Adolescence: Childhood in the shadow of bullying...

Hilal Özdemir

Netflix's new miniseries, Adolescence, has created a major stir on social media since its release.

Addressing sensitive contemporary issues such as peer bullying and incel culture, the series focuses on the brutal murder of a schoolgirl by a 13-year-old boy and the events that follow.

Turkey was introduced to the 'incel' culture—a term formed by combining the words 'involuntary celibate'—through the 'walls murder' case. While researching what it was all about, we learned that men who feel excluded have formed groups in social media and chat rooms that lead to violence and murder.

Incels began to be scrutinized in popular culture following mass shootings in North America in 2014 and 2018, which were determined to be linked to incel culture. Subsequently, they gained many followers through social media posts and live broadcasts. These groups, which serve as a lifeline for many men who feel marginalized, have carried out numerous acts that ended in murder.

In this four-part British series, Stephen Graham, Owen Cooper, and Ashley Walters share the lead roles.

One of the most striking aspects of the series is that the episodes are shot in a single take. This technique, which is quite challenging for both the director and the actors, provides a visual feast from start to finish without any interruptions throughout the series.

The episodes last an average of 1 hour. This means we watch the events in real-time from the moment the camera starts recording until the end of the episode without any cuts.

Adolescence covers different stages of a murder in four episodes. First, on the morning of the arrest, we meet the family through house searches. Then, we follow the investigation conducted by the police at the school of Jamie Miller, who committed the murder. In the third episode, as Jamie talks to a psychologist, we slowly learn about the process that led to the murder. The final episode reveals a day in the life of Jamie's family as they live under the shadow of their son's crime.

The series focuses on peer bullying and the devastating effects of unsupervised internet use on children through the eyes of those affected by the murder.

The family in the series consists of a mother, a father, a son, and a daughter. Even if everyone retreats to their rooms and closes the doors, understanding what happens behind those doors depends on the communication parents establish with their children. During the investigation, it is revealed that even the emojis in Jamie's social media accounts contained hidden messages pointing to incel culture. An emoji that seems innocent in daily life can lead children down the wrong path.

In the second episode of the series, the police teams leading the investigation go to the school of Jamie Miller, who committed the murder. The son of police officer Luke Bascombe, who is part of the team, is also a student at the same school. The police, who interview teachers and students, see how far peer bullying can go. Meanwhile, we also learn that police officer Luke Bascombe has problems with his own son.

In the third episode of the series, we get to know 13-year-old Jamie Miller, who committed the murder, more closely. In the conversation between him and the psychologist who is gathering information about him to present as a report to the court, we learn more about the process that drove Miller to commit the murder.

The fourth episode deals with the dilemmas faced by Jamie's family. The judgmental attitudes of the people around them and the difficulty of continuing their lives where they live deepen the family's drama.

Stephen Graham, one of the lead actors of the series, is also the writer of the series.

Graham says, "I was questioning how it became a place where these kinds of events 'happen regularly' and said, 'I couldn't understand it. That's why I really wanted to delve into this subject and try to shed light on it.'"

We hope that the events in the Adolescence series, which you will finish in one sitting, remain only in the series and that children grow up in lands where love is planted instead of a culture of violence...