by With “Adolescence”, Stephen Graham and Jack Thorne sign a punch series on violence against women and the importance of a real education of boys and men.
Be careful, spoilers! This article is in detail on the intrigue of the adolescence series. If you haven't seen it yet and do not want to know the content, do not continue to read.
Launched on Netflix on March 13, adolescence is a real slap. This British mini-series tells the story of Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper), a 13-year-old boy accused of murdering a classmate, Katie Leonard. The girl was stabbed seven times (!) In a parking lot, near her school.
Filmed by video-surveillance cameras during her act, Jamie is arrested Manu Militari by a horde of armed police until the teeth in the early morning with his parents, as if they came to flush a terrorist. From the outset, the tone is set and the series does not intend to release the pressure.
Because this brutal attack raises a difficult but essential question: why do men continue to commit such acts of violence against women? And there, in this case a young boy towards a young girl?
The series is not content to respect a classic police frame which would remove any impact on the message it intends to convey. She poses a sharp look at a major societal problem. “”We wanted to ask the question: what happens to our young boys today? What are the challenges they face, whether via their peers, internet or social networks?“explains Stephen Graham, co-creator and main actor of the series to the site Tudum.
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A fictitious story but an edifying reality
If adolescence is not based on a real affair, it is inspired by various facts which become recurring. “”Over the past ten years, we have attended a real epidemic of crimes with a knife committed by young boys in the United Kingdom“, confides Graham to Radio Times. “”But what really marked me were these cases where young boys killed young girls. I wanted to understand why.“”
This more than alarm reality is confirmed by a report by the National Police Chiefs' Council (the NPCC which can be translated by the National Council of Police Managers) published last July and which was the subject of an article of Guardian. He believes that at least one in 12 women will be the victim of sexist or sexual violence each year. This represents 2 million victims …
If the situation was not already worrying enough, the report also stresses that the attackers are increasingly young. Finally, observers find that this phenomenon is partly fueled by online content of extreme nature. That is to say, there is a whole share of “education”, learning life and relation to others who escape parents who have children born in the 21st century and for whom social networks are a real extension of their social life.
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Social networks and toxic communities
And that's what we will understand over the episodes. Because adolescence engages in a real demonstration. The series lifts the veil on what many adults ignore: how adolescent boys can be influenced by harmful personalities who are rampant in full impunity.
The movement of incelsthe “Manosphere” (which designates the masculine sphere online), and the influence of personalities like Andrew Tate (a masculinist influencer) are discussed directly. “”I heard the boys talk about him“Said a teacher in the series. It is all the toxic masculinity that is pointed out.
Ashley Walters, who embodies Inspector Luke Bascombe, discovers that his own son, Adam, is familiar with this very coded language and these online communities. This observation pushes the policeman, however supposed to be aware of these social phenomena, to reconsider his role as father and the importance of an authentic dialogue with his son.
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An essential preventive education
At the end of its four episodes, the series then poses a question as essential as they are anticipating: how to prevent male violence? For Stephen Graham, it all starts with the education of young boys: “We must give them the tools necessary to understand and manage their emotions, particularly in the face of rejection and frustration.“”
Because it was the rejection and frustration that led Jamie to this extreme gesture. He was the victim of mockery and cyberbullying. And even several months after the drama, while he is incarcerated in a specialized center pending his trial, the 13 -year -old boy deploys the same aggressiveness, the same violence and does not seem to regret having removed the life of his classmate.
Let's go back to Inspector Bascombe. The series delivers a scene that might seem harmless, and yet essential for teens' education, where he offers his son a simple moment: sharing fries and discussing anything else. What may seem trivial is actually crucial. It is simply a question of creating a dialogue space before frustration and anger lead to violence. His son is also marginalized in his high school and his father does not realize it …
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An essential message
Let us be reassured: adolescence does not seek to excuse the inexcusable, nor to teach the spectator. It is a question of exploring and therefore understanding the deep causes of male violence and finding solutions upstream. “”What interested me was to understand how these acts are coming and what we can do to prevent them from reproducing“Explains Graham.
By putting a spotlight on the dangers of online radicalization and the essential role of parents and education, adolescence goes beyond its simple status as a series of entertainment.
By sending a subject of society, superbly ignored by politicians despite repeated dramas and deaf violence that creeps into the daily lives of each and everyone, it stands out as an essential series. Because it is a way to create the discussion. It is also an elementary reminder that the fight against violence against women begins well before taking action.
Adolescence is now available on Netflix.
