03/25/2025
There’s a lot of discussion about the show “Adolescence” on Netflix. Here’s what happened when I watched the series with my 15-year-old son:
😲 We were in awe. This four-part series, each episode shot in one take, drew us into the layered family and community dynamics that unfolded after a 13-year-old boy named Jamie m—rd—red his classmate, Katie. This show didn’t rely on sensationalized or graphic scenes to tell the story. Just raw emotions, honest and often hard conversations within human moments. We witnessed each one of them, together.
💡 We learned... what it can be like to be a young teen, boy, girl, a helping professional, teacher, parent, and community in this age of social media. We witnessed moments that influence a person’s inner voice, body image, self-esteem, sense of belonging, triggers, actions toward themself and others. We learned the complexities of being human in today’s highly digital world.
💭 We talked...a lot. Pausing the video frequently to make space for our reactions and processing. In the pauses we talked about family, social media, bullying, misogyny, the legal system, toxic masculinity, emojis, feelings, parenting, intergenerational trauma, fear, loneliness, beauty standards, race, school systems, white privilege, anger, and love. We had important, brave conversations.
💜 We felt. Episodes 3 and 4 had us meeting eyes with each other countless times as we watched the interactions unfold. It was a lot, but it wasn’t too much. It was real and felt. By the final scene, we were both with watery eyes. The empathy and compassion we experienced was important. We felt many emotions, many times, together.
🥰 We connected. We enjoy watching shows together, and what made this unique is it felt like we were watching behind the scenes of people’s real lives, moments we don’t typically get to witness. My son’s first words as the credits rolled were, “That was powerful.” I agree, and I feel grateful for the connected experience we had watching this show together. We hope more families take time out to watch and connect too.
⭐ If you’ve watched the show, what was your experience like? What talks did it spark?