Hard-hitting British drama series Adolescence is back in Netflix’s Top 5 chart again.
The drama, which explores toxic masculinity through the lens of a 13 year old boy accused of murdering his classmate, debuted less than a month ago and has already reached No. 4 on the Most Popular English TV list, up five spots from its place at No. 9 last week.
The 4-part limited series has now topped 114 million views. As its viewership grows and the critical and cultural conversation around it continues — it was No. 1 again this week on the English TV list, with 17.8 million views — the series is also being made available to stream in secondary schools across the UK.
The series is co-created by Stephen Graham (Boiling Point, The Virtues) and Wonder and Enola Holmes scribe Jack Thorne, is famous, not just for its subject matter but for its one-shot approach. With each of the 4 episodes taking place over the course of an hour, the series is presented to the audience like a play, with no cuts, or fadeouts. In order to achieve this sense of authenticity, actors rehearsed their lines, movements and emotional story-telling beats as if they really were engaging in a live performance. The result is an intimate and unflinching exploration of manhood in the 21st Century.
“One of our aims was to ask, ‘What is happening to our young men these days, and what are the pressures they face from their peers, from the internet, and from social media?’ ” Graham told Netflix. “And the pressures that come from all of those things are as difficult for kids here as they are the world over.”
“We could have made a drama about gangs and knife crime, or about a kid whose mother is an alcoholic or whose father is a violent abuser,” added Graham. “Instead, we wanted you to look at this family and think, ‘My God. This could be happening to us!’ And what’s happening here is an ordinary family’s worst nightmare.”
Adolescence stars Owen Cooper as Jamie Miller, Stephen Graham as Eddie Miller, Ashley Walters as Detective Inspector Luke Bascombe, Erin Doherty as Clinical Psychologist Briony Ariston, in addition to Faye Marsay, Christine Tremarco, Mark Stanley, Jo Hartley, and newcomer Amélie Pease.