The Weight Of Growing Up In Netflix's Adolescence
Jamie Miller isn't a suspect, he is the symbol of contemporary male adolescent experience.
Goodness gracious, the four episodic miniseries, Adolescence, on Netflix has really hit the nail right on the head. It demands you pay attention to the distance between sons and fathers with its raw and vulnerable portrayal of masculinity and what it means to feel the weight of growing up.
Those living under a rock and have not watched the coming-of-age drama, disclaimer for you! Adolescence is not a nostalgia inducing, romanticised depiction of teen boy's bildungsroman. From the get-go, the British series addresses the issues faced by pubescent boys enroute to manhood through social media, often fraught and misguided.
The 13-year-old Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper) is arrested as suspect for killing a girl from his school. With its one-shot-take-approach, the series peeps into the mind of pubescent boys who find themselves drawn by dark sides of the internet- mainly manosphere and its influencers.
Created by Stephen Graham and Jack Thorne, under the executive production of Brad Pitt, Jamie's story is a thought-provoking tale of growing up with the weight of being told what masculinity and the masculine appeal are by so called alpha male prophets- "80 per cent of women are attracted to 20 per cent of men." In fact, the show does not focus on answering the why or how of the murder. Rather it questions what lead a 13-year-old to murder her.
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The one-shot-take approach to the 4 episodes depicts the maelstrom of angst and excavates the turbulent inner world of Jamie Miller, who is bullied online and in school. Moreover, it’s the weight of growing up with social expectations based off the demands of social media. It's this crushing burden that makes him hide his vulnerabilities and insecurities behind the facade of reel life and seek validation.
A Brutal Coming-of-Age Portrait
In Adolescence the weight of growing up to be the "man" is palpably present. It is a weight that is shockingly relatable and profoundly unsettling. An unflinchingly honest portrayal of the complexities of the world affecting young boys, shaping their worldview, and self-worth, the show commands you to pay attention to the details.
One of the things that the creators rightly capture is the symbolic portrayal of fragile teen boys. In that sense, Owen Cooper plays a larger experience of male adolescent suggesting the cost the young boy and his family must pay for suppressed emotional complexity.
It comments on how social media is shaping the male identity by digital prophets, who dangerously reduce the definition of masculinity. All about control, commanding respect, and superiority over women. Jamie echoes exactly that. He perceives his vulnerabilities as weakness and feels frustrated when he is not validated. So much so that he is skilled at manipulating and deceiving others, including his own father, of his innocence.
The show dissects the psychology behind the gruesome act of violence in episode 3 highlighting Jamie's frustration, loneliness, and alienation of 13-year-old who doesn't fit the ideal mentality presented by the likes of Andrew Tate.
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As viewers you are forced to think: what happens when a child's understanding of self is mediated through toxic online narratives? And are we really protecting the emotional landscape of young boys?
Other male characters in the film also experience the same emotional distance. Eddie Miller, the boy’s father and the appropriate adult in the case, finds himself shattered by the end of the series.
He, too, finds it difficult to process his emotions, and is unable to redirect his anger, or comprehend his son's actions. He yells at the kids who spray paint "nonse" on his van saying, "Don't make fun of me” highlighting his struggle to deal with his son's actions may be far deeper than they are presented at the surface.
Eddie's uncontrollable anger in the last episode also exposes us to the idea that men use violence and rage to establish control that they may have internalised from their fathers (certainly in Eddie’s case as he later mentions) and from their perception of the world growing up. It’s an indication, although not delved deeper into the show, of this cyclic nature of violence.
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For Detective Inspector Bascombe, too, understanding his son and where he is coming from feel alien at first. He becomes the overly protective father rather than really understanding what his son is trying to communicate. Ultimately, its his son's insights that help me understand the motive for the crime.
Final Thoughts
The Netflix show pushes the viewers to reimagine the support system available to boys and how much we really understand them. As the camera gives us direct access into the world of Jamie Miller, we are invited to investigate in an uncomfortably close setting the burden and the chaos trapped inside the teenager's head.
The show also highlights the extent of how illogical emojis, and internet lingo can lead to cyber bullying, severely impacting mental health of young teens. It condemns it while addressing the perplexing topic of toxic masculinity. Ultimately, Adolescence pushes us to discuss the weight of growing up and the need for a social dialogue.