They say adulting is hard. And just as I finished watching this Netflix drama series, ‘Adolescence’, monickering the transitional phase from a child to becoming an adult—the process of adulting—definitely feels difficult.
Personally, for me, growing up in an army school and transitioning into an adult—a so-called ‘man’—came with its own additional challenges. But perhaps this could also be true for lots of other people who have gone through this phase in life. Socialisation, for one, is at its peak. Friends and family introduce you to ways to subscribe and perform manhood in our own little manosphere.
The adolescent phase in our lives is sometimes animated by systematic bullying meted by/upon those who were deemed weak or, as some kids would repeatedly harass, calling names, terming us ‘not man enough’ or ‘a girl’. At times, when boys cried, parents would call us out and say: ‘don’t be a girl’. These ‘performative utterances’, Judith Buttler writes, make us gendered beings. We are constantly expected to perform man-ness and woman-ness. And we constantly perform these roles—consciously, subconsciously, or even unconsciously.
During my adolescence, new things seemed to be happening in our society. Technology began to reshape the world. Just as I was in school, the computers came first, then, in a few years, everyone had a mobile phone in their hands; in another few years, people actually had Facebook friends, watched YouTube, and made their opinions public on Twitter; another few years later, there was virtual reality and dating applications.
Today, being an adolescent would mean living on the internet, just as outside of it. But, the internet–in its multiple manifestations: Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, and their ilk–is heavily populated by Andrew Tate-like masculine misogynistic men teaching other men how to be a man. However, these influences, because the internet is free for all, tend to reshape how adolescence is experienced and expressed in our society.
In Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham’s Netflix four-episode crime-drama ‘Adolescence’, techno-patriarchy is first-hand experienced by adolescent school-goers. ‘Adolescence’ follows a 13-year-old Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper) after he was arrested and charged with the murder of his classmate, Katie. Each of the four episodes concentrates on a specific episode in Jamie’s life since the killing: the traumatic arrest of Jamie, the influences in the school, Jamie’s session with the psychologist, and the aftereffects of Jamie’s actions on his family. Each episode is about 50 minutes long and is filmed in a one-take style, which some have hailed as a technical masterpiece.
The first episode starts off with the SWAT team barging into Jamie’s residence, and through the ride to the police station and to the interview process where the video footage of him killing Katie is shown. In the second episode, the police visit Jamie’s school and start looking for motives. They come to realise that Jamie may have been bullied by Katie. But also, several students have had Andrew Tate-like misogynist influences: the incel stuff, the 80/20 rule (where 80 per cent of women seem to be attracted to 20 per cent men), and other such misogynist stuff.
The third episode is particularly gripping for me. It is an engagement between Jamie and the psychologist, who must submit a report about ‘his understanding’ of the ‘manosphere’ to the judge. However, Jamie begins to distrust the psychologist, a woman herself who wants to know about his father. Every ten minutes into the interview, Jamie would get pissed, starts throwing stuff around, and tries to intimidate the psychologist.
In each of those chilling shots, we see how far online influences of ‘how to be a man’ come to shape adolescents in recent years. It also shows us how adolescents come to emulate those they idealise around them—in all their flaws. And how Jamie thought he was ugly and was the ugliest of them all in the world.
In the final episode, on the birthday of Jamie’s father, Eddie, is to celebrate his 50th birthday, but things take a turn for the worse when some neighbourhood kids write ‘nonce’ on his van. This British slang is termed for those who are alleged or convicted sex offenders, especially those involving children. Eddie is angry, but his spirits are up–the wife and the daughter plan to go to a movie and eat at a Chinese restaurant. However, just as Eddie exits the paint store, he sees the kid who wrote ‘nonce’ on his vehicle. He is infuriated. Eddie grabs the kid, throws him around, and shouts at him for ruining their day. It is in this instinct that we see an Eddie, who Jamie passingly mentions to the psychologist as tearing down a shed. And thereafter, when Eddie returns home, he is crying, contemplating how his son turned out and what mistakes they made while raising him.
Owen Cooper, the first-time child actor, shines all through. The expressions and the intensity in each act are just so subtle and brilliant. But it isn’t exactly a mystery. There is nothing to prove in this. The proof of Jamie killing Katie is captured in the cameras. Unlike several other crime dramas, where, in the end, something good tends to happen, Adolescence is gripping, chilling through and through without any hopes for good.
‘Adolescence’ is currently streaming on Netflix.