What did you think of Netflix's Adolescence?

MSHUser · 2025-03-23T18:14:25+00:00

I watched it and it seems like it's being left open-ended. There was a lot of things to say here.

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

There was a motive for Jamie killing Katie, which is she started a cyberbullying campaign against Jamie by calling her an incel after he asked her out. But in episode 3 where the psychologist talks to Jamie, Jamie revealed that because someone leaked naked pics of female students around, one of them being Katie, Jamie thought he had a chance to ask her out because she was "weak" and therefore more likely to accept.

Here's where it gets blurry. Did Katie knew Jamie asked out cuz he saw her as weak? If so, then her calling him an incel would be framed as a reaction to percieved objectification. But if she didn't, then that implies Katie already thought low of Jamie that she saw no issue embarrassing the lad on social media for no reason at all. Imagine if this was a guy that really just wanted to go out with her because he thought she was attractive.

It would also imply another thing. By Jamie citing that he asked Katie out because he thought her "weak", did Jamie go down the incel ideology before asking Katie out (which means before it led to the cyberbullying campaigne), or was Jamie using the wrong words to describe the situation and Katie calling him an incel is what led him down the incel pipeline?

There was also a scene in episode 3 where the female psychologist initially touched a sandwich, but remembering that incel boy touched it, immediately threw it away out of disgust. While we can't always help how we feel, I wonder why they would have a scene like that there as (please educate me on this) I thought it was unnecessary.

Upper-Divide-7842 · 2025-03-24T16:25:00+00:00

The thing nobody seems to be speaking about with regards to this show is this:

I have no doubt that this is a good show. But the creator saying that it should be "shown in parliament" is out of touch self aggrandisement on the level of all those celebrities singing Imagine on social media during lockdown.

Like are you for real?

The only thing more embarrassing is the prime minister agreeing with him.

If I were the PM I would have been like "Hey, lil bro, its great that you wrote a made up story about this and all but believe it or not we're actually already looking into it. We have actual research and data, we have task forces, every government employee receives Prevent training, we very publically went into hyper panic-mode at the first whiff of Andrew Tate. Like, we're fucking on it, bro.

So thanks, but no thanks. Ministers can watch your drama on the private netflix accounts that they likely charge to expenses anyway."

It doesn't matter if you think what you think of this show or what you think of the governments existing response to the so called incel crisis. EVERYONE should be able to agree that a netflix drama is not going to contain the one piece of unnassailable insight that is going to fix this problem.

The government already has access to actual scientific research. The fact that people are treating the parliamentary netflix and chill sesh as a serious idea has made me about as embarrassed as it is possible to be to be British.

WeEatBabies · 2025-03-22T17:17:51+00:00

It's actually good.

I wished they made one about feminism and the anti-male legislation they pass. (Duluth Model, no prison for women, reserved seat in uni. even if women already 65% of new enrollments, etc) and I wished they showed the Duluth Model killed far more men then one Incel ever could.

griii2 · 2025-03-24T07:53:49+00:00

Totally reminds me of The D&D Moral Panic Movies were Utterly Ridiculous | Cynical Reviews - YouTube

Initial_Zebra100 · 2025-03-23T06:55:47+00:00

It got people talking who would normally never do so. I witnessed people doing just that. They were both surprisingly sympathetic to the teen.

Surprised because they were both parents to boys.

empireofadhd · 2025-03-30T18:54:49+00:00

I got a bit triggered by it. But overall it was good. It’s a more nuanced take on incels then what I have seen before.

I think it missed some things though. Most incels are a bit older and are more on the autism spectrum and the bullying goes on for longer. The funnel starts with hope-a little hope-no hope -darkness. It went a bit too quickly here which felt unrealistic.

I like the fact that it got people talking and not just in a way that repeats feminist talking points or perspectives.

Phuxsea · 2025-03-23T14:21:15+00:00

I'm surprised people like it here. It seems Netflix is Schrodinger's Woke. They famously race swap white characters and sometimes gender swap men, but they also have stuff like Graham Hancock's ancient apocalypse.

I will definitely try watching Adolescence.

psychologist-N · 2025-03-25T17:27:15+00:00

“Immediately threw it away out of disgust” is def not what I got out of it. I did see it as an emotional reaction but not disgust. To me it was overwhelm, esp after maintaining professional composure throughout the session. Psychs are human, and working with young clients involved in severe cases can take an emotional toll - this is more likely and what I saw in it. it’s a niche to be a clinical psych doing child assessments in a forensic setting. Jamie wouldn’t have been her first disturbing client or case. She went to clean it up, maybe realised that she should leave it as what would she do with it anyway and then felt silly ‘cleaning up’ in the context of what had just occurred and under the circumstances.

Woo284 · 2025-05-04T16:02:11+00:00

I was reading an interview with the director and they mentioned how jamie commented on forums, but they barely touched on that at all. The acting was great, but overall poor writing, typical of pommy dramas....

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