Adolescence

I’m not normally one for too much realism in my media, but after the headteacher of my eldest kid’s school sent an email urging parents to watch this I thought I’d have a brief look… and within 24 hours I had binged the whole of this amazing mini-series. I did not enjoy watching it at all - it’s far too painful and too real for that - but it was so well done, so perfectly acted, and so beautifully written; and the one-take/camera format (each one-hour episode is done in one continuous take) was so absorbing. The first time I encountered this format was in the movie adaptation of CHILDREN OF MEN, when there’s a memorable one-take action scene, which blew my mind at the time. Here, it makes each episode feel both relentless and claustrophobic; it makes you feel as though you cannot escape, which for me really heightens the emotions of the characters throughout.

The subject matter - the misogyny certain online entities encourage in young boys and the false view of the world they give them - is so important and is handled so unflinchingly. I have two teenage sons and found this such uncomfortable viewing because I can see how easily kids can get sucked into this kind of toxic mindset. And it needs to be uncomfortable, and it is such a skill to be able to do this while also keeping the audience gripped. There were some great lines from the kids: when one parent says “red pill, blue pill… that’s the Matrix!” and his son says, “No! What you on about?!” And the final, devastatingly painful line spoken by Jamie in Episode 3: "don't you even like me a bit?" (The entirety of Episode 3, where Jamie is in a detention centre and is being interviewed by a child psychologist, was astounding... chilling and heartbreaking in equal measure, and so well acted.)

This series does not take the easy route with what it shows us, either. A lesser version might have ended with a courtroom episode, but this is far too subtle and too concerned with the warning it's delivering for that. Instead, we see what life is like for Jamie's parents just before he is about to attend court and plead guilty to murder. The final scenes, where his tearful parents are reassuring each other that they are good parents, and where Jamie's father can be seen crying on Jamie's bed, while looking at a teddy bear that serves to remind us of just how young the children involved are, is absolutely devastating.

There are some gentle hints throughout at another underlying contributing factor to what happened: the challenges of the late-stage capitalist society in which we live. When the police officers are at the school, one remarks that the place feels like a "holding pen." This line stuck with me. The other officer goes on to say she went to a similar school "did OK" and comments that there were a few nice teachers. There is a sense that the school is teetering on the edge of anarchy, and as someone who comes from a family of teachers, I know that schools get like this because of a lack of funding. In addition, this is a very northern, very working-class community and the "holding pen" imagery also echoes the approach some people have to working-class children: that there's no point in educating them, because they are destined for blue-collar vocational jobs and education isn't necessary. Kids pick up on this, and as a person from a working-class background myself, I know how demoralising it is when people have "low" expectations of you educationally - something kids Jamie's age would be especially aware of. There are other examples: Jamie's dad commenting that he had to work long hours because his business had started taking off; one student mentioning that she can't go home despite being upset about the murder because her mum will be angry about being disturbed at work... I think the show rightly didn't focus on any of this, because I think it dilutes the overall message and because this isn't the point, but for me it did serve as a reminder than this kind of misogyny flourishes in environments where people are already vulnerable and already feel powerless.

This show does not hold your hand, nor do we learn all the "answers", and so much is left unsaid… which I think is perfect because this echoes the sense of helplessness and ignorance many of us feel as parents. The behaviour of all the teens in this felt so realistic to me. As did the disdain with which they treated adults, all of whom have no idea about how their world operates. Anyway, great show. Upsetting, but undeniably brilliant.

[For some reason Wikipedia had this classed as hard science fiction when I went to the page! Was this another cunning ruse to lure me into watching?!]