Adolescence

Philip Barantini's Adolescence arrived on Netflix in March 2025 and became, almost overnight, one of the most discussed British dramas of the decade. Each of its four episodes unfolds in a single unbroken take, a technique Barantini had previously deployed in his 2021 feature Boiling Point, but never at this scale or sustained pressure. The series accumulated more than 96 million views in its first month and prompted a national debate in the UK about online radicalisation among adolescent boys.

The premise is brutally simple: thirteen-year-old Jamie Miller (a stunning Owen Cooper, in his first acting role) is arrested for the murder of a female classmate. Each episode shifts perspective (the dawn arrest at the family home, the school in the immediate aftermath, a forensic psychological assessment, and the family thirteen months later) and each is a single uninterrupted shot, including transitions across vehicles and through buildings. Stephen Graham, who co-created the series with writer Jack Thorne, plays Jamie's father with shattering restraint.

The technique is not showmanship: the unbroken take refuses the audience the editorial relief of cuts, forcing a continuous moral attention. Critical response was rapturous, with the series receiving Emmy and BAFTA nominations across the major categories. Its policy impact was immediate, with multiple UK schools using episodes as a teaching resource on misogynistic radicalisation.

Why it's an Editor's Pick: The most formally ambitious British television drama since the original State of Play, and the most uncomfortable. A series that demonstrates television can still surprise both technically and morally, and a generational watershed for the conversation about boys, screens, and violence.