Netflix’s Adolescence, a four-part British drama premiering in March 2025, has taken the world by storm, racking up over 100 million views and sparking heated conversations and debates about the challenges facing teenagers in todays world. Created by Stephen Graham and Jack Thorne, this one-take-per-episode series follows 13-year-old Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper), a seemingly ordinary boy who shocks his small English town by murdering a female classmate, Katie Leonard. Far from a typical crime drama, Adolescence touches on difficult subjects such bullying, misogyny and some of the dark influences that may have pushed Jamie to do such a heinous crime.
The Manosphere:
In Adolescence they purposely touch lightly on figures in the manosphere such as self-proclaimed misogynist Andrew Tate. Many view Andrew Tate as the poster boy for the manosphere. He is currently facing charges of human trafficking & rape in Romania; in addition he is due for extradition to the United Kingdom once his trial concludes.
We find out that spent a lot of time online and was likely in an echo chamber perpetuating negative ideas about women. This show also details how voices in the manosphere help fill a void for young boys like Jamie who are bullied, rejected, unheard and unseen.
Female influencers and Porn:
The series lightly touches on taboo subjects such as porn and sexually suggestive content online. When D.I Baskins (Ashley Walters) interrogates Jamie he showcased to the teen multiple images of him commenting, liking and sharing sexually suggestive content on his Instagram. This sort of content is problematic as teens and children frequent the platform; In addition, this content leads to distorted perceptions, thus reducing women to sexual objects as well as fostering entitlement or aggression when in real life scenarios.
The Missing Piece: Healthy Male Role Models:
Adolescence showcases a real issue in modern society which is an absence of healthy male role models. Jamie’s father, Eddie (Stephen Graham), is a loving but overwhelmed figure, unable to bridge the gap between his traditional view of manhood and his son’s digital reality. The show underscores a real-world crisis: boys and young men today often lack mentors, thus leading them to navigate a cruel world by themselves without guidance.
Wake up call for parents:
In the last episode Jamie’s parents discuss on what could of went wrong and were still in denial throughout most of the series. Jamies parents reveal that he spent a lot of time online tucked away in his room, and the fact that Eddie spent lots of time working whilst not understanding what his son’s interests were. Jamie also didn’t provide the right guidance for his son to overcome rejection and bullying which ultimately led to him committing murder.
Critics:
Although the Adolescence series received much praise, it also received backlash and criticism from many people who thought it demonized men, was overly dramatized, inaccurate or downright poor filmmaking. These critics include former Prime Minister Boris Johnson calling it “Total Rubbish” and accused it of pandering to “woke” obsessions with societal decay and Far-right commentator Jack Posobiec who called Adolescence “propaganda designed to demonize young white men and vilify masculinity.” arguing that it vilified young men and teenagers.
Conclusion:
Regardless on your perspective on the series, it has helped create important conversations about gender, sex, the education system and bullying. We’d like to know your thoughts however! What’s your thoughts on the show? Comment below.
