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! 👇

It absolutely does. The narrative is that the victim “bullied” the killer by rejecting him.

The bullying angle was mentioned by the male defective, based on the fact that she left mocking comments on his instagram page more than once, nothing to do with the fact that she rejected him.

Apart from it being very unusual to do that, although further reading appears you are right.

But the kind of thing where it could be edited / cut are things like the Jade to Eddie shot (Eddie laying flowers) made with a drone.

This shows you how they filmed that bit in one shot- https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1306178580600720

Odd to "point out" to people that it "probably wasn't" filmed in one shot, when you have no evidence of that and just think it's unlikely.

The psychiatrist was brilliant at her job. She was able to uncover the layers underneath the boy who looked quite sweet. I thought the male psychiatrist he had seen previously had probably not done that and had said he was far safer than he was

@Ceramiq

what makes you think the psychologist was hopeless at her job?

Yes but that is used as the reason for the crime, and the excuse.

When in reality, he treated her awfully, she snapped back, so he killed her.

Who uses it as a reason for the crime? With the exception of the killer, whose reasoning is completely warped, it’s not used as an excuse by a single character. Have you watched all of it?

It’s not about the characters. It’s the message being portrayed and the message being picked up by the public. The message is now rejection = bullying and excuses violence. Multiple people are saying this now. It’s terrifying.

Who is saying this and where?
I'd say it's not what the creators intended at all!

ForTealBee · Today 08:18

I’m not going to be watching it.
it’s a glorification of male violence against women, framing women to be to blame.

Have you actually watched it - or are you basing your views on what you've read from other people?

Ah - I’ve just looked back and realised that you haven’t actually watched it! So you are talking about what you “have seen on social media”. Maybe you could watch it and then form your own opinion?!

How would you say that comes across in the series?
Which particular scenes give you that impression?

I’m not going to give viewership to a programme that’s being used to empower incels. Whether that was their intention or not.

There's a lot of irony in how you have a view on something where the impact of social media is being discussed but you haven't seen it but are basing your view on presumably what you've read on social media

No that is not the message. Go watch it and come back and talk to us.

If I was in charge no one would be allowed to comment on anything unless they have actually watched / read it!

Quite amazing how many people have missed one of the biggest points of the show: older generations' ignorance of teenage and online culture, and dismissal of it as irrelevant or deviant, is how its grows right under their noses.

And then, when the worst elements of it intrude on their world with shocking results, they act as though it couldn't possibly have been predicted.

How much of it could've been prevented by the parents having good, two-way conversations with their kids about how they use the Internet from an early age, understanding how it all fits together in a young person's world and talking them through how to best deal with what it throws at them? And what about the police and the teachers, who were equally oblivious because they had no idea either, whether as parents or investigators?

That's the message I took from it; remaining stuck in a world that was left behind a couple of decades ago means that you'll be forever unable to cope with or affect the one that you live in now.

Good point. Parents can be too
complacent. It’s on this thread. Not my child he’s kind / at private school etc. I think most of us haven’t got a clue.

Said on another thread how Dd (then 15) and her friends met the mother of a male peer at a party. She fluttered on about how she bet all the girls loved him as he played rugby etc. They were too polite to tell her no actually they all hated him as he is a vile misogynist who pressures girls for nudes. She did not have a clue.

@ntmdino - good point. As parents we need to know what's going on. It's easy to divorce yourself from popular culture in your 40s and beyond, but not a good idea.

I thought you said you hadn’t watched it? In which case how do you know?

You seem to be the only one saying that.
So presumably you now agree with what you're claiming the message is.
After watching, you've been influenced into thinking that social media emojis and romantic rejection are a reasonable excuse for stabbing and murder?

You have no idea what you're talking about. You haven't even watched it.
Sorry, but you aren't really entitled to comment on something you haven't even seen for yourself!

a harrowing, gruelling and deeply thought provoking watch. It must be so challenging parenting teenagers in this age of social media. My take away from this ground breaking drama is that every generation of parents have never truly known what their adolescent children's world contains or what they are doing, but that today's technology has thrown open the doors to terrifying influences that are preying young and still developing brains. I used to sneak out, drink, take drugs and have sex with boys and but my god, the things that kids see and hear online these days are almost incomprehensible to many adults. I hope that this drama sparks in-depth conversations about what can be done to educate parents so they can help their children navigate the virtual world.