With more than 124 million views, Adolescence has become the 5th most-watched series on Netflix in just a few weeks. A genuine phenomenon, this British drama mini-series is both poignant and disturbing. In our complex, modern world, there is no simple way to be a parent, nor any simple way to be a teenager. These are just two of the universal truths at the heart of this series.
From the first minutes we are drawn into the life of an ordinary family, where we witness the rough arrest of Jamie Miller, a 13-year-old arrested for the alleged murder of a classmate. How everything tips over in a matter of seconds, like a real nightmare. For his parents, it is an absolute shock. Is their son guilty? Has he been manipulated? Or is he the victim of a miscarriage of justice? So that viewers can form their own opinion, each episode shows a different point of view: that of Jamie the young suspect, the police detectives, the psychologist and his parents.
Watching this series, everyone can say to themselves “but this could happen to anyone, me included”. You really feel concerned. Each episode is filmed in a single continuous shot, a technique that heightens the dramatic tension and plunges viewers into the heart of the action, making the experience even more realistic and oppressive.
Through tense storytelling, the series explores identity construction, the limits of trust, family unspoken things and the impact of social media on teenagers. We see in particular the problem of the violent and misogynistic discourse of male-supremacist influencers.
The platform advises against this series for under-12s; however, it may be worth considering that it is better for a younger child to watch the series accompanied than for an older child to watch it alone and perhaps be led to ask themselves the wrong questions.
With its disconcerting realism and anxiety-inducing atmosphere, this series can sometimes seem harsh to some, especially a family audience. And yet it is by tackling complex themes such as misogyny, bullying at school and the omnipresence of social media with our children that we will enable them to ask themselves the right questions.
In one of the episodes, the parents of the teenager suspected of murder feel guilty for not having seen their son’s online radicalisation and try to question themselves. Should the series prompt us to pay more attention to what teenagers do on social media? We live in a hyperconnected society. We have no control over content, only over how we approach and talk about it. It leads adults to ask themselves questions about what are called “indoor children”. That is, those who seem entirely reassuring to us because they stay at home but who, in reality, are shut away in a space where they experience many things about which we ask them very few questions because we feel it does not concern us. We think they are safer at home, but unfortunately the danger exists online. As parents, we are quickly lost in the face of new languages made of emojis and slang understood only by young people among themselves. This is disconcerting, so we move away from it.
This type of series helps us understand that the idea is not necessarily to control what our young people say or do, but to take an interest in it, to keep the connection, to lift our heads from our screens. This technoference does harm at every point, at every level, to every member of the family.
In the United Kingdom, the series will even be shown in secondary schools because of the enthusiasm it has generated. An idea that has crossed the Channel to the French Ministry of Education. The latter considers the series a “good starting point” for debate, without going so far as to talk of making it compulsory. It is a very good teaching resource for questioning the major problems of our life in society today. We hope the institutions will take it up.
We also offer you a few tips for looking after the mental health of our children and teenagers
* Listen: let us ask them regularly how they feel so that they are comfortable talking about their emotions
* Get involved in their lives: let us show interest in what matters to them, which will strengthen their self-esteem and help us identify problems if there are any
* Take what they say seriously: listening to them and paying attention to their emotions will make them feel valued
* Support them in difficult times: resolving a situation is not always easy and you can help them understand their emotions.
* Try not to jump to hasty conclusions or to solve everything in their place.
There are no perfect parents, and fortunately this allows children and teenagers to be what they are, “imperfect” beings in the making.
