regular in Sky’s Wolfe, and Shane Meadows’ BAFTA winning series The Virtues opposite Stephen Graham.

So, what do we think? Will you be watching? Does the premise resonate with you? Let’s chat below! 👇

@HowardTJMoon

maybe it was that the shed needed to come down? It’s was a job he needed to do and he did it fuelled by anger? Seeing as anger is a normal healthy emotion surely it’s actually a good thing to role model challenging it in a safe, productive, adaptive way rather than taking anger out oneself or others?

Or do you never get angry since becoming a parent?

Way to minimise violence!

There is a monumental difference between feeling anger and tearing a shed down in anger!

Way to not get your are seeing fiction, not real life.

@No33

it could be chopping wood, cleaning your house, lifting weights, punching a boxing bag - physical means of discharging normal feelings is fine and healthy when it’s not hurting anyone.

I’ve watched it and for me it was episode 4 that really hit me.

watching the family try to live normal lives while knowing they were hated and gossiped about was gut wrenching.

the question I’d like to ask the actress who played the mom, while acting you and your daughter really minimised your own feeling to try and make the dad feel ok/maybe try to control his anger, you both were trying to make things normal in the van and keep it lighthearted while the underlining stress was there.
did you feel like you were acting or is it how you are as a person when trying to defuse a situation?

i have seen both myself and daughter and her friends do this in situations to calm things down whereas I’ve never seen a male do it, it stuck me that this is also a big part in society where woman are effected and men are not, they get to show their anger and dont think how others are feeling.

But I think we can agree that destroying property is not a good way to deal with this

It IS real life. This stuff is happening NOW.
Way to bury your head in the sand 🙄

@Ferryweather

my point was that it could have been that the shed needed to come down. I had an old shed full of spiders, i needed to destroy it to get rid of it to get a new one, it was hard work.

Not sure that's relevant. I'm almost 52 and I have a 13 year old. I think you're missing the point and picking things out that are irrelevant.

Sure. Maybe the shed had knocked over his pint and so deserved it.

All we can go on is what was portrayed. What I saw was an angry man with explosive outbursts of rage to the point of physically attacking someone. I saw that mirrored in his son's actions and quite possibly rooted in his own father's violence. I don't see any of that as healthy modelling of anger.

When I have been angry with or around my children I've never felt the need to demolish anything or attack anyone. Instead I took a few minutes away to compose myself, give myself the opportunity to identify exactly where my anger was coming from, and then deal with the situation rather than letting my emotions overtake my self-control.

How about you? When you're angry do you lose control over your actions and demolish outbuildings and physically threaten teenagers? Or do you act in a more measured way?

@Adamante the fact that you watched a drama about the influence on young people of upbringing, social media, failing schools etc and the only thing you noticed was skin colour speaks volumes.

I think the plot is important and relevant but it’s been a difficult watch due to some terrible acting!
Excellent acting by the detective inspector, and episode 3 was excellent acting by the boy and the female psychologist, but episodes 1&2 I had to really persevere with as they were so over acted. I’m yet to watch episode 4 , I’ll be doing that tonight!

I disagree. The final episode was making constant hints at the dad possibly losing it any minute, I just waited for him to show an outburst of anger at his wife or daughter, or for him to have done something horrible to his daughter. I didn't really like this episode as it was confusing and the relationship between the 2 parents was really tense until the last few scenes, when they all seemed to have found peace, an almost happy ending, which I don't think it should have been. Interesting that Jamie didn't like it that he was on speaker phone, why was this?Maybe this is a normal family but they seemed strange to me especially the relationship between the parents.

I made myself watch this but God it was absolutely awful. The characters were indescribably superficial and undeveloped - every cliché going. And were we supposed to be shocked?

Nope, that's how I saw it too.

Just the same old erasure of female victims and humanising of their killers
Then add in the "Katie bullying bitch" storyline. And tbe utterly disgusting portrayal of all the women as emotional support animals for the men. I was actually yelling at the screen during episode three. Yes, that's right woman, you're there to help this boy understand himself! To humanise him even further! Take an actual physical risk and trauma yes take it take it take it.

I am just so sickened. I feel like they could have swapped all the female characters out for OF models. Basically they are interchangeable. Just existing to be of use to men. Not even actually human at all.

Even the fucking daughter!

I think that was absolutely the point. Jamie was swimming in a sea of toxic masculinity and the programme conveyed really well how that showed up in every situation it depicted, the creepy guard, the angry father, the women all tiptoeing round to provide emotional regulation for men who couldn't do it for themselves. All the Andrew Tate stuff is on top of that.

I agree with pp who said us Gen X have been too lax about online controls. And also with whoever said parents of teenagers are far kinder to each other than some parents of small children who think they have it sorted. Teenage years can throw some really awful curveballs.

So this family seem like a fairly normal, loving family. Maybe the dad has some anger issues but he has clearly tried hard to be a good dad.

With teenagers who have killed, is this typical?

A toxic school, unfiltered internet, social media (and some bullying) are enough to turn a very young teenager into a murderer? Is this reflected in real life cases?

I don't think the story would have been damaged with a couple more episodes. We don't see the victim once.

Really? I thought it was unbelievably slow and dull as it was. Every cliché going, dragged out and repeated for the benefit of the slow-on-the-uptake.

I think that is an interesting question. Wasn’t one of the James Bulger murderers supposed to come from a “good home”

The murderers of Brianna Ghey? The Southport case where the parents had been looking for help.

like it’s hard to know whether they are good homes or not. In the main it’s a warning I guess that boys can be radicalised in their bedrooms. It is rare this would lead to murder but is damaging in other ways.

I can't believe what a shit hole claustrophobia inducing labyrinth of nightmares that school seemed in ep 2. God I hated school but it was never that bad.

Not tearing a shed down in anger!

Um what?

I finished it last night. Amazing acting. I think the message is an important one but I do wonder how realistic it is. Have there been any cases of child murderers from loving functional families like this one? It doesn’t seem like a child would turn to murder on the reasoning provided in the program. My understanding is that they are likely to be from an abusive background and/ or experienced some major trauma