* Teen murder, Social media pressure, toxic masculinity.….
ON the very day that my son turned 13, as the "teenager in the house sympathy messages piled up and I wondered how my baby was suddenly taller than me, a new drama was released that terrified me to my very core.
Netflix's latest ratings hit Adolescence tells the devastating story of a family's world being turned upside down when their 13-year-old son is arrested for the murder of a girl at his school.
Of course, it's highly unlikely that your sweet little boy is going to head out one day and kill someone, but this very clever crime thriller shows just how possible that might be.
By the end of the series, I had all but decided that the best course of action was probably to tell my son Josh that we're all moving to a cave somewhere incredibly remote with no wi-fi.
Created by actor Stephen Graham and screenwriter Jack Thorne, the drama explores frightening themes of social media, toxic masculinity and misogyny.
image [https://cdn.magzter.com/1583517504/1742004687/articles/LY2FY4kDv1742012568415/0949644907.jpg]
Through intense, one-take, real-time episodes, we find out that while parents might think their child is safe in their bedroom, out of harm's way they could in fact be being sucked into a dangerous, hate-filled virtual world that can spiral out of control.
So, as the huge, foil '13' balloons bobbed up and down in the corner of my living room, I bingewatched the four gripping hours of television, that brought me out in a cold sweat - and had me vowing to ban all devices forever.
Of course, any parent of a teen will know trying to control and manage the relentless onslaught of apps and devices that continue to morph and twist out of reach is like trying to boil the ocean - futile, desperate, pointless.
Stephen, who plays the boy's dad, said: "We could have made a drama about gangs and knife crime, or about a kid whose mother is an alcoholic, or whose father is a violent abuser.
"Instead, we wanted you to look at this family and think, 'My God... this could be happening to us.
"And what's happening here is an ordinary family's worst nightmare." Yep, thanks Stephen, it worked. I won't sleep again, but don't worry, I probably wouldn't have done anyway.
image [https://cdn.magzter.com/1583517504/1742004687/articles/LY2FY4kDv1742012568415/2902900976.jpg]
As the parent of a boy and an 11-yearold girl (aka tween), my list of worries is already long enough to fill several tomes.
Things I am already anxious about: health, injury, teeth, friendships, school work, down time, phones, social media, no social media, grooming, trolling, Snapchat, gaming, screen time, sleep, nutrition, catching the bus alone, not enough independence, too much independence, bullying, peer pressure, natural disasters... I could go on and I'm always open to new ones.
Then, as they get older, the joy is you can worry less about play dates, healthy snacks and the annoying woman on the PTA, and more about drugs, alcohol, body image, mental health and 'Where the hell are they?' and 'Oh my God, should they really be driving?' I'm having a breakdown just thinking about it.
It's fair to say, we all already fear for the future of our children, and this unsettling drama takes that fear and runs with it all the way to the most devastating of consequences.
i...
ON the very day that my son turned 13, as the "teenager in the house sympathy messages piled up and I wondered how my baby was suddenly taller than me, a new drama was released that terrified me to my very core.
Netflix's latest ratings hit Adolescence tells the devastating story of a family's world being turned upside down when their 13-year-old son is arrested for the murder of a girl at his school.
Of course, it's highly unlikely that your sweet little boy is going to head out one day and kill someone, but this very clever crime thriller shows just how possible that might be.
By the end of the series, I had all but decided that the best course of action was probably to tell my son Josh that we're all moving to a cave somewhere incredibly remote with no wi-fi.
Created by actor Stephen Graham and screenwriter Jack Thorne, the drama explores frightening themes of social media, toxic masculinity and misogyny.
image [https://cdn.magzter.com/1583517504/1742004687/articles/LY2FY4kDv1742012568415/0949644907.jpg]
Through intense, one-take, real-time episodes, we find out that while parents might think their child is safe in their bedroom, out of harm's way they could in fact be being sucked into a dangerous, hate-filled virtual world that can spiral out of control.
So, as the huge, foil '13' balloons bobbed up and down in the corner of my living room, I bingewatched the four gripping hours of television, that brought me out in a cold sweat - and had me vowing to ban all devices forever.
Of course, any parent of a teen will know trying to control and manage the relentless onslaught of apps and devices that continue to morph and twist out of reach is like trying to boil the ocean - futile, desperate, pointless.
Stephen, who plays the boy's dad, said: "We could have made a drama about gangs and knife crime, or about a kid whose mother is an alcoholic, or whose father is a violent abuser.
"Instead, we wanted you to look at this family and think, 'My God... this could be happening to us.
"And what's happening here is an ordinary family's worst nightmare." Yep, thanks Stephen, it worked. I won't sleep again, but don't worry, I probably wouldn't have done anyway.
image [https://cdn.magzter.com/1583517504/1742004687/articles/LY2FY4kDv1742012568415/2902900976.jpg]
As the parent of a boy and an 11-yearold girl (aka tween), my list of worries is already long enough to fill several tomes.
Things I am already anxious about: health, injury, teeth, friendships, school work, down time, phones, social media, no social media, grooming, trolling, Snapchat, gaming, screen time, sleep, nutrition, catching the bus alone, not enough independence, too much independence, bullying, peer pressure, natural disasters... I could go on and I'm always open to new ones.
Then, as they get older, the joy is you can worry less about play dates, healthy snacks and the annoying woman on the PTA, and more about drugs, alcohol, body image, mental health and 'Where the hell are they?' and 'Oh my God, should they really be driving?' I'm having a breakdown just thinking about it.
It's fair to say, we all already fear for the future of our children, and this unsettling drama takes that fear and runs with it all the way to the most devastating of consequences.
i...
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Daily Record (Digital) - 1 Issue, March 15, 2025