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! 👇

I think you are quite naive then. And if not stabbing highly likely to be rape etc.

One observation about the story is that Jamie's parents just sat back and let their son disengage. At 13 and younger he shouldn't have been up until midnight with no one saying good night and supervising that he actually sleeps. Plonking a teen with a PC, Smart TV or phone in their room is simply neglectful parenting in this day and age. We all have been made aware of the dangers. Couldn't believe that the dad accepted that his 13 year old and younger son watches porn, WTF? I make sure I speak with my teens especially when they withdraw and seem out of sorts, down or disengaged. Teens need their parents and ideally close extended family as they navigate the messed up world we live in and come to grips with their developing awareness of this world and themselves in it. I make heaps of stupid mistakes as a parent so don't want to judge but I cannot understand why so many parents do not speak with their tweens and teens? Especially when their dc don't want to speak, it's important to draw them out of their shell to keep and eye and make sure all is well and look at their phone and message at least until they're 16. So many parents around us who don't check their dc phones and have NO idea that their dc bullies or engages in inappropriate and compromising communication. These are dc from wonderful and loving families but their parents do not keep them close nor do they keep an eye. I let mine get as much experience of being independent as possible with real life activities so they learn to fend for themselves so am not a so called helicopter or snowplow parent but I do ask them lots of questions. I want to know what's going on and talk about it. Beware is all I can say.

Hands down one of the best things I ever saw on TV. Small things like the teddy bear in the bed (I don't want to give away details) just half killed me.

I'm interested, did other viewers see the boy as a monster or still want to give him a hug despite what he'd done?

I have one question - why was the psych so scared at the end of her interviews? I've been in a professional role like that (not that specific role but similar) so maybe I'm a bit deadened to it but I wouldn't have been overwhelmingly unsettled by it the way she was.

Just finished it, that last episode and the impact it had on his family was a hard watch- the girl wasn't the only victim. That last scene had me in tears that was so powerful

The fact they thought he was safe as he was "in his room" shows just how dangerous social media is for these kids, as someone up thread said, it should be banned for under 16s, far far too many things they can access they shouldn't be. He was almost more unsafe in his room due to what social media and the Internet was giving him access to, when pre social media etc, it would have been what was outside that could cause harm

Should be shown in schools and to all parents. Sort of links to lack of safeguarding training to the wider public as well, I've had safeguarding training due to a school based role. Despite this, some of the terminology I'd never heard of, must be so hard to keep up with it all

They can survive with brick phones, if giving them a smart phone, it should be checked. The fact primary age children are getting access to smart phones is even scarier. I'm so glad I didn't grow up in the social media generation

Agree about the lax parenting though - when I was growing up we had a family computer, it was in tbe open plan lounge/dining area so there was no chance I could look up anything without parents walking past and seeing it. OH who is 4 years younger, had a laptop so had much more free access as wasn't in the family space all the time when using it, now kids (including primary age) have all sorts of devices with varying degrees of unrestricted access.

I think it’s been shown that boys aged 12 can out-power most women, even relatively strong fit ones.
The kid was a murderer, had spoken about the fact he didn’t rape/SA his victim almost with regret but also that he even mentioned it showed he understood the power he had over his victim. See also his comment about thinking she would date him after being humiliated by the whole school. He was prone to aggressive outbursts directed at her.
He was unstable. He hated women and had been radicalised.
He had been in fights while locked up and it looked unlikely he regretted the murder, more that he regretted being ‘unfairly’ locked up.

He had violently killed a girl because she had embarrassed him.

I wouldn’t have wanted to be in the same room as him, let alone being alone in the same room as him.

I have one question - why was the psych so scared at the end of her interviews? I've been in a professional role like that (not that specific role but similar) so maybe I'm a bit deadened to it but I wouldn't have been overwhelmingly unsettled by it the way she was.

I reckon I'd be unnerved at the prospect of this boy being unleashed again on the general public in 15 years or so (if that!), when he's a bigger, stronger version of himself, with possibly even more entrenched, hateful views of women.

This was very good, but I absolutely hated it. It was so bleak and depressing.

I hated the police forcing their way in with such aggression - would that happen?

I hated the school scenes.

I was ranting about the child having Instagram and being allowed out to roam the streets at one episode in. It’s so depressing to think there are parents like this.

I don’t know, sorry, just read about the soloist in an article I now can’t find!

But lots of people do, as the news bears out

Plenty of teenagers (and younger ) hang out in the streets around here and roam around town late at night.

Google Philip Chism if you want to see a real life case that involved a further attack on a woman even following incarceration.

I think it was perfectly reasonable for the psychologist to feel shaken after encountering a child offender like Jamie.

I think it's significant that Katie wasn't portrayed as being especially attractive - he hadn't been interested in her originally, he described her as flat chested in a negative way, the DIY store incel implied that 'having seen what she looked like' the death was justified. Jamie only became interested in her when he saw her as a bird with a broken wing, he thought she'd be easy pickings, that he was entitled to her, so his anger was amplified when 'even she' turned him down.

That's interesting, thank you. I agree with everything that you said and saw that too, it's just that I was used to dealing with that, often with bigger boys as well so I suppose it surprised me that she showed so much overwhelm at the end as if it were foreign to her, because I saw it a lot and presumed it wouldn't have been new to her if she's in the job she's in (which reminded me of mine).

I mean, it's a very understandable reaction but I was just interested that she was shown as being so shocked by it I guess, I would've thought she'd seen it too often. Saying that I left the job in the end because I feared for my general physical safety and one of my female colleagues had already been beaten up by then in the room next to mine, and that easily could've been me.

Very powerful but the female roles were all in relation to men. Maybe this is the focus on the main male character, maybe its a meta thing about how we ask men to see women as real humans but we continually depict them as side characters without stories in their own rights.

Episode two was the worst for me - I’ve seen it all in high schools, maybe not all in one long take but over the time I worked in them. Nothing in that episode was far fetched I’m afraid. Such a waste of human potential.

I’ve been a secondary school teacher and used to talking and being around teenage boys, in a school setting I didn’t find them physically intimidating (I found them easier that the girls to deal with!) but it’s very different if you don’t know them and also in the context of visiting them in a secure unit, one on one, where he definitely tried to use power games and physical aggression to intimidate her.

I thought it was an interesting juxtaposition, Jamie’s behaviour together (mentioning the psychologists physical attractiveness and the fact she didn’t have to worry about the size of her boobs etc) with the behaviour of the older male member of staff who was also lacking in boundaries, being over familiar and invading her physical space as often as he could. Both of them mentioned her position in life compared to theirs (Jamie thought she was posh, the older man was jealous of her career) with resentment and othering her. We know men use violence especially sexual violence and intimidation to ‘punish’ women and remind them who’s really boss.

I think part of her response at the end of the interview was the fear that most women have experienced with multiple incidents of sexual harassment and possibly assault in her own life. How many times has she, and will she again feel this fear?
Jamie didn’t want not to see her again, despite the horrible way he talked to her through their interactions. It was scary how he wanted her to validate her liking him, even though he had been disrespectful and threatening towards her. Why did he feel she owed him something?

I felt at the end of the episode that Jamie was lost to the world, he had lost his freedom and future for the near future, but this kid who was capable of such hatred and extreme violence, yet in so many ways was ridiculously immature, was likely to be released a more dangerous individual without maturing, and finishing his childhood development in a prison/secure unit.
I don’t believe in capital punishment, but do I want the ‘Jamie’s’ of the world walking against us? No. I can’t believe that many Jamie’s are rehabilitated after further brutalisation in prison. How could that be possible given what sort of person he already is?
The only redeeming thing he ever said/did was spare Katie’s family and friends (and his family) the trial by changing his plea, but given the length of time that had passed since his arrest I doubt it was for altruistic reasons.

I think he bought his dad in to see the video during his initial interview because he knew/hoped his dad could forgive him given he was also a man. I’m not sure a mother could watch that video and not been utterly destroyed that a child of her’s had killed a girl. I think his mum would not have been able to compartmentalise it like his dad did (might be wrong, but that’s how I feel I and my female friends would feel).

I agree that it was very much a piece of work that the viewer brought their own experiences and circumstances to. I went to a school not so dissimilar to the school portrayed, but came from a very MC background and definitely was not allowed to roam the streets in the evening, let alone at 10pm. Thank god there weren’t mobiles/porn back then, the type of sexualisation and sexual bullying was around, but now is absolutely horrific and off the scale. I’m gob-smacked parents allow their children to have mobile phones or unsupervised access to the internet. No one is that stupid are they? Surely those parents are just plain negligent and neglectful?

I have a very young DD , I’m hoping that new laws will come in soon to age restrict mobiles/SM etc, but they definitely will be the time she is old enough because there already is so much evidence about how damaging these things are to young people

I doubt she had assessed many 13 year olds guilty of murder who also think they are decent because they didn’t rape her too. The realisation of the depth of hatred towards girls/women in the world that this boy was obviously immersed was and is terrifying.
Men are losing their grip on financial control over women, with women over taking them in education and the workplace, before motherhood changes that, women out earn men now. This is also happening….
https://www.forbes.com/sites/aprilrudin/2024/11/12/women-run-the-world-how-to-tap-into-the-rising-power-of-womens-wealth/

How are some men responding? Doubling down on hate. It is scary. It’s not good for anyone, men or women.

True, what I just meant is that I'm surprised she was so traumatised, not because of what you say not being right, but because I'd come across a lot of young violent offenders in my role, so presumed she would've done too.

Not criticising the programme as I loved it, but just was surprised at that particular moment in the scene, as I came across unstable violent young men depressingly often.

From the BBC

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwydwzv4qpgo

Not in my experience. It’s shocking that kids this young are allowed to do it. Wtf are the parents playing at?

Excellent if depressing portrayal of the toxic ingredients in our society. How do we turn this around? Surely the vast majority of us don’t want this for our children?

I did find it slightly odd that the family were able to be so jolly though - larking about when they raised a murderer and their 13 year old was looking at life in prison.

You are showing your inexperience here @thislifer I really hope for all children’s sake that mobile phones become less available but I wouldn’t bank on it happening soon enough for your DC.

I don’t know everything my DC look at on their phones. (Youngest is 14) I take the phones at night but the idea that I and almost every other parent of teens are neglectful because we don’t know everything that’s on the phone - well you are unfortunately going to get a rude awakening once yours reach teenage years. Honestly , best of luck. It’s hard

It's because ordinary life still goes on.

What do you mean @Ferryweather? my 13yo has limited phone access, has to ask permission for access to certain sites and is not allowed social media bar individual approved contacts on WhatsApp. Why do you think this isn’t possible?

What I mean is - unsupervised phone access is a parental choice. That you @Ferryweather seem to have allowed and accepted as inevitable.

My thoughts were that it was because she was young (?30) and inexperienced. I can’t believe anyone so junior would have been sent to assess him. Someone with more experience of young offenders would have avoided escalating him in the first place. They certainly wouldn’t have let him see he’d shocked them.