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Adolescence Review - A Masterclass in Everyway!

PUBLISHED DATE : 25/Mar/2025

Adolescence Review - A Masterclass in Everyway!

Adolescence - A Masterclass in Everyway!
Bharath Vijayakumar
Adolescence begins with two police officers having what seems like an uneventful conversation. It looks like their daily routine. And within minutes we see them barge into a house along with their police force. Well, this might be the daily routine for the police but for the family inside the house, it is anything but that. And all this is to arrest a 13 year old boy. And from this point, Adolescence holds you by the collar and keeps you this way right through. This 4 episode mini-series, with each episode running around 1 hour, is structured in a way, that each episode is actually covering, what is happening for a period of 1 hour in the lives of these people. The fact that each episode is shot as a single long sequence makes all the sense. It wouldn't matter if you are unaware of this information but when you know about this, you actually realize that how this decision actually plays a huge part in maintaining a simmering tension right through.

I am not going to discuss the plot but Adolescence is about a very pressing issue. It is about how impressionable minds can be shaped by so many things that are almost difficult to control or avoid. Adolescence talks about a lot of things but one primary focus is about the influence of social media. An almost separate world exists out there and how are parents even going to know where their children exist in that world, let alone control its influence on them. And it gets more tricky when they actually do not understand that world. The generation gap which has always been a thing now almost gets a new meaning. It is not about the taste in music, films or even just ideologies anymore. With social media, it is like a language that you may not even know. And when you do not know the language, you cannot understand a thing. And when you cannot understand a thing, how do you even address the problem or even know that a problem exists in the first place? In the 2nd episode, one of the characters explains to his father who is a police officer about what the different emojis mean and how a red heart is different from a pink heart and how both are different from a white heart. If you are part of a generation that understands these emojis you would be wondering what is the fuss all about and if you are part of a generation that doesn't understand all this you would be wondering what is all this fuss!

If the first two episodes keep you glued with its unrelenting pace and with characters on the move, the third one is a different beast all together. It has two characters conversing in a confined room and you are left reeling with a gamut of emotions. It is this episode where the enormity of the influence of social media hits you. Even if you are already aware, when a 13 year old talks about or uses terms like incel and manosphere, it really hits you. Even before you are a man, you feel the pressure to be a 'MAN'. And what are the traits of this 'MAN' and how is he supposed to express his 'masculinity'? As much as Adolescence can disturb you, it is an eye opener to the kind of skewed information that can be fed to you regarding gender and sex. And when toxicity is fed to a kid and he resorts to violence, is he a perpetrator or a victim?

The fourth and final episode is bound to have you in tears. The characters are trying to move on or at least get on with life but they are also struggling with the constant burden of 'Could I have done things differently?' or 'Should I have done more'? There is anger, there is guilt, there is self introspection and there is helplessness. But there is also self vindication and a little hope. And sometimes a heartfelt sorry is the only thing you can do.

Adolescence is disturbing and gloomy but it is also a reminder of the kind of world we line in and the need to be aware. May be we cannot control everything but being aware certainly helps. A must watch for the sheer craft, the performances and the topics discussed!

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