Netflix’s 'Adolescence' Doesn’t Get Half the Story

It’s easy to praise Netflix’s new drama series Adolescence.

Creators Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham have a skill not just for seeing a criminal drama through the “law” stage of booking and processing, but also for stewing in the stressful purgatory before the trial and “order” to explain how a 13-year-old kid killed his classmate. Director Philip Barantini purposefully adds to all this confusion, fear and questioning through an adrenaline rush of four episodes, each of which is shot so that the audience experiences it as one long take. No one will argue against the timeliness of the show’s topics, which discuss the struggles of kids in the internet age and how “bullying” doesn’t always look the way you think it does.

But there’s a quick bit of dialogue during the second episode that sets up the most problematic aspect of this drama.