ADOLESCENCE - drop everything and see this.
Screenwriting Tricks for Authors
The internet is running out of superlatives for Adolescence, the new Netflix 4-part limited series brilliantly and inexorably dissecting toxic masculinity, misogyny, internet and real-life bullying, the failure of families and institutions to protect our kids, and so very much more.
Created and written by one of our greatest living actors (and caring dads), Stephen Graham; and socially-focused British playwright, television writer, screenwriter, and producer Jack Thorne (whose resume really needs to be looked up to be believed); and directed by Philip Barantini who co-wrote and directed the Stephen Graham-starrer Boiling Point, an excruciating look at a professional kitchen that out-tenses The Bear. (Why I, the non-foodie, should react so powerfully to these two cooking shows is a testament to the storytelling. In real life the stakes are, like, sub-zero to me.)
Adolescence presents four very differently focused episodes, all shot as oners, as Hollywood calls it: one single continuous take. In less expert hands this would be a gimmick; here it is used to ratchet up already unbearable tension, stakes and the feeling of total immersion in the world of the story.
Each of the four episodes is jaw-droppingly excellent on every possibly level (acting, writing, directing, production design, sound). It’s both ground-breaking television and a callback to the very best water-cooler television that used to get whole countries focused on a single hot-button issue. One critic - from NBC? – aptly called it “Peak social horror.”
If you haven’t seen it, the last thing I want to do is spoilers; and if you have seen it, I don’t have to tell you. It’s a master class in every aspect of creativity. Everyone who writes, or works in storytelling on any level — and anyone who has a child of any age in their life — should make a point of seeing it. With their children.
And I don’t just mean creatively.
The familial and national conversations 1 coming out of the viewing of this series have the potential to change laws and save lives.
I talk often here about my commitment to writing social and political issues — this series goes straight onto my Master List as a touchstone for me of how to do it for maximum impact.
And with all of us flailing for ways to break the grip of an administration that is the living definition of toxic masculinity, Adolescence demonstrates the power of narrative to do exactly that: to wake people up to the lethal horrors that our children are being exposed to, the extreme damage radicalized children do as adults — and the continuing consequences if we don’t collectively take action, like, yesterday.
Enough from me, because the only important thing is to see it. Then I’m very happy dying to discuss in the Comments. There is so much to unpack it might take a while…
What did you think?
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All material © Alexandra Sokoloff, Screenwriting Tricks for Authors
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx28neprdppo
I have mixed feelings about Adolescence. It was exceptionally scripted and technically breathtaking. But I worry about the response to it. I literally wrote the book [a book] about the way adult panics about youth often result in responses that don't serve young people themselves. i was begging our news desk, as we commissioned the millionth article about the series, to actually show it to a bunch of teens and ask them what they thought. As a culture we're very good at worrying about young people and very bad at listening to what they tell us are their own concerns.
Also, the young people I work with for my reporting on tech and knife crime have pretty varied and nuanced views on online misogynists, plenty of them doing take Tate etc that seriously, or like him for fitness tips but not his stuff on women. The toxic influencers that they talk about are the kids posting pics of themselves with knifes, it's a for more localised threat. But of course more broadly the influence of tech on kids' attitudes to sex and gender and sexuality is terrifying and corrosive - I guess I just want us to appreciate Adolescence as a piece of art rather than documentary.
Agree 100% and so glad you liked it.