When I sat down to watch Adolescence, my intention was only to watch the first episode. For the next four hours, I hardly moved from my couch. I was captivated from the jump, and there was no way I was going to get up before it was over.
If you haven’t seen it, Adolescence, which you can stream with a Netflix subscription, is a brilliant work of art in every way. It tells the story of a 13-year-old student accused of murdering a classmate in a working-class English town. While the third episode of the four-part miniseries has gotten its due praise, the second episode still has me thinking more than a week later.
‘It Just Looks Like A Holding Pen’
I’m not an expert on schools in the United Kingdom, but as Detective Luke Bascombe (Ashley Walters) and DS Misha Fran (Faye Marsay) walk through the school, investigating the murder, Bascombe makes an observation that hits home for this American. After interviewing some kids and touring the school, Bascombe asks his partner if she thinks the kids are learning anything. Then, he adds that the school “just looks like a holding pen.”
On the surface, the British school looks quite different from an American school in a big city, with its uniforms and lack of metal detectors. However, that line stands out because it's very similar to one of the themes of Season 4 of The Wire, which many consider the show’s best season. Former cop Bunny Colvin (Robert Wisdom) becomes a teacher of sorts in Season 4 and compares the middle school to prison, saying that the only thing the kids were being taught was how to work the system and fool authorities.
In the US, we worry about school shootings and other violence all the time. This doesn’t seem like much of a concern at UK schools (for many reasons I won’t get into), so it stunned me to hear a British cop echo an American cop. In America, we tend to think that our problems are unique, when, at least according to Adolescence, some British schools and students are not all that different. It's equally heartbreaking.
Like The Wire, Adolescence Is A Masterpiece
The Wire is my all-time favorite TV show. I’ve rewatched it multiple times, and I think all five seasons, yes even the controversial 5th season, are pretty much perfect television. While Adolescence is obviously much shorter, as a four-episode miniseries, I was equally blown away by it. The way it was shot, each episode all in one take, the emotional weight of the story it told, and the acting are all amazing.
I didn’t expect it would connect in such a visceral way for me as an American, nor did I expect it to remind me of The Wire in any way. It’s another bit of the series that ensures it will stay rattling around in my brain for weeks to come, I’m sure. Netflix’s 2025 schedule has already given us some great stuff, but this show is easily the best so far.
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