“Adolescence,” Netflix’s latest hit, follows the fallout of 13-year-old Jamie Miller’s (Owen Cooper) arrest for the murder of a female classmate.
Critics are saying “Adolescence” is “complete perfection” and harrowing, hard-to-watch look at the challenges and pitfalls facing young people on the internet.
The action kicks off straight away. Three minutes into Episode 1, the police barge into a seemingly normal home in England, guns at the ready.
After passing by Jamie’s parents — Manda Miller (Christine Tremarco), who drops to the ground in her bathrobe, and Eddie Miller (creator Stephen Graham) — the police arrest Jamie, still underneath the bed covers.
Jamie, looking very childlike, pleads his innocence. But the police searching the house for evidence imply he could be capable of a gruesome crime.
What is Jamie accused of? And what could have pushed him toward it? Below, find out the inspiration behind this intense story.
Is ‘Adolescence’ based on a true story?
Stephen Graham, the show’s co-creator who also played Eddie Miller, told Netflix’s press site Tudum that a series of recent stabbings by boys inspired the tale.
“There was an incident where a young boy (allegedly) stabbed a girl,” Graham said. “It shocked me. I was thinking, ‘What’s going on? What’s happening in society where a boy stabs a girl to death? What’s the inciting incident here?’ And then it happened again, and it happened again, and it happened again. I really just wanted to shine a light on it, and ask, ‘Why is this happening today? What’s going on? How have we come to this?’”
Fifteen-year-old Elianne Andam, for example, was stabbed to death in London in September by Hassan Sentamu, then 17. Sentamu was sentenced to a minimum of 23 years in prison per a March court sentencing.
Graham said with the show, of his goals was to answer the question, “What is happening to our young men these days and what are the pressures they face from their peers, from the internet and from social media?”
“And the pressures that come from all of those things are as difficult for kids here as they are the world over,” he continued to tell Tudum.
Stephen Graham as Eddie Miller in “Adolescence.” Netflix
Graham told Rolling Stone that when he sees these stories of kids committing violent acts on the news, he knows he’s “not alone in blaming the parents sometimes.”
Because of this, he wanted to create a narrative where the crime decidedly isn’t the parents’ fault.
“I thought to myself, ‘What if it’s not the parents?’ I wanted the dad to be a hardworking man, the kind of man that I was brought up with, like my uncles and my dad, who used to go to work at, like, 6 in the morning and not get home till 8 o’clock at night, Monday to Friday,” he told the publication.
“I didn’t want him to be a violent dad who would raise his hand to his children. It’s the same for the mum too; we imagined her as a manager for John Lewis. Let’s take all of those normal common denominators away from the table, and let’s just concentrate on something that’s happened with the boy here.”
Stephen Graham as Eddie Miller and Owen Cooper as Jamie Miller in “Adolescence.”Netflix
Instead of his parents, it’s the internet, and certain radical groups, that have an impact on Jamie. He was inspired by looking at his own son’s interactions with friends and social media use.
“It was just about looking at the influence that certain people can have upon our children without our knowledge,” he said.
As an example, Graham said his son sent him a workout video. A few days after watching the video, his algorithm showed him the same creator, this time spouting “misogynistic opinions and views.”
“I was able to say ‘Yeah, that’s not for me,’ but what if I was a 13-year-old boy who didn’t really have an ideal relationship with my father, and all of a sudden I’m seeing this man who has everything I aspire to have — a fancy car and loads of money — this man who is everything I, maybe, aspire to be. If you’re influencing the youth with your own views and opinions, then surely you know that we need to be mindful of what’s being said?”
As for a project as a whole, Graham tells Rolling Stone it’s something he’s “very proud to have been a part of.”
“I just hope it can raise some extremely important conversations,” he added.
