Adolescence Creators Urge for Show to Be Aired in Parliament

The Netflix drama Adolescence's makers have stated that the show aims to "cause discussion and make change."

 

After watching multiple incidences of violence in the news, writer Jack Thorne and co-writer Stephen Graham, who also stars in the drama, decided to investigate the issue of young male wrath and what motivates it.

 

"I want it to be shown in schools and Parliament.  "It's vital because this will only worsen. "It's something that people need to talk about, and hopefully drama can help," Thorne remarked.

The series follows the Miller family, whose lives are upended when 13-year-old Jamie is jailed for murdering a female classmate.

 

Within a week of its debut, the four-part series became the most-streamed title in the UK and the United States.

 

Its story sheds attention on the adverse effects of social media and misogynistic influencers on some teenage boys.

 

Thorne said he had to look in some "dark holes" on the internet to create the show, but they were not difficult to find.

 

"This is a show about a child who does the wrong thing and causes significant harm.  To understand him, we must first comprehend his pressures," he remarked.

"Jamie has been polluted by notions he's heard online that make sense to him, have an appealing logic, answer questions about his loneliness and isolation, and drive him to make awful decisions.

 

"We have to understand the things he's been consuming, and that means especially looking at the internet, the manosphere, and incel culture," according to Thorne.

 

The term "manosphere" refers to websites and online forums that promote misogyny and hostility to feminism, whereas "incels" (short for involuntary celibacy) are men who blame women for their inability to find a sexual partner.

The child suspect Jamie is portrayed by newcomer Owen Cooper from Warrington, with Stephen Graham as his father.

 

Graham says he was motivated to create the show after seeing two separate stories about boys stabbing girls to death.

 

"I read an article in the paper about a young boy who'd killed a young girl, and three weeks later, I was watching the news, and there was a story of a young boy who'd stabbed a young girl to death," he told the BBC's Breakfast.

 

"It hurt my heart, and I thought, 'What's going on in society that this is becoming a regular occurrence?'"

"I just couldn't understand it. I decided to look closer and shed light on this situation.

 

Adolescence is Graham and Thorne's sixth collaborative project.

 

"Stephen kept saying throughout the process that it takes a village to raise a child.  "We started talking about how it takes a village to destroy a child," Thorne explained.

 

He stated that the show was not inspired by a single occurrence but rather by an issue "they kept seeing all the time."

 

"It could happen to anyone, and that's not saying anyone can be Jamie," he told me.

"It's about parents that didn't see him, a school system that let him down, and the ideas he consumed." This is an ordinary family and a typical environment, and what's conceivable right now is concerning."