Netflix has just added Adolescence, an absolutely gripping new four-part crime drama created by Jack Thorne (Toxic Town) and Stephen Graham (Boiling Point).
The show also stars Graham as Eddie, a husband and father whose world is rocked when his 13-year-old son, Jamie (Owen Cooper), is arrested for the murder of a classmate.
Directed in its entirety by Boiling Point’s Philip Barantini, what makes Adolescence even more tense is that every episode is filmed in an unbroken continuous shot.
This is so that viewers follow in real-time as the main characters — from the central family to the detectives investigating the crime — search for answers in the wake of such a shocking tragedy.
“Who is actually responsible? Why did it happen? Could it have been prevented?”, the Netflix plot synopsis reads.
Having watched its pilot, we can say Adolescence is not only a dazzling technical feat – but it uses its one-shot conceit to deepen its important, timely story.
Thanks to the immersive direction, the audience feels trapped with Eddie and his wife (Christine Tremarco, Glue) as they are plunged into a shocking if believable nightmare.
Co-starring Ashley Walters (Missing You) and Erin Doherty (A Thousand Blows) as well, the acting is also phenomenal.
Holding a perfect 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes, you can read some of the rave reviews for Adolescence here:
Collider: “Adolescence isn’t just an entertaining series (though it is, in some warped way); it’s one of the most important series I’ve seen in a long time.”
Guardian: “The closest thing to TV perfection in decades – its dazzling performances, and the devastating questions it asks, will linger with you.”
Daily Telegraph (UK): “It is a drama so quietly devastating that I won’t forget it for a very long time.”
London Evening Standard: “Putting aside the technical skill involved in making a show like this (which is surely titanic), everybody in this series is wonderful.”
Ready Steady Cut: “The gimmick is always used to enhance the particulars of the story, which it’s important to note is not so much a ‘whodunit’ but more a ‘whydunit’ and, eventually, something else entirely.”
Rolling Stone: “This is not an easy watch… But in what Adolescence has to say, and in how eloquently and audaciously it says it, it’s also among the very best things — and an early contender for the best thing — you will see on the small screen this year.”
Adolescence is streaming in its entirety on Netflix now.
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