After last week’s blog, which focussed on the way modern society might be accused of overlooking men, it feels pertinent to follow that up with a piece about the TV drama on everyone’s screens – Adolescence, writes Sarah Newton.
The Netflix drama is making headlines everywhere, and rightly so. It’s a raw, hard-to-watch series that details what happens when 13-year-old Jamie is accused of killing his female classmate.
But it’s so much more than that too. It’s a commentary on toxic masculinity, peer pressure, the influence of social media, the flaws in the youth justice system and the cycle of violence and trauma.
It very powerfully demonstrates the cascading effect of violence on individuals, their families and their community and how just one single moment can alter multiple lives forever.
Unusually, the focus is never on the murder victim – all the characters in Adolescence are connected directly to the perpetrator, a shift in focus I can’t remember seeing depicted before.
Because of this shift in focus, it challenges our instinct to seek clear-cut villains and victims. And, instead of presenting Jamie as simply a cold-blooded criminal, the series delves into the circumstances that led him to this unimaginable point.
We see the absence of strong role models, the unchecked influence of toxic online communities and the social structures that fail to intervene before it’s too late.
Misguided driving forces
Of course, there’s not much in the four-part programme that we didn’t already suspect. We know teenagers commit very adult, very horrific, crimes every day and it’s well documented that social media and online content can be the unhealthy and misguided driving force behind their motivations.
Many of us already know that public sector workers such as teachers and the police force are operating in a pressure cooker environment against a backdrop of funding cuts, an increasingly demanding workload and heightened public scrutiny. These challenges have left many feeling undervalued, overworked and struggling to maintain morale – and control – in roles that are vital to society.
But it’s interesting that it has taken a TV dramatisation to bring all these facts to life for many of us.
Profound and immediate
Television dramas have long held the power to shine a light on issues in society, prompting public discussion and, in some cases, driving tangible change. The most obvious and recent example is Mr Bates vs The Post Office which portrayed the harrowing true story of the Post Office Horizon scandal. The impact of the series was profound and immediate.
Within a week of its broadcast, more than a million people signed a petition demanding justice for the affected sub-postmasters. This public outcry prompted the Government to announce new legislation aimed at pardoning and compensating the wrongfully accused.
This was due to the drama’s ability to humanise the victims but also underscores the power of storytelling in evoking sympathy and effecting change.
By portraying the emotional turmoil and horrific repercussions, Adolescence forces viewers to see them not as faceless names in a crime report, but as real people with hopes, fears and lives that have been forever changed.
When we witness Jamie’s journey unfold – his upbringing, his influences and the pressures that shape his decisions – we are forced to consider the broader factors at play. And it’s no coincidence that Jamie has space-themed wallpaper, a teddy bear on his bed and stickers on his bedroom door. He’s just like countless other teenage boys.
But the drama challenges us to look beyond knee-jerk reactions and ask bigger questions: What could have been done to prevent this? How did the system fail him? And how many other young people are at risk of a similar fate?
It also underscores the way boys are under pressure to appear tough, to suppress emotions and engage in reckless behaviour, showcasing how these expectations can push teenagers towards destructive choices.
Provoking though and sparking debate
By exposing these issues in a way that resonates on a human level, dramas like this do more than entertain – they provoke thought, spark debate, and, hopefully, have the power to inspire real change.
At the very least, it has forced us to take a deeper look at the vulnerabilities of young people in today’s world. It reminds us that behind every crime, there is often a much bigger story – one that involves not just the individual but the society that shaped them.
