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Adolescence Review

Adolescence is a crime drama television miniseries created by Jack Thorne and starring Stephen Graham. It premiered on Netflix in 2025. It’s one of the best shows of the year.

It centers on a 13-year-old schoolboy named Jamie Miller who is arrested for the murder of a girl in his school. First off, the basic premise behind this series is nothing new or unique. But where it differentiates itself from many others is in how it was filmed and how it was approached. This is not a sensational story and the murder itself is never shown on screen. Instead, what we have here is a nuanced, deeply human and tragic story that is all about the painful aftermath of such a terrible tragedy and how it would affect others.

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This is a mini-series consisting of only four episodes. I wished for it to be longer, but at least each episode is an hour long, so they are all quite substantial. The first episode is the weakest one as it’s just a setup, but it’s still a phenomenally executed setup with very strong and believable dialogue. How we are instantly pulled into this situation created a whirlpool of emotions for viewers and it was an instantly intriguing proposition.

The second episode is all about the detective work and how the school factors into all of this. This is where the show was at its most thematically resonant and timely as it tackled the manosphere and how these ideas affect these young boys. The series is naturally skewed too heavily against the boys and very little of the girls’ bad influence on all of this phenomenon is explored, which was to be expected. But still, you would be hard-pressed to find anyone who agrees with any of this rhetoric, so it was wonderful that the series criticized it.

The most crucial message to take from this series is that young children should be protected from online influences at all costs, though the series painfully posits that full protection is almost impossible. The incel culture is so well depicted here and all the ways these children are horrific toward each other was also explored, leaving a scarring effect on viewers. This is the kind of show that doesn’t treat its themes with kid gloves, which I really admired.

The third episode is the psychological evaluation of Jamie and this is where we get a glimpse into his very dark behavior and impulses. It’s one of those television episodes that consist of one very long take and conversation and it worked due to excellent writing and characterization. The highlight here was the mental game that these two played against each other that made the episode both riveting and horrifying.

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And the finale is my favorite episode of the four. The aftermath on the family is shown here and the results were truly heartbreaking. As we follow one day in the lives of this family, we quickly realize that nothing will go according to plan and they will soon have to deal with the consequences of this murder and how it affects them emotionally. The final sequence where the father breaks away in tears was so raw and emotional that it honestly made me cry. It’s one of the most heart-wrenching and powerful sequences on recent television for sure.

Adolescence is a masterful series that features absolutely brilliant acting performances from its entire cast and phenomenally written characters for whom you care about, which was no easy feat for such a short show. The detective inspector character got a bit too much screen time and was depicted as too stereotypically badass for my liking, but he still got a solid arc and Ashley Walters was very good in the role. Owen Cooper was incredible as Jamie and very believable. This is truly an outstanding child performance and hopefully this young actor does something great again later down the line.

The mother and the sister did not get much to do, but were still a strong presence on the show and the family dynamic between the three was so wonderful and moving. I liked getting a glimpse into how this tragedy affected the friends of both the victim and the killer at school. But the highlight is naturally the father and his deeply touching story. You feel for the man as he did not deserve any of this. What Stephen Graham did here was truly remarkable. This is one of the best television performances that I’ve seen. The camera would fixate on his face quite a lot and his facial expressions and his emotiveness were truly incredible. This is such a nuanced, powerhouse performance in such a tragic role.

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Another highlight of the show is the cinematography. It was filmed in one take and every single episode is made to look like it was shot in one take and it looked absolutely splendid. This decision wasn’t just a gimmick, but a natural mechanic of the story itself and it made us feel more deeply connected to the people on screen because of it. It’s the kind of technical craftsmanship that was previously only present on the big screen. The soundtrack is also excellent and so were the editing and directing. I just wished that it was a tad bit longer.