Featured Image Credit: Netflix/Paramount
Topics: Adolescence, Entertainment, TV And Film, Stephen Graham
Chloe Jackson
Topics: Adolescence, Entertainment, TV And Film, Stephen Graham
The dust has far from settled on Netflix's Adolescence, which proved to be a searing look at toxic masculinity, Incel culture and violence against women, and now fans are looking for other films or shows that examine similar issues as the one-shot miniseries.
Viewers are still reeling from Stephen Graham and Jack Thorne's four-part drama - which follows 13-year-old Jamie (Owen Cooper) who is accused of murdering his female classmate, Katie - and have been picking apart the main themes that underpin the show.
Each episode was filmed in one continuous, hour-long take, and tackles a number of important topics including misogyny, toxic masculinity, children's safety online and the 'manosphere', sparking wider conversation around who is really raising our children and how 'subtle' misogyny can trickle down the generations.
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Graham said he was inspired to make the series after learning about shocking real-life cases of knife crime, aiming to shed a light on the fact that this can happen to 'any' family.
"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," he told Netflix's Tudum.
"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."
As viewers reflect on what they watched, many have been turning to social media for recommendations of other TV shows and films that examine similar issues to those highlighted in Adolescence. And one film that started cropping up in Reddit threads was the 2011 psychological thriller, We Need to Talk About Kevin. Take a look at the trailer here:
Starring Tilda Swinton and Ezra Miller, the flick - based on Lionel Shriver's book of the same name - examines the fractured relationship between a mother and her son, who has been convicted of mass-murdering students at his school.
Similar to Adolescence, the chilling film presents us with a child from a 'normal' family who has committed unthinkable horrors, and how his parents attempt come to terms with his abhorrent crime.
Again, like Graham's Netflix series, We Need to Talk About Kevin forces viewers to question how much of the blame rests with parents - and what else could be the driving force behind these horrific acts.
Recommending the film to those who had watched Adolescence, one Reddit user commented: "I think the last episode [of Adolescence] is important because the whole show is about how a 'normal' teen can become a murderer.
"The last episode is showing that there isn't some simple Freudian explanation, he wasn't abused, there was no toxic masculinity, his dad was a nice, caring guy if a little aloof and with some anger issues (though not violently so).
"The point is that this isn't a problem that can just be solved in some classic movie final act, it's a complex issue with lots of moving parts. I'd suggest reading / watching We Need to Talk About Kevin which is another exploration of the same topic."
Others also compared the show to the 2011 drama, as a Twitter use wrote: "Adolescence. It's like a version of We Need to Talk About Kevin that focuses on the father. If you have a little knowledge about human psychology and behavioral sciences, you can see that the father is actually the older version of his son!"
Another agreed: "If yall liked Adolescence on Netflix watch We need to talk about Kevin movie and Defending Jacob series on Apple TV!!!!".