‘Adolescence’ (2025) Netflix Series Review - A Stunning Achievement

Created and written by Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham, Adolescence might prominently be remembered as "that show which was filmed in one continuous shot." The cinematic landscape is filled with many one-take movies and individual sequences. Wikipedia contains a list of "actual one-shot" and "edited to appear as one-shot" films. Some names are overly familiar, like Irréversible, 1917, Birdman, and Victoria. R. Parthiban achieved this technical feat with Iravin Nizhal. But I don't think any other production has used the one-shot tool as effectively as Adolescence. That's probably because the camera's unblinking eyes enhance the show's emotional potency. Director Philip Barantini doesn't heavily underline the camera's movement or the choreography - he doesn't want you to solely admire his technical fluency. The makers don't want to show off; they are incredibly committed to telling a story. This is why the one continuous shot thing is deployed to suck you deep into the events unfolding on the screen. After a while, you don't even notice the whole "one shot" thing. Its dramatic effect, however, lingers strongly. The camera displays everything "in real-time." You don't get a breather in the form of a cut or a black screen. This renders the atmosphere tense and gripping. You pay close attention to the story because the one-shot technique means that any crucial detail won't be repeated through flashbacks later in the series. Adolescence doesn't want you to behave like an immature viewer. It asks you to observe it intently.

That shouldn't be too difficult for even those casual viewers who treat shows as background noise. Adolescence is consistently engaging. You are hooked as soon as an army of police officers break into a house and arrest a 13 year-old-boy for killing somebody. He is Jamie (Owen Cooper), and he constantly tells the police officers that he's not guilty. Is he telling the truth? Who is the victim? Adolescence stretches the suspense by taking us through the police station's routine. An officer registers Jamie's information in the database. A nurse takes samples from his body. A lawyer teaches him how to handle the interrogation. Someone asks DI Luke Bascombe (Ashley Walters) about risk assessment papers. Someone asks Jamie who he wants as his "appropriate adult." Adolescence tries to tell you that a police station is run by human beings who have their own lives and that they don't enjoy ruining property or arresting a kid to just pass their time. Bascombe, for instance, gets texts from his son asking permission to skip school due to a stomach infection. Bascombe knows he's lying, and Episode 2 reveals the reason behind this lie. As the DI, with his colleague, DS Misha Frank (Faye Marsay), walks around the school campus in the hopes of finding the murder weapon, we observe a broken education system. The young students live in the building like animals. They bully, they tease, and they punch each other without being afraid of their teachers. These kids, in fact, ignore the warnings of their professors, and one of them even tells an adult to shut up. When Misha mentions that the school stinks, the audience nods in agreement.

Adolescence, however, doesn't just say that children nowadays have become insolent and brazen. It also suggests that the toxic environment might have contributed to Jamie's murderous actions. The boy calls himself ugly and thinks girls don't find him attractive due to his ugliness. He basically talks like an incel. Jamie is revealed to have disturbing views about women, which he could have picked up from other students. A boy, after all, makes fun of a schoolboy because he gets beaten up by a girl student. Could Jamie have absorbed some of his misogynistic views from Eddie (Stephen Graham), his father? A psychologist, Briony Ariston (Erin Doherty), tries to dig up this information through the subject of masculinity and male pride. The conversation gradually becomes uneasy, and uncomfortable, thanks to Jamie's unstable behavior (Cooper is shockingly good and creepy here). At one point, Jamie detects Briony's discomfort and mocks her for feeling scared of a teenager. But Briony's fear is not an isolated incident. A police officer attempts to hit on her and, through his "small talk," fills her with irritation. After talking to Jamie, Briony realizes that there must be boys like Jamie out there who will one day grow up and harass other women. This thought, this realization, shakes her up.

I do think that at its core, Adolescence is talking about something vital that isn't extensively discussed by either our movies or us: Children are not "little angels" or "God's cute little soldiers." They are capable of doing severe damage, and parents should be cautious. The victim, in Adolescence, isn't a saint either. We learn that she was a bully and humiliated Jamie on social media. In this context, Adolescence would make a great double bill with Manav Kaul's Tathagat, in which a child's lie - originating from feelings of jealousy - drastically changes his world for the worse. Teen comedies generally show students as impertinent individuals. Adolescence, however, removes the comic filter and hits you with a bleak message. Some adult viewers might end up feeling grateful that they are no longer students or that they did not pursue teaching as a profession. While Luke and Misha surveyed the campus, I thought to myself, "Thank god I am not one of Jamie's classmates or a teacher at this school." But I do hope all the teachers who handle students like these are well compensated.

In Episode 4, Adolescence shifts its focus towards Jamie's family members. They did not raise a criminal, but society considers them equally culpable. Someone paints the word "Nonse" on their truck (the correct spelling is "Nonce," but hey, these kids are less interested in opening textbooks and more interested in Instagram), and at a store, an employee talks to Eddie about his son like a true-crime enthusiast. When Eddie tucks in a soft toy and says, "I should have done better," you can't help but think what he could have done. A chat about sex education? A discussion about treating women as humans? Not giving him access to a phone or a computer until the appropriate moment? Eddie's wife (Christine Tremarco) tells her husband that they made Jamie the same way they made his sister (Amélie Pease). Yet, one turned out to be completely different from the other. How? Adolescence doesn't blame a single person. It indicates that we all get influenced by various things around us, which is why it's essential to educate your child. It's essential to be more involved in their lives. Adolescence is like a wake-up call for all the parents. The fact that the series manages to do so much without ever resorting to cheap lectures is remarkable. This is one of those rare cinematic experiences in which the style elevates the substance. The "one continuous shot" approach works wonderfully as it gives you the impression that a veil is being slowly lifted. Adolescence is stunning - it's a must-watch.

Final Score- [10/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times