“‘How did we make her, eh?’ ‘The same way we made him.’”
As is abundantly clear from my previously published articles, I am mostly a movie guy, and generally avoid covering television shows. But after I heard the near unanimous praise this series was getting, I knew that something was different about it. After watching the entire thing in a single sitting, I felt compelled to shine a light on this powerful and poignant story.

EPISODE ONE
“‘What have you done? What have you done? Why?’ ‘Dad, it wasn’t me. I’ve not done anything.’”
This first episode follows the immediate aftermath of the arrest of Jamie Miller (played by Owen Cooper, in his first ever role). He asks his dad, Eddie (played by Stephen Graham, the co-creator of the show), to be his appropriate adult and walk him through the process of arraignment. The fast pace of the episode and fast camera movement help make you feel as off balance as the Millers, and the perfect pacing really helps sell the viewer on the show itself. The ending reveals that Jamie is being accused of the murder and stabbing of his female classmate, Katie Leonard is shocking and almost impossible to believe. But you will soon learn the rest of the story …

EPISODE TWO
“Dad. It’s not going well ’cause you’re not getting it … The red pill’s like, ‘I see the truth.’ It’s a call to action by the manosphere.”
Set just three days after the last episode, Inspector Luke Bascombe (played by Ashley Walters) and Sergeant Misha Frank (played by Faye Marsay) go to Jamie’s school to try to determine his potential motive. They learn that Jamie was called an incel and escaped into alt right and sexist content that turned him into an emotionally charged psychopath. The scene with Bascombe’s son was also enlightening, showing the struggle young men face over what it means to be “masculine” in our toxic modern age. While these hateful ideas are indeed lies and poisoning the minds of impressionable youths, we must also confront the fact that people feel represented by these monsters like Andrew Tate, and work to make them feel seen before it is too late.

EPISODE THREE
“I don’t fucking wanna sit down! You do not tell me when to sit down! You do not control what I fucking … Look at me now! You do not control what I do in my life! Get that in that fucking little head of yours! Fucking hell!”
After seven months, we return to Jamie’s perspective for a chamber piece in a juvenile detention facility. He is being questioned by a therapist named Briony Ariston (played by Erin Doherty, star of Netflix’s “The Crown”) on his mental understanding. To be able to hold his own for an entire hour of long, complex dialogue is no easy feat for any experienced actor, so for Cooper to steal every scene he is in is nothing short of astounding. He can give so much insight and depth into this character, and wrap everyone else around his own finger with mind games and intimidation. While I may personally enjoy Episode One more, this is by far the most technically impressive episode.

EPISODE FOUR
“You don’t know what they’re watching in their room. Could be watching porn or anything. Do you know what I mean? Look at that fella that popped up on my phone, going on about how to treat women, how men should be men, and all that shit. I was only looking for something for the gym, weren’t I? You can’t keep an eye on them all the time, love. We just can’t.”
13 months after Katie’s death, we return to how the Miller family is dealing with the fallout of Jamie’s crime. Although they can try to move forward, Jamie’s absence will always weigh heavily on their hearts. Eddie’s wife Manda (played by Christine Tremarco) and their daughter Lisa (played by Amélie Pease) try to wrestle with what went wrong, and Stephen Graham’s emotional final scene is utterly heartbreaking and brilliant. While I may not be a parent, I can certainly recognize how this episode may hit far too close to home for some. The show was made as a warning of how a situation like this could happen to anyone, and how even good parents like the Millers are not immune to this.

THE ONE TAKE

Much has been published about how the show shoots each episode in one single continuous take. While many may be quick to compare it stylistically to 2014’s Best Picture winner “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of İgnorance)” or the 2019 film “1917,” it is more akin in execution to 2002’s “Russian Ark” as being truly shot without hidden cuts. This approach also makes one consider many more aspects of the filmmaking craft, particularly the importance of good production design and set decoration. This is rarely accomplished this well, and it deserves all the praise it can get.

DOWNING STREET’S RESPONSE

The most shocking thing about the show’s reception is how the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Sir Keir Starmer, has been pushing for this series to be incorporated into British classrooms as a way to combat the influence of misogyny and childhood violence. If this show could have any impact, preventing future generations from following the actions of people like Jamie, then that would do the world a whole lot of good.
This is by far the best new release of all of 2025, film or not. I heavily encourage anyone who reads this article to watch this masterpiece of a show for yourself immediately. My final rating for “Adolescence” is an incredible 10/10.