Youth, Rage, and Responsibility

Netflix frequently faces criticism for its lackluster films, but its best television shows frequently gather high acclaim. From House of Cards (2013), paving the way for streaming shows at the Emmys, to The Queen’s Gambit (2020), capturing audiences across the globe, Netflix has become a major player in prestige television. These successes pushed Netflix to take creative risks and step into dark, heavy subject matter. Adolescence (2025) drew both audiences and critics in as one of the most interesting series of the year, and explored ideas of how deteriorating teenage mental health can lead to horrific consequences. The show has captivating performances and an intriguing narrative, but its runtime and structure slightly detract from its impact. 

Adolescence follows 13-year-old Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper), who has been accused of murdering his classmate. The show begins with a bang, as the police storm into the Miller household to arrest Jamie for his actions. They take him through the legal process, and he chooses his father, Eddie Miller (Stephen Graham), as his adult. Although he repeatedly denies the allegations, the police quickly reveal that they know he did it, leading to his temporary incarceration. After this occurs, the show takes the viewer through the details surrounding this event, including the disastrous effects it had on his school and family, and how their effect on him pushed him to commit such insane acts. 

The acting across the board is outstanding. Every character feels flawed and human, trapped in handling this horrific situation. Although many in the ensemble are captivating, such as Jamie’s mother Manda (Christine Temarco) and Detective Inspector Luke Bascombe (Ashley Walters), the two clear standouts are Jamie and his father, Eddie. The young Cooper brings every emotion to the tragic Jamie, somehow making a 13-year-old boy feel terrifying, innocent, and unstable all at the same time; in his therapy scenes, he quickly bursts into anger after being forced to confront his psyche. Despite being only 14 years old at the time of filming, Cooper brings more range to his role than anyone else in the cast, making his momentous Emmy win well-deserved. Graham is really able to shine in the last episode of the show—the season finale, which focuses on Eddie, his wife, and his daughter, showing how broken Eddie feels after Jamie is accused. His van is vandalized, people repeatedly question him about his son, and he is unable to cope with his remorse. Graham portrays this slow mental deterioration brilliantly, as his calm demeanor slowly evaporates as he succumbs to his guilt. In the final scene of him talking to his wife, every micro-expression heightens his despair, the actor’s raw emotion pouring into the scene. He cries as he thinks he didn’t care enough for Jamie, and how this caused his son to become a killer. 

The show's narrative is extremely thought-provoking and subversive; it quickly flips the expected true-crime premise on its head and becomes a deep analysis of incel culture and the mentality of teenage boys. Its goal isn’t to explore whether or not Jamie killed the girl, but instead why he did it. This is explored especially in the therapy scenes, which explain how getting bullied and rejected led to built-up neglect that resulted in his actions. The show smartly doesn’t frame Jamie as a hero, but simply offers the perspective of an extremely flawed young man who struggles with his mental health due to the culture of inceldom built around him. 

Although the show was groundbreaking—a brilliant mix of acting, character exploration, and mental health—it did struggle to tie everything together. The current finale leaves it feeling somber and unresolved, leaving many plot threads and ideas that should have been explored in a fifth and final episode. Jamie’s final decision feels rushed with no proper ending or resolution; it’s announced over a phone call in the last 15 minutes of the show without even showing his character. Furthermore, the entirety of the second episode feels irrelevant to the overarching narrative because its events don't connect to the rest of the story, and its focal characters don’t even return. A final episode could have tied all the episodes together to make it feel like one cohesive show rather than four disjointed episodes. 

Adolescence may not be perfect, as it struggles to fully tie its parts together, but it certainly achieves much of what it set out to do. Many of the performances feel so raw and full of life that they suck the audience into an emotional roller coaster that can’t even be escaped, even as the credits roll. The exploration of incel culture and its effect on Jamie is poignant, showing how bullying without proper support for the victim fosters rage that harms everyone around them. The show may not be without its flaws, but it is easily one of the best of the year, being mature, gripping, and inescapable in the best way possible.