Don’t get me wrong, the filmmaking of Adolescence was marvelous. The acting was impeccable, the camera work absolutely terrific and the music chilling. As a film lover this was first class. But as a feminist I was sad to only see the men’s POV.

Spoilers ahead:

First episode you try to figure out what’s going on. You see a police man enter a childs room, arrest him while his father tries to make sense of it all. You’re at the police station where men take him in, men try to defend him. The only active people are the men. Yes, there’s the mother, there’s the sister, there’s the second police officer, but they’re all standing on the sidelines, letting the men take the lead. Sure, you can say, first episode we’re following the murderer and in his world the men take the lead but it was still something that I didn’t like.

Second episode, we’re in the school. You’re taken aback by the state of the school but then again, no one is really surprised. Most schools are neglected, not only in the UK and the romanticized version that we have because of movies and series is just not true. It’s a wake up call, not only for the officers (btw honest question: wasn’t that a conflict of interest when the officer had to enter his son’s classroom?) but for everyone watching. The series doesn’t give a solution but if it gets the right people talking (i.e. the British government in that case) then everything is on track. Again, the focus is on the male police officer while the female police officer hangs around and gives him advice.

I absolutely loved the third episode. I’m still analyzing parts of it in case I missed something (which I sure did). I think everyone that saw this series agrees that this episode was the pinnacle of filmmaking. The back and forth, the read-between the lines, the imagery, everything was so on point. And the scariest part for me is that Owen Coopers character after being asked three times if he understands what it means that Katie is dead, refused to answer and dialed back to „but she humiliated me…“. I’m not gonna get into this but I’m getting tired of people defending him because of that. I wish that the show runners would have been more clear that yes, there is a reason but that doesn’t justify it.

Anyways the fourth and last episode is where they lost me. It’s the father’s birthday and everything focuses around him. His van was sprayed (also help me out if I’m missing something cause English isn’t my first language, but nonse was translated as pedophile? Was there a reason other than to bully them?) so he gets (understandably) heated. Mom’s there to help calm him down. Daughter and mother seem to walk on eggshells around him but even with their heart-to-heart it feels like every person in this household is completely focused on the father. Maybe it is to explain, where the murderer has his violent tendencies from but wouldn’t it be better to explain this with the focus on what his actions do to the people around him. I do understand that this is reality in a lot of households, but you can also paint reality while also critiquing it. In the end the father sits in his son’s room and cries and it is a scene brilliantly acted by Stephen Graham. But I can’t feel sorry for him, because I’m constantly feeling sorry for his wife that puts everything on hold to cater to him and even more sorry for the daughter, Lisa, who mentions getting bullied in school and no one even hears it cause they’re all so focused on the father who does nothing but pity himself.

When it ended I was missing something and it’s the POV from the victim. Katie was a three dimensional human being that was murdered. No one is perfect and everyone makes mistakes but in my opinion there’s a huge difference between bullying and murder. It would have been nice to see a flashback of her life or what she left behind, her family after she was gone or maybe even her best friend. Two minutes of the best friend talking about her life isn’t cutting it when we humanize the murderer and villainize the victim. I can understand why so many people come to defend the murderer on social media because Katie isn’t shown as a person, but as a caricature. She is used to excuse his behavior while stripping her of any humanity. And in the end the severity of her life gone is minimized.

I think the intention of this series was good and it’s important to make these pieces in order to get society and politics talking about it. I would like to see an anti-series, where it focuses on Katie. I have a lot of ideas but this article will be too long if I actually get into it now. However I would love to know what your thoughts on this series are? Did you also like the acting or did you also miss something? Please let me know in the comments 🙂