It’s taken a while for culture to find its voice on what Gareth Southgate this week called “callous toxic influencers”.
The Netflix show Adolescence, the most-watched series in 79 countries, is a four-parter filmed in one unflinching shot about a teenage boy accused of murdering a classmate.
There’s a voyeurism to the shaky camera that feels more like a documentary than a drama. Jamie (Owen Cooper) is radicalised by incel propaganda online.
When his classmate Katie (Emilia Holliday) rejects and shames him, he strikes out.
Co-writer and star Stephen Graham was inspired by grim news reports and with co-creator Jack Thorne portrays the Millers as an average English family. Jamie is young and vulnerable.
When the police arrest him, he wets himself and cries for dad Eddie (Graham). And yet he’s a killer.
This isn’t an accusation or a manifesto – it unpicks the pain, sorrow and rage the manosphere inflicts.
It’s started a conversation that’s long overdue.
Photo credits: Netflix
