Adolescence

[heartsinvisiblefury]

What an amazing piece of television. Stephen Graham is exceptional. Highly recommend this - on Netflix.

Boring, badly acted and inaccurate. Can't believe all the hype.

We started this last night. Very over hyped. We watched Blackbird on Apple TV before this and in comparison it feels like an ITV daytime drama (both about crime, although Blackbird is based on true life). I am not really understanding why people are finding it so emotional to watch. These kind of subjects have been covered and discussed in the media for decades now. It’s not exactly breaking new ground.

do you have teenagers?

That wasn’t supposed to sound condescending as anyone can still have a view of the programme. But was just curious which stand point you are viewing from

I’ve seen Blackbird too and thought it was a very good series and well acted.

Why I found Adolescence so interesting was because it felt a bit like I was walking in their shoes, an uncomfortable experience. It almost felt like a documentary rather than a drama at times. I think a lot of people can empathise - the murderer comes from a normal family, a normal school, he’s bright. It just hammers home the problem of knife crime cutting across middle England and into our children’s life experiences & the devastating fall out from it.

I’m afraid this review won’t please those of you who found the show disappointing:

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/mar/17/adolescence-netflix-powerful-tv-could-save-lives

That's the reason I watched it because of the reviews so it doesn't surprise me at all.

I was looking forward to mesmerising, powerful performances but while ep 1 was good it was downhill thereafter. Overhyped, badly acted nonsense.

Yes. Ds aged 13 and an older adult dd aged 21. What makes you think I don’t? 🤔

Yes I can see that. There have been a lot of high profile true crime stories recently of these sorts of things, I suppose I just feel a bit over saturated with it and don’t see how a drama programme like this can somehow provide a new perspective. But that’s just my opinion, of course.

The focus was different to the plethora of crime dramas out there. Other than ‘We need to talk about Kevin’ I can’t really think of any that explores the experiences of the perpetrators family and friends in the aftermath of a crime.
Victims their families and even criminals are depicted frequently and portrayed well so we have an understanding of what it must be like for them. What it’s like coming to terms with a member of your family being a criminal, questioning why they would act as they did, and the vilification you receive because of their actions isn’t a topic that has received much coverage.

It wasn’t so much that I didn’t think you did. Just curious. I found just a really hard watch

At the end of the last ep the parents were trying to convince each other they were good parents but their 13 year old was out on a school night until at least (I'm assuming) 11pm and had seemingly unsupervised access to the internet in his bedroom. Ridiculous.

I’m sure a huge percentage on teens have unsupervised internet access in their rooms. I think many, many of parents still don’t fully understand the risks. I think it’s down to naivety rather than bad parenting. I’m sure the idea of the program is to highlight these issues to parents.

I would agree with this. Even some of the supposed built in safety mechanisms - apps or within iPhone itself, can be bypassed very easily.
and of course even if your child has no phone at all they still see a lot of stuff in friends phones and they are being raised within this culture for 6 hours every day at school so they can’t completely avoid it

I thought it was incredible and completely gripping. I'm surprised that people found it boring. I did wonder why the parents weren't asking what their son was supposed to have done but I guess it had to be like that to make the story more interesting. I also found the school parts a bit unrealistic. My DC school was not like this at all and I really hope most schools wouldn't be either.

I thought the bit in the van was to show the contrast in the parents' relationship, that started when they were 13, with the relationships now. I also think they were just faking being happy.

One of my DC was badly affected by algorithms on social media and it is very scary.

I must have drifted a bit. Who was the security guard? What did he do wrong? Which episodes/scene(s) was he in?

Not uncommon though (sadly.)

Ep 3 the wibbly, incompetent psychologist one. The security guard asked a few questions and was overly invested but I didn't see any creepiness although someone saw domestic violence in the last ep and I didn't see that either.

It should be uncommon. There is not a chance any of ours were out on the streets at 11pm at night aged 13 whilst we though they were in their bedrooms, nor have unfettered access to the Internet.

All this blame the incels and the internet, it was a basic parenting fail.

Dh and I said the same thing. 13 year olds shouldn’t be out unsupervised that time of night.

There's literally 4yr olds at my DC preschool that have their own iPad. We are the 'odd ones' for saying no to one.

I think for alot of parents who have 'good' kids '- i.e doing ok in school, not giving them huge reason to be concerned - it can give an even more false sense of security.

Ultimately they thought he was hanging out with friends, not stalking and murdering a girl in his class.

At 13-14yrs old - my friends and I were being dropped off at the cinema and walking in. Waiting for the parent to drive away and then turning back out again to go and meet boys in town. Would you judge these parents less if they'd believed their child was at the cinema, a friends house or doing laser quest? They aren't bad parents for letting their teen have a social life.

Equally, Katie was also out on her own at the same time. Are her parents bad and responsible too for her death - because they allowed their daughter out in the same circumstances on the same night? To blame the Millers for allowing their lad out unsupervised, must surely you mean you blame Katie's family for doing the same - meaning their as responsible for what happened as the Millers are?

While I completely agree that 13year olds should not be out at 11pm unsupervised that’s still not the root cause of knife crime. The stabbing could have happened at 4pm or 9pm, in fact there have been real life cases outside the school gates or during daylight in the park.

I think what this tried to show was that it could happen within a ‘normal’ family. Not necessarily a chaotic household where children have been neglected or abused. That kids are getting access, and exposed to, unsavoury content through the internet which can warp their own self image and attitudes to others & that could even be within ‘the safety’ of your own home.

Teenagers have always been more savvy and streetwise than they are given credit for. My friends and I certainly were and that’s before the internet! This programme is shining a light on pressures and concerns that teenagers face today.

Oh yeaaah! I remember now. thank you!

'Ultimately they thought he was hanging out with friends, not stalking and murdering a girl in his class'

They thought he was in his bedroom though no one thought to check. A snap shot of disengaged, absent parenting.

The point which was not addressed fully was the importance in looking after girls as well as boys. She was sending topless photos to a boy which ended up being passed around. Girls need to learn to value themselves and to detach from this kind of behaviour . I'm not victim blaming before anyone says it. There is just too much crap on girls from Love Island crap shows and all the other related reality shit.