Review: Harrowing Netflix series Adolescence, exploring toxic undercurrents facing teenagers, is a must-watch

REVIEW Adolescence Starring Owen Cooper, Stephen Graham, Ashley Walters, Erin Doherty Rating M Streaming on Netflix Review Derek Goforth Verdict 5/5 Netflix’s Adolescence is not an easy watch, but it is an essential one. From its gut-wrenching opening scenes to its devastating final moments, this four-part British series grips you with an unflinching look at teenage violence, masculinity, and the dark corners of the internet that shape young minds in ways most adults fail to comprehend. It begins with armed police storming the home of 13-year-old Jamie Miller, arresting him for the murder of his classmate, Katie. His father, Eddie (Stephen Graham), a working-class plumber, is pulled into an unimaginable nightmare as his son is accused of a horrific crime. Jamie, an ordinary boy in so many ways — quiet, awkward, obsessed with video games — now sits in an interrogation room after undergoing a humiliating but necessary police processing. As a father of boys and a teacher who works with teenagers, the themes of Adolescence hit uncomfortably close and left me with a profound sense of unease. I am fortunate to be surrounded by incredible pastoral supports both at home and at work, but the worry of a dad and teacher is always rattling around. The ideas of masculinity and femininity that the show explores are painfully accurate, sometimes mirroring conversations I’ve had and concerns I have about the world my sons are growing up in. The toxic undercurrents of online spaces, the entitlement some boys feel toward girls, and the casual misogyny that is so embedded in their world that they don’t even recognise it — it’s all here in stark realism. The show doesn’t sensationalise; it simply lays out a reality that many parents and teachers know (or at least suspect) all too well. But Adolescence doesn’t just focus on the pressures and dangers facing boys. It also lays bare how teenage girls can be manipulated — and how they can be the manipulators. Katie, the victim at the heart of this story, is more than just a tragic headline — she is a real, flawed, vulnerable girl, like so many others who navigate the social minefield of adolescence. The show captures with devastating precision how young girls can be pulled into dangerous situations through emotional coercion, online validation, and societal pressures that teach them to accommodate, to be nice, to ignore their discomfort for the sake of others. But it also doesn’t shy away from how girls, too, can be calculating, using their own understanding of social dynamics to influence, provoke, or entrap others. This is one of the most striking aspects of the series — the way it refuses to paint anyone as purely innocent or purely evil. Jamie is not just a monster, and Katie is not just a victim. The show explores the murky, uncomfortable realities of teenage power struggles. The one-take format, filmed in a single continuous shot, intensifies this sense of entrapment. Director Philip Barantini masterfully uses this technique to make every moment feel immediate and inescapable. Whether we are in a police interrogation room, a psychologist’s office, or a dimly lit bedroom where a text message changes everything, there is nowhere to look away. Young Owen Cooper, in his first-ever acting role, is astonishing as Jamie. His performance is layered and unsettling — at times vulnerable, at times disturbingly detached. As the episodes unfold, we see glimpses of a boy who could be any teenager lost in the endless scroll of social media, parroting ideas he barely understands, searching for belonging in places that may be shaping him in ways he doesn’t realise. Stephen Graham is, as always, phenomenal. As Eddie, he gives us a father grappling with the unbearable — the possibility that his son might not be the boy he thought he was. Adolescence resists easy explanations. And that’s what makes it so unsettling. This series doesn’t offer comfort or resolution, it has no wrap-up or ending you can walk away from with any sense of comfort. It forces us to confront uncomfortable truths about the world we’ve created for our children. How do we raise boys in a society that still struggles to define masculinity in a way that isn’t rooted in dominance and entitlement? How do we protect girls from the consequences of a culture that too often dehumanises them, that tells them their worth is in their desirability, that makes them feel they have to play along even when they don’t want to? And equally, how do we acknowledge the ways in which girls, too, can wield power, sometimes in ways that are just as harmful? Adolescence is a must-watch. Not because it’s entertaining — it’s often too harrowing for that — but because it demands we pay attention.