‘Adolescence’ is a penetrating series about an incomprehensible crime (●●●●que)

Earlier this month, a quiet journey was stabbed to death by a peer. “If children do this to each other, where are we going with the world?” said a participant. In Liverpool, the minor boy was recently convicted who stabbed three children in the summer during a dance class. Incidents that the newspaper get because manslaughter is exceptional by minors. But the unsuspecting news follower thinks that the youth is going to be worse.

The penetrating drama series Adolescence -A highlight this series year-follows very close to the 13-year-old Northern English student Jamie who is suspected of the murder of a girl from his school. It starts with a police raid at his home in the early morning. With a normal series you would then quickly cut to another location, for example the crime scene, with slowly crushed flashbacks that reveal the mystery, until after eight episodes you fully understand who did what why.

But director Philip Barantini stays with the camera at Jamie, goes with him into the arrest car, and follows for an hour in real time how he arrives at the police station, is searched on the body, and is confronted with the evidence together with his father. Barantini films every episode in one take. Without cutting away, the camera continues to run after the characters for an hour. The director virtuoso but never catches the eye. The technology always remains in the service of the story. It gives the series her hunted, intimate atmosphere. The scenes are very detailed, the actors get a lot of room to excel.

The effect in the first episode is that your sympathy is immediately with Jamie. That huge police force against such a little boy who also pees in his pants. Hard to believe that he committed such a crime. The second episode takes you to Jamie’s high school and the victim. This school – hell on earth – shows you the breeding ground of violence: bullying, the toxic pecking order, the role of social media in it, in particular the sexist ‘male atmosphere’ and his foreman Andrew Tate who hits a growing army against girls.

Personal

The series forces you to adjust your expectations quickly. This is not a whodunit that works out the crime. This is also not research into the influence of the ‘male atmosphere’ on adolescent boy, into the unsafe atmosphere in high schools, or into violence against women and girls. At least, that is all covered, but in a much more subtle way than you would expect. Serial leaders Stephen Graham (Peaky Blinders) and Jack Thorne (Joy) focus on the personal story: how crime disrupts the life of Jamie and his family.

This is explored in the last two, moving episodes. The third part consists of a conversation in the juvenile prison between Jamie (Owen Cooper) and a psychologist (Erin Doherty). Subtle and horrifying, this long scene shows who Jamie is: a vulnerable child with a short fuse, bullied and aggravated, who measures a Machismo that suits him badly. Unlikely well acted by the way, especially when you consider that this is the debut of the 15-year-old Owen Cooper.

The fourth part follows the rest of Jamie’s family on his father’s birthday, an impressive role of Stephen Graham. The family leads heavily under the murder case, but also looks loving, they try to make something out of it. However, a cheerful moment in the car can just turn into an outburst of anger. In the meantime, the parents hurt themselves with the question: what did we do wrong? To what extent can you know your own child? Let alone protect? The father is a caring man, but he is also a flying, aggravated man, once mistreated by his father. Intergenerational toxic masculinity? Does that explain the murder? The series is prominent but never wants to say: that’s how it is.

The exceptional crime remains incomprehensible. You can see from close by how men’s racon icing works, with ordinary men. And after the catastrophe, the father and the son individually come to an unexpected Catharis.

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