I have become world-class softie about stories in which people lose a child or generally feel the kind of deep pain that is tied into the loss of a child or things in that territory. I wasn't used to be like that, but that was when I didn't have kids. I've become very particular about the kinds of movies I avoid since I've become a parent. (There was only one period in my life where I coulda watched Sophie's Choice and these days, even the mention of the title makes me seriously queasy.)
So I approached Netflix's "Adolescence" with a sense of apprehension. I didn't want to even see it for the longest time, but my daughter kept insisting, even though she knows my reservations about the subject matter. So I finally decided to take my chances. And boy was it rewarding.
You may have heard that the series got a lot of critical acclaim and some prestigious awards, but let me complete the picture right here: it is an absolute masterpiece on every front I can think of. The story? Direction? Artistic choices? Tone? Acting? The ensemble? Cinematography? Dialogues? I can't think of any aspect of filmmaking that the series does not excel in.
What follows has no spoilers, but a quick formal breakdown.
First off, it is a four part series, each one handling a different phase of the story. (I assume you probably know roughly what it is about)
- Episode 1 sets up the story and the characters, as well as the crime. It focuses on the Jamie's (the lead character) arrest and initial processing, leading to the scene where the detectives question the suspect.
- Episode 2 is the detectives spending time at Jamie's school to understand the context for the crime that took place.
- Episode 3 is the scene between Jamie and a psychologist sent to evaluate his mental state.
- Episode 4 is the aftermath in a sense, and it focuses on Jamie's family trying to cope with the outcome.
What kicks the presentation of these phases to the next level is the fact that each episode is designed as a single shot with no breaks. I found that hard to believe in the beginning and assumed it was faked, primarily because of the way episode 2 flows flawlessly in a setting with a lot of crowds at a school. Kids in the school coming in and going out, moving around in the background, I thought would have been practically impossible to pull off without some hidden break somewhere, but from what I understand, that *was* a single shot. Episode 3, which is the most intense of all, a chamber piece between the lead character and a psychologist, has some points where the single shot can be faked because as the camera revolves around the desk where the participants are sitting across from one another, the view of the camera gets blocked out regularly by the heads of the characters on screen.
The whole thing is a gut punch, especially episodes 3 and 4.
My favorites, when all is said and done, were episodes 2 and 4, because of the revelations that come in 2, also the insane choreography of everything happening with the crowds of kids. Also episode 4, which touches specifically on a piece of the story that most other police procedural shows don't seem to want to touch with a ten-foot pole, which is the ripple effects of a crime and how a family deals with accusations of this magnitude. There is a severe sense of loss, which should make me want to bail out, but the raw emotional reality on the screen is so well constructed and executed, I could not look away.
The show has been marketed as a dissection of the manosphere and its effects on kids, but from my perspective, what I saw was a much bigger story of kids being overwhelmed by the world that *we* created for them, where the manosphere angle remains primarily as one of the pieces and not the whole thing, without an ounce of preachiness anywhere near the series.
If you haven't seen it, I recommend it very very highly. To me, this was one of the greatest pieces of television I have seen anywhere. Even if you feel any trepidation about kids being in peril and families dealing with a loss, I'd say, brave through that because the result is infinitely rewarding and satisfying, at least in my humble opinion.