Adolescence - The TV Sensation
What can we learn from this?
I have deliberated about whether to write and share on the tv series Adolescence that everyone is talking about, because I know the subjects it covers are sensitive, complex and multi faceted. I don’t have any answers either, only questions, which is perhaps a good thing. I am also a bit hesitant because I know how reactive some people can be, (especially if a topic touches a nerve), and I don’t fancy someone scrawling WANKER with yellow paint across the side of my black Vauxhall Astra. However, I’ve always been one for practicing what I preach, so with a deep breath and a bit of Bambi-legged courage, here goes…..
First off I am going to assume that you at least know the premise of this Netflix 4 part tv show, which was co created and co written by the exceptionally talented, Steven Graham and Jack Thorne. If you haven’t seen it, then perhaps save this piece to read until you have, and brace yourself, because it is an intense and heartbreakingly tough watch. Not least of all because it covers subjects of child peer to peer murder, misogyny, violence, unhealed family wounds and their impact, masculinity in crisis, and denial as a trauma response and coping strategy. And SO much more. I watched the bulk of the episodes back-to-back and on my birthday no less. What can I say? Understanding the human condition is my drug of choice these days.
So I write this piece still very raw from my viewing experience, without having had the proper time to process and integrate it all. I know I need to watch it again, because I have no doubt missed some of its core messages and teachings, due to my need to intermittently dissociate whilst watching, in order to be able to cope. (I also ate a lot of goats cheese). I am using my writing here to help me process all that it has brought up for me so far. I’m sure I’ll make a lot of blunders, perhaps even offend some of you, and of course I may well have missed the point entirely in certain areas. However, as always with my offerings on here, I am not suggesting that I am right in what I write, nor that what I share is true or the only perspective. I am simply trying to make sense of what I watched, and perhaps there might be something in this for you too.
Or not.
I am also very aware that the subject matter is one close to my heart, as someone that grew up in a family with a long line of men carrying so much unhealed trauma, misogyny and rage that it bled out all over us kids and our mum. Quite literally. So, despite decades of healing on this, I am conscious that my viewing lens might still be a little ‘misty’. So please take all this into consideration as I share with you a few of my initial reflections….