Each episode of the four-part drama series Adolescence (Netflix) was shot in a single continuous take. Paradoxically over the full course of the show, these one-take episodes collectively deliver multiple profound takes and perspectives on a tragedy as we experience the emotional fallout on varied fronts after a 13-year-old boy repeatedly stabs a girl and kills her in a fit of rage.
We are spared the unfathomable heartache, anger and despair suffered by the victim’s family as parents mourn their daughter. Instead Adolescence delves into territory that’s largely uncharted in a tragedy such as this–the ripple effect on the teenager accused of the knife crime, the police and professionals involved in the case, fellow high school students–including friends of the deceased girl–and the parents of the crime’s perpetrator.
The single-take lensing style follows the actors throughout, bringing us a compelling immediacy and spontaneity, immersing viewers in the lives of the characters. Newcomer Owen Cooper portrays Jamie Miller, the lad accused of the knife crime. Stephen Graham and Cristine Tremarco play his parents–with Amelie Pease cast as Jamie’s sister. Emeilia Holliday plays the stabbing victim, Katie Leonard.
Erin Doherty takes on the role of the clinical psychologist assigned to young Jamie as we are thrust into their therapy session in episode three at a youth detention center which unearths the anger and hatred within the boy whose vulnerabilities have been played upon by insidious manosphere influences online, fueling his fear that he will never have a romantic, sexual relationship–and placing blame on girls for his feelings of being desolate and inadequate. Ashley Walters portrays a soul-searching detective trying to make some semblance of sense out of the crime. He and his investigative partner, played by Faye Marsay, visit Leonard and Jamie Miller’s high school in episode two, meeting classmates, the principal and instructors. Along the way, Walters’ detective character encounters his son, a student at the school, and we see how their relationship has been impacted by the events.
Actor Graham teamed with Jack Thorne as writers-creators of the series, which was directed by Philip Barantini, a proponent of the single-take approach when applied to the right story. Barantini first experienced this storytelling technique when he saw the German crime thriller Victoria. He recalled that “the feeling it gave me,” akin to being “on a journey,” made an indelible impact. “It was relentless. The anxiety I felt, the tension that it brought was palpable. It was a very different experience than what I had watching movies in the past.” He and long-time colleague, cinematographer Matthew Lewis, then deployed that approach in a short film, Boiling Point, based on Barantini’s life as a chef. “I wanted it to feel real, visceral, quick paced,” recollected Barantini. “I wanted the audience to feel like they’re in the kitchen.” That short spawned the lauded feature Boiling Point, with Barantini and Lewis again going the creative/technical route of one continuous shot. The feature garnered four BAFTA Film Award nominations in 2022, including for Outstanding British Film of the Year and Best Leading Actor (Graham). Additionally Boiling Point won four British Independent Film Awards, one of which was for its cinematography.
For Adolescence, Barantini and Lewis once again tapped into what the director described as “an immersive” and “emotionally gripping” single continuous shot approach in which viewers are “thrown into this with the actors.” The audience, he continued, experiences the story in real time just as the characters are experiencing it.
A pivotal casting decision
Critical to Adolescence was finding the actor to bring Jamie Miller to life. Initially, related Barantini, he “wasn’t 100 percent certain we wanted to cast a 13 year old. We thought we needed someone a bit older because of the subject matter, the emotions and the journey he would need to go on.”
But after casting a wide net, which included 17 and 18 year olds, it became apparent, noted Barantini, that they needed a younger actor to optimize the believability of the story. Barantini and his trusted casting director, Shaheen Baig, viewed assorted audition tapes, narrowing the field down from 500 candidates to 20 and then winnowing that down further to four. Cooper was always at or near the top of the list but he was continually tested in order to make sure he was the one. Cooper had to go through multiple auditions which, said Barantini, started simple but then got harder and more complex. Barantini assessed that there was something “incredibly natural about Owen,” a quality of “just being and not acting. He had that organically. He hadn’t done a lot of training, just some acting classes. He had experienced nothing close to the paces we were going to put him through.” Barantini said that he and Baig found Cooper to be a gifted, nuanced performer who truly embraced the character of Jamie.
On the other end of the acting/collaborative continuum is Graham. Whereas Cooper was new to performing, Graham is a thoroughly seasoned actor, one whom Barantini had worked with to great effect in the past, including on the aforementioned Boiling Point feature. Perhaps best underscoring the gravity of Graham’s performance in Adolescence is the fourth and final episode where he and Tremarco, as Jamie’s parents, grapple with how they raised their son, what they did wrong, what they could have done differently. Framed by the one-take approach, Graham delivers a gut-wrenching portrayal of a father in anguish. Barantini noted that he didn’t want to depict the parents as evil. Rather, they are good people trying to come to grips with the unimaginable.
“I didn’t want a blame game,” affirmed Barantini, noting that a split second decision by Jamie took one life, and devastated the lives of many others. During a sequence in the fourth and final episode, Graham as Eddie Miller is seen in Jamie’s bedroom, hugging his son’s teddy bear. Barantini shared that a conscious decision was made to have Jamie’s bed bookend the series in opening and closing scenes. The first episode finds the police raiding the house and arresting Jamie who’s so terrified that he wets himself and the bed. Fast forward to episode four and we find Jamie’s dad in the very same bed, trying somehow to cope with what’s happened and taking stock of himself as a parent. The teddy bear is seemingly all he has left of his son who may never again come home.
This is also the bedroom where Jamie spent a countless amount of time online being bullied, cultivating misogy nistic feelings and gaining exposure to the incel subculture–all unbeknownst to his parents. The word “incel” is a label for heterosexual males who are not only “involuntarily celibate” but also blame their lack of romantic and sexual connection on society at large and particularly women. This is part of our journey through Adolescence where we get a chilling feel for the causes and effects of teen violence.
Barantini described the whole collaborative experience of Adolescence as being “a joy,” yet at the same time the story was terrifying and stirred up raw emotions. He noted that Adolescence is just the proverbial “tip of the iceberg” when it comes to the “dark world” of social media. Barantini’s biggest takeaway from the experience is that he wants and needs to “make sure that my daughter feels that she can talk to me openly.” It’s essential, he affirmed, that “I’m not somebody she can’t approach or open up to about whatever she’s feeling. It’s brought us all closer together.”
The show has also resonated on the awards show front. Last month, Adolescence topped the Gotham Television Awards tally with four nominations–for Breakthrough Limited Series, Lead Performance in a Limited Series (Graham), and Supporting Performance in a Limited Series (for Cooper and Doherty).
This is the third installment of SHOOT’s 16-part weekly The Road To Emmy Series of feature stories that explores the field of Emmy contenders, and then nominees spanning such disciplines as directing, cinematography, producing, editing, production design, casting, costume design and visual effects. The series will then be followed up by coverage of the Creative Arts Emmy winners and the Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony in September.
