Everyone loves murder mysteries: the classic “Who Done It?” When I first started watching Adolescence, that was exactly what I thought about. I came into it with no knowledge of the plot and finished it with a deeper understanding that came through watching.
The first episode depicts the arrest of 13-year-old Jamie for the murder of his classmate Katie, and we see him consistently denying the charges. As the episode progresses, the two main detectives pull up footage showing the murder, and at this point, I was in shock. I didn’t know what to believe, and I honestly still thought it was a lie. Jamie’s denial was so convincing, and I so badly wanted to believe it wasn’t him.
The second episode gave me an insight into Jamie’s social life. With the detectives still looking for a motive, we find out Jamie was bullied by Katie, who used social media as a platform to degrade him. This episode showed the toxic school environment, Jamie’s loneliness and how social rejection pushed him down a dangerous path.
The third episode was the most important overall. A female physiologist visits Jamie to assess his understanding of his crime. Throughout the visit, we see the friendly relationship between them slowly form, with him switching his demeanor from an innocent little boy to a cold-blooded murderer. We see him having constant emotional outbursts and degrading and mocking the women.
This episode was so strong, and it completely shocked me to my core to see how fast he was able to switch his demeanor. We learn more about Katie and his relationship. Witnessing Jamie think his actions are justified was alarming to me. There’s a part in the episode where he talks about how he could’ve sexually assaulted her, but he chose not to, whereas other guys would have. I deeply related to the physiologist as she was immensely disturbed the whole time.
The final episode showed how impacted the family was by this. We see more into the family dynamic, and it helps to explain Jamie’s background. Overall, this show was different from so many of the shows I’ve seen before, it was refreshing to see such important topics brought up, such as toxic masculinity, misogyny, and the effects of social media.
