Adolescence

Firstly I want to say I really enjoyed it all round. Top notch and, in my opinion, very important show. The acting was incredible from everyone, particularly Jamie and his dad. The actor for Jamie was insanely talented for someone so young, so hats off to Owen Cooper. I think that the style of camerawork, with it all being filmed in one shot, really blended itself to the topics and realism of the show and surprisingly made it much more engrossing. It felt like the viewer was almost in the scene itself. I’ve heard two criticisms about this show, neither of which I agree with. First, from my dad, he thought it was going in an interesting direction but they took it the wrong way around episode 3. Second, from several others, that it was boring. Now both of these criticisms stem from the same thing in my opinion. Many people, myself included, began watching the series with the expectation of it being like the rest of the true crime shows around. We would go through, things would be gradually revealed, we would find out more and more until it was actually not Jamie, it was some side character we should’ve guessed. Adolescence felt like a direct answer and argument to those types of series, that almost glorify and mystify crime and murder. Adolescence was real and sure of itself. In certain parts it was slow, as we see Jamie get each of his fingerprints done and listen to the family sit in silence on the way home from the store, but it was slow in the ways that real life always seems to be. The show felt accurate to what could/has happened in someone’s life. And that realism is what lost many people. They expected the over dramatisation and glorification we so often see in modern murder shows and were faced with harsh realities. And that’s what made this show important. It looked modern true crime in the eye and promised to become more relevant by catering less to the viewer. Yeah. I really liked it.