It looks like Stephen Graham is continuing his winning streak with his latest TV offering, Adolescence.
The four-part drama premiered on Netflix on Thursday morning – and is noteworthy for two major reasons.
Firstly, it marks the first time that Stephen has co-created and co-written a project, and it also carries on a device first used successfully in his film Boiling Point by having all four episodes take place in one continuous shot.
Adolescence centres around a teenage boy who is accused of killing a girl in his class, and the aftermath this has on both him and the community.
Reviews so far have been absolutely glowing (even if critics are unanimous in saying that it’s a difficult watch), with some calling it a must-watch, and one of the stand-out TV offerings of 2025.
Here’s a selection of what critics are saying so far about Adolescence…
“[The 1980s drama A Wanted Man] was, and remains, the most devastating and immaculately scripted and played series I have ever seen – as close to televisual perfection as you can get. There have been a few contenders for the crown over the years, but none has come as close as Jack Thorne’s and Stephen Graham’s astonishing four-part series Adolescence […] a deeply moving, deeply harrowing experience.”
“Adolescence is brilliant. I can put it no other way. Every beat, every remark, every glance between characters, every angry or teary outburst in this four-part drama — each episode shot in one continuous take — is laden with authenticity and it is terrifying. Terrifying if you are the parent of a boy and terrifying if you are the parent of a girl.”
“If you’re a parent to a school-age boy, I don’t know whether I should advise you to watch Adolescence immediately, or avoid it at all costs, because it will chill your blood. It is a drama so quietly devastating that I won’t forget it for a very long time.”
“Sure, the production process behind Adolescence is impressive – if not ‘unique’ – and occasionally astonishing, but if the aesthetic had upstaged the narrative, the resulting series would have amounted to little more than a stunt. Fortunately, the camerawork mostly complements both a plot with unsettling contemporary resonance and the human characters, played exceptionally well by the likes of Stephen Graham, Ashley Walters, Erin Doherty and spectacular newcomer Owen Cooper.”
“This is not an easy watch […] But in what Adolescence has to say, and in how eloquently and audaciously it says it, it’s also among the very best things — and an early contender for the best thing — you will see on the small screen this year.”
“Possibly one of the most vital bits of television you’ll watch this year […] Each of those episodes is filmed in one continuous shot, which is mesmerising to watch – even as it leaves some questions tantalisingly unanswered.”
“The performances here are superb, with varsity weeping and real sense of heft and verisimilitude. Is it a weird time to engage in recreational misery? When there’s so much free, ambient despair to go around? Yeah, probably, but Adolescence is not agony for agony’s sake.”
“Adolescence, Netflix’s excellent new four-part series about a 13-year-old boy accused of murder, is frighteningly timely [and] an unsettling, chilling watch.”
“Adolescence isn’t just an entertaining series (though it is, in some warped way); it’s one of the most important series I’ve seen in a long time.”
“It helps a great deal that all four hours are anchored by excellent performers, especially Stephen Graham, who may have never been better than he is in this show’s final hour, when a father’s past, present, and future crash into an emotional pileup.”
“If you’re a parent, then prepare to be terrified by Netflix’s new four-part crime drama series Adolescence.”
“There is no doubting the intensity of that first episode. It is television in its purest distillation: unflinching, pulse-quickening. It caters both to our morbid fascination with crimes at the exotic extremes, and the sense of unravelling a moral knot. The fact that the rest of the series can’t quite match those heights is both a problem and a testament to the impact of that opener.”
All four episodes of Adolescence are streaming now on Netflix.
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