Adolescence

Have you ever imagined that a gender issue could greatly affect pubescent teenagers? Not only trivial things but also have a very strong impact that can trigger someone to commit a crime.

Lately, Netflix has been very busy with a miniseries consisting of four episodes with lots of moral messages carried in the series that raises the phenomenon of teenagers.

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ADOLESCENCE

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The story begins with the arrest of Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper) by a group of police in the morning at his house. Misha Frank (Faye Marsay) and Luke Bascome (Ashley Walters) two field investigators who directly handle Jamie Miller's case make the situation very tense because the audience is led to feel that these two investigators might have made the wrong arrest. Why should a young boy who has just reached puberty be arrested in the middle of his beautiful dream in the morning? Even the suspect looks very shocked and doesn't know anything when he is raided by police troops.

The situation is getting more chaotic because Jamie's parents, Eddie Mille (Stephen Graham) and Manda Miller (Christine Tremarco) are very sure, their youngest son is even a quiet boy who only sleeps late because of games.

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What really interested me in Adolescence is the timeline used. The audience is brought in from the opening scene with a clear time marker, to the direct investigation process that does not use a time gap. So, we as the audience, feel the tension felt by Jamie's parents, as well as the anxiety of the two investigators in handling the juvenile case.

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CHARACTERISTICS

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• Eddie Miller (Stephen Graham)

    As a seasoned actor, the role of a father played by Stephen is extraordinary in my opinion. I can imagine how anxious he is as a father who suddenly finds his son arrested as a murderer. The anxiety that builds up from beginning to end until it explodes into anger at the symbolic interpretation that he is indeed a victim of masculinity trauma from the previous generation.  The key to all the problems is actually held by Stephen and placed in the scene towards the end of this series. 
  

• Luke Boscombe (Ashley Walters)

    A persistent investigator. He has a dual role in this series: as a father and as a police investigator. Investigations involving junior high school teenagers feel very tiring. Many scenes make the audience sigh, or even feel angry when seeing the situation faced by Boscombe. 
  

• Misha Frank (Faye Marsay)

    Along with Boscombe, Frank is very anxious from the start because he has to handle teenage cases again. He seems to be in a dilemma situation for teenage cases. The investigation with Boscombe at Jamie's school is the peak of Frank's emotions, that school is a very bad place, sometimes. 
  

• Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper)

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    Attention ... attention ... let's take our hats off to our New Comer, Owen Cooper! 

    This is Owen's debut in film. And Jamie's character, is able to be played very very very well and full of emotion from a teenager who is actually 14 years old.  Jamie, just a teenager who is a victim of toxic masculinity that occurs in his school environment. No ... not only in his school. But, also masculinity that is not realized growing in the house where he grew up! 

From the beginning, the audience will also feel that Jamie is just an ordinary teenager. With a normal level of naughtiness. However, four episodes of Adolenscene will change the perspective of the audience, that toxic masculinity and incel theory can be very, very disturbing to the growth of teenagers in our homes.

In addition to the characterization and plot. Of course, what is very important is the way the pictures are taken, and so on. All aspects of this mini series are truly beautiful and recommended to watch. After finishing watching this series, for some reason I started to think a little harder about the weight of being a parent. Their responsibilities, and how they must continue to learn to accompany their children to grow well.

A little review from me, I shouldn't be too spoilery, right? I give it 10/10. hahaha… sorry, this is a miniseries that is a shame to miss.

All images

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