Context is everything. One of the Big Bang Theory‘s Sheldon’s best lines comes when he goes to a friend’s for dinner and they say ‘Hope you’re hungry!”. He ponders and responds “Hope you’re hungry – a friendly greeting here, a cruel taunt if you’re in the Sudan.”
For me this week, the lesson in context came while shopping. I was doing my morning shopping at the local supermarket as I often do; it’s rarely crowded at that time and I’m often going by it anyway. Usually it’s quick and uneventful, but not this day. Walking in, one of the first things I see is a brown streak coming towards me, close to the ground. A couple of stockboys in chase. As it speeds by, I see clearly it’s a bat! More store employees join in the chase while various cashiers are waving their arms around. I keep moving along towards the produce and, lo and behold, here it comes again, making a beeline at me. This no doubt prompts me to pull some dance moves the likes of which no one has seen since the Dancing with the Stars bloopers tape as I try to figure out which way to contort myself to avoid the furry projectile. I didn’t have the right ones, it turned out. The little critter flew straight onto the calves of my jeans! This resulted in an involuntary all-mighty shake which in turn flung the winged creature back into flight. I was very grateful I’d happened to wear very loose, very thick jeans that day. If I’d been in shorts, I’d probably be going for rabies shots, “just in case”.
Two lessons in context. One, shorts – great for around the house in summer, not great for shopping! Two, bats – love ’em when they’re out at dusk eating mosquitoes, looking cool under the streetlights. Not cool as a fashion accessory!
Alright, I’m on the bandwagon, a vehicle I usually avoid when it comes to television. In many cases TV dramas that everyone’s talking about and are raved about with phrases like “appointment TV” or “brilliantly dark” thrown at them don’t seem to appeal to me at all. But this week, I’m on board with the critics because Adolescence is an extraordinary piece of cinema in every way. And the critics agree. It has a 99% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s already being touted for Emmys and in a few short weeks has become the fourth most-watched “series” in its streaming service’s history. Netflix has made a masterpiece here.
Adolescence is a British drama set very much in the here and now. It could be called a “crime drama” or maybe a “psychological thriller” but neither one does full justice to the extent of the show. Some wrongly call it a “Whodunnit?” but the show’s producers rightly say it’s much more of a “whydunnit?”. The answer to the “who” comes reasonably early on in the four episodes. Each one of the episodes covers one aspect of a horrendous crime that was committed on the streets of an unnamed north English city. And here’s the kicker, the “can’t look away for a second” thing that makes it an extraordinary experience to watch – each of the four, approximately one-hour episodes is shot in a continuous manner done in real time. There are no pauses or edits. It’s rather breath-taking the way the camera follows the actors wherever they go. No, “insert commercial break” then have an entirely different set hours later for the next scene. If the action begins in Point A and gets to Point B an hour later, we’re along for the ride to see how. And what transpired in that hour. It’s brilliantly done and as The Guardian newspaper puts it, “it’s no flashy gimmick.” It’s a unique technique that “ratchets up… the real time tension.”
It deals with, as I noted already a grisly crime, but then explores what led to it and some of the consequences it had that few would ordinarily think of. As such it’s a fine piece of psycho-analysis. The acting is first-rate and scarily believable; relatable even for the most part. By the first action sequence, about four minutes in, I was on the edge of my seat the rest of the way.
SPOILER ALERT : Now, I’ll give you an idea of what the show is about, and what each of the four episodes entails, but if you haven’t seen it, you might want to skip over to end of this post , where the italics end, so as not to lose any of the element of surprise when you do watch it… and you should do that. Even the video trailer might spoil some of the more intense moments the first time you see it.
The show involves a teen or tween girl who was viciously stabbed to death one night in a parking lot. Police quickly apprehend the suspect… a diminutive, cute lad a bit younger than the girl was. In the first episode, you are beside him as he gets taken into custody, processed and put into a police interrogation. His shaken dad is with him and wants desperately to believe in his child’s innocence, and does until he sees the evidence the police have.
Episode two takes the police to his school, to talk to his friends and other classmates as well as the teachers, some of whom appear entirely disinterested in their job or the kids’ goings-on. The lead detective has a son of his own in the same school, and gets to see what school is like these days, gets an inside look at just how important social media is in most of their lives and how bullying is an everyday occurrence, both on the yard and on their phones.
The third episode has a psychologist, played by a tough-on-the-outside when she needs to be, breaking on the inside young woman. Erin Doherty should win some sort of award for performance as “Briony”, the psychologist here. It’s right up there with the Silence of the Lambs interviews. She gets him to open up a little about his motivation, and what his life as a rather unpopular 13 year old is like; gets the full brunt of his mercurial mood swings.
The fourth episode is arguably the most wretching one, following the killer’s dad (played by Steven Graham, called “the best actor working today” by the Guardian) on his 50th birthday, about a year after the murder. We mostly know how a crime like this can rip apart victim’s families, this time we see the effects it has on the killer’s kin too as they try to maintain some normalcy but fear that’s too lofty a goal to ever achieve again.
Graham, one of the leads, came up with the basic idea for the show after noticing a string of violent crimes that were being committed around Liverpool, his hometown, by young “boys” most would assume too young and innocent to be cold-blooded killers. “I just thought ‘What’s happening? How have we come to this? What’s going on with society?” Good questions indeed, equally applicable on this side of the ocean.
Adolescence. Five stars, two thumbs up from me. Not a cheery watch, but a very intelligent, even-handed one shot in memorable fashion that will make you wonder “what’s going on with society?” as well. And more scarily, if you’re a parent, perhaps make you wonder “could that be my kid?” I hope the show starts a few family discussions that perhaps might stop that one kid from becoming “that kid.”
Everydave Life 