In March of this year, Netflix surprised the world with a British thriller centered on the adolescent world. Starring Owen Cooper, a thirteen-year-old making his screen debut, this miniseries explores factors such as low self-esteem, bullying, and social pressure surrounding young people, making a commentary on the problems that adolescents face in their daily lives. Everything changes when Jamie Miller, the protagonist of the story, is arrested after being accused of murdering a classmate.
The series received enormous critical success from major outlets such as The Guardian, Rolling Stone, New York Times, and BBC Radio and among the audience, where, as of today, it is the second most-watched series in Netflix history after Wednesday, with over five hundred forty million hours viewed. Its impact was so profound that it sparked a deep discussion about the emotional and social crisis that young people are going through today, youth violence and gun usage, online radicalization, bullying, mental health, among various other topics that need to be placed on the media agenda.
Each chapter, a world
From the first scene, the story seeks to impact the viewer. The detectives conduct a surprise raid at the Miller’s house, where they were sleeping, to take the youngest family member as he is considered the main suspect in the murder of Katie Leonard, a classmate. From the very beginning, director Phillip Barantini keeps us on edge as fundamental events occur constantly, and this is reinforced with a continuous shot, that is, without cuts, so that the camera always follows the characters without changing the setting.
Each episode is told from a different perspective: the case, the school, the psychologist, and the family. In this way, each episode adopts a distinct point of view where, aided by the continuous shot, immersion and narrative tension are intensified. The first chapter follows the accused teenager from his arrest to the final interrogation with the detectives. While the camera often stays with the investigators when they chat among themselves or with the family, it focuses on who Jamie is, that young man who is doing fine in school, has a happy family, and a group of friends, but is an alleged criminal that no one seems to believe or want to believe.
The second episode shows the development of the police investigation within the school to gather testimonies, familiarize with the area where Jamie and the victim interacted, and most importantly, search for the knife with which Katie Leonard was allegedly murdered. The third episode, (the first to be filmed) centers on the psychologist at the reform school where Jamie has been incarcerated for seven months. During several sessions (the series only shows the last meeting), she tries to understand the young man, his emotions, and what is going through his mind beyond the media exploitation the case has received.
The fourth and final episode explores the emotional impact on the victim's family. How do they live day to day while their son is locked up awaiting trial? Throughout the day, small situations unleash accumulated tension: the vandalized van, Eddie’s contained violence, and a decisive call from Jamie from the reform school. Rather than focusing on the trial or the legal resolution of the case, the chapter emphasizes emotional devastation: the parents confront their own responsibility, recognizing that they left their son alone in a world they could not understand. The series concludes so perfectly that it neither needs nor should have a second season.
This fragmented structure forces the viewer to piece together the puzzle from different angles and question their own certainties. Beyond solving the crime, the series reveals a web of silence, omissions, and shared responsibilities that surrounds contemporary adolescence in a world that imposes its ideas about masculinity, youth, and online networks.
The world around us
The accusation leaves Jamie's family and all viewers in shock. Why would a thirteen-year-old kill a classmate? How can someone that age make such a brutal decision? The series starkly portrays how the desire to belong during puberty, confusion about the body, sexual frustration, and desperate searches for role models converge in a context where adolescents are shaped more by the internet than by dialogue with adults. The young man may feel ashamed of those changes and not wish to talk (or believes they won’t understand him) with his parents, just as there may be adults who do not feel the need to have that conversation, or social tact is not their strong suit. It is in that vulnerable zone, mainly during puberty, where narratives such as those from the chauvinistic sphere and incels germinate, offering simplistic and dangerous explanations for real fears. Adolescence depicts the raw dimension of puberty: as a decisive stage, often overlooked, where a person's emotional and moral direction can be defined.
Incels are involuntary celibates unable to have a partner or a sexual life despite wanting to be in a relationship, and this frustration is expelled towards women, whom they blame for their "sexual failure," labeling them as opportunists only interested in money. With social networks, this community increasingly connected and amplified to the point of resulting in physical and symbolic violence.
In a certain way, Jamie is considered an incel by his schoolmates. When intimate photos of Katie are shared on social media, he feels embarrassed and decides to ask her out as he has a certain romantic interest. She not only rejects him but laughs at his attempt, calling him an incel on Instagram using emoji language, and Jamie becomes the target of ridicule from most of his class. His only response was to lock himself in his room and go online where he discovers that he is not the only one unable to control his frustration and emotions.
The show not only portrays adolescent discomfort but also how the Internet feeds and organizes that discomfort around dangerous narratives. It points out how these boys, often wounded or confused like Jamie, take refuge in virtual communities where ideas such as contempt for women, normalization of violence, a cult of domination, and rejection of vulnerability are reinforced. All centered around the men’s sphere, the online ecosystem shares anti-feminist, misogynistic, and ultra-conservative discourses regarding gender, sexuality, and power.
From political reception to the Emmy Awards
Its massive success led to significant accolades beyond entertainment. In Argentina, the Government of the City of Buenos Aires used it in public schools as educational material to foster debate and reflection on key issues for youth, such as mental health and socio-emotional wellbeing. The same was done in Britain where the program was made available for free in secondary schools. This was a measure driven by Labour MP Anneliese Midgley to help counteract misogyny and violence against women and girls.
However, not everything was supportive. Elon Musk, who at the time was an advisor to the Donald Trump administration, accused the series of “anti-white propaganda.” This conspiracy theory claimed that the show was based on the Southport stabbings of 2024, carried out by a teenager of Rwandan descent, and that the fact that the actor was white was an “intentional choice to demonize whites.” It's no coincidence that the owner of X (formerly Twitter) has expressed opposition to these necessary debates as studies revealed that hate speech, especially racist, homophobic, and sexist, experienced a significant increase on X since Musk bought the former little bird network. The X platform raises concerns among human rights organizations and activists defending vulnerable groups against these attacks that often come from the same social group: white heterosexual men who vent their frustrations behind a generally anonymous user.
Nonetheless, nothing prevented it from being one of the most-nominated series in the awards season. The Gotham Awards honored it with Best Limited Series, and awarded Stephen Graham (who plays the father) and Owen Cooper with Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor awards, respectively. Cooper also won Best Supporting Actor at the Astra Awards, where Adolescence also received the Best Series award and its third episode won for Best Script and Director.
On the other hand, the series continues to seek to dominate award ceremonies and expectations for the Emmys are very high. Along with The Pitt and The Bear, it is the sixth most-nominated program, highlighted in categories such as Best Miniseries, Best Actor (Stephen Graham), Best Supporting Actor (Owen Cooper, the youngest to be nominated in this category and Ashley Walters, who plays the detective), Best Supporting Actress (Erin Doherty, who plays the psychologist, and Christine Tremarco, the mother), Best Script, and Best Director.
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