Netflix’s new hit series, Adolescence, has collected over 114.5 million views since its release. Throughout the show, viewers meet Jamie Miller, a 13-year-old boy, who is accused of murdering his classmate Katie Leonard. By the end of this series, we discover that Jamie did kill Katie due to a combination of events: bullying, a lack of self-esteem, and online access to misogynist propaganda.
I had a lot of assumptions about Adolescence before pushing play on Netflix’s new hit series. I assumed I would feel an immediate hatred for Jamie, but instead, I felt the opposite when I started watching. The opening scene of the series leaves viewers discombobulated, as it is filled with police bursting into a house, a family’s frantic screams, and a scene of a young boy dragged from his family into the back of a police car. I was immediately startled as the police sprinted up the stairs of the Miller’s house and threw open the door of a young boy’s bedroom. Jamie Miller does not look murderous. He’s skinny, freckled, soft-spoken, maybe even sweet—the type of boy who would sit quietly in the back of class. His pleas and obvious confusion almost seem to force-feed empathy to the viewer.
But this is exactly what the directors needed Jamie to look like. Each episode has viewers peeling back another layer of Jamie’s mind, trying to grapple with the juxtaposition of the harmless boy displayed on the screen and the hideous crime he committed. The disbelief of viewers is the same disbelief exhibited by Jamie’s family and the school community that Jamie is a part of. But in episode 3, the disbelief begins to unravel. A clinical psychologist arrives at the correctional center where Jamie is being held, and what proceeds is an hour-long interview with Jamie.
The beginning of this conversation is light, you see Jamie laughing at the psychologist’s jokes and even thanking her profusely as she gifts him the sandwich and hot chocolate she had packed. Once again, you are left questioning how this boy could commit such a horrendous crime, but this quickly changes. As the psychologist peppers Jamie with more and more questions, he becomes increasingly agitated, claiming that he did nothing wrong. We see something replace the once sweet boy, who only moments ago was sitting attentively, laughing alongside the psychologists. Jamie throws the hot chocolate off the table, standing up abruptly, making his voice deeper and his height seem greater. He towers above the startled-looking psychologist, snarling at her. He begins mocking her, screaming the phrase: “Are you scared of me now?” It’s at this moment that the disbelief broke for me. Adolescence represents a portrait of our present-day culture: A culture where disbelief grips our minds, allowing us to dismiss behaviors and never let ourselves linger on unthinkable situations such as a thirteen-year-old boy murdering his classmate. Adolescence serves as a reminder of how quickly the behaviors we dismiss as a society become our reality.