Not since Mr Bates vs The Post Office has a TV programme been such a rich source of discussion, both for opening our eyes to a real world issue and for being truly compelling viewing. Whether Adolescence will have a similarly catalytic effect in action being taken to address its subject, as happened with the Post Office scandal, will be interesting to see. Keir Starmer has already backed suggestions Adolescence should be shown in schools.
Among those viewer discussions, a popular take seems to be that much of the sympathy lies with the boy who committed murder. This is a deliberate artistic choice. From our first introduction to Jamie as a scared child who has wet the bed at the fright of armed police storming his house, to the kind-mannered adults repeatedly telling him how well he’s doing as he gets booked at the station, along with the commendations of how bright a student he is — of course we are meant to feel sympathetic. And then as episode one reaches its climax, we are presented the chilling evidence that this child has lost his innocence and stabbed a girl to death. So shouldn’t our sympathy switch to her, now we know this?
