Tag Review

Watching TV with Mystery Man #2: Adolescence

Mystery Man Leave a comment

As is often the case with this blog, I’m writing about something sometime after the initial hype and attention surrounding it has died down a little, in this case the Netflix drama Adolescence, which caused such a stir that there were memes about people being arrested for not watching it, reflecting the reaction by certain people in the media to Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch having not watched the show.

So widespread was the attention given to the series that Prime Minister Kier Starmer advocated it being shown to school children across the country. Considering that the main focus of this blog is issues relating to men and boys, I felt I at least needed to watch the series to see what all the hype was about.

The series depicts the case of a 13 year old boy named Jamie being arrested for the killing of a girl of the same age named Katie which appeared to have been sparked by comments made online.

The series is divided into four episodes all about an hour long and which were filmed as a single, uncut take. I’ll write briefly about each episode individually so be prepared for SPOILERS if you are at all interested in watching the series.

Episode 1:

The first episode shows the arrest of Jamie early in the morning following the killing of Katie the evening before. We follow the DCI and DC as they and the police storm into Jamie’s family home to arrest him and take him to the police station. The camera follows Jamie as he is questioned by the police officer at reception where he chooses his father, Eddie, played by Stephen Graham, as his ‘appropriate adult’ and then subsequently meets the solicitor assigned to him. Following this, we see part of Jamie’s physical inspection and then finally his questioning by the DCI and DC about the murder. Jamie frequently denies to his father and the police that he killed Katie but the police eventually show Jamie and his father footage of Jamie attacking Katie on CCTV.

I think the single take technique works pretty well here as we, the audience, are like a fly on the wall watching the police procedural methods leading to Jamie’s interrogation at the end of the episode.

Episode 2:

The second episode, titled ‘Day 3’, follows the DCI and DC as they walk around Jamie’s school to question Jamie’s friends and one of Katie’s friends about the incident and what led to it. We witness the dysfunctions of the school as many of the children are noisy and undisciplined, the teachers are ineffective or not interested and the children spend most of the time watching videos rather than being taught by the teacher. Near the end of the episode, the DCI’s son, Adam, who attends the school, informs his father that Katie had messaged Jamie on Instagram and sent him emojis such as an exploding red pill implying that Jamie was an incel or involuntary celibate. This was in response to Jamie posting explicit comments about female models. It is revealed at the end of the episode that Jamie got a knife from his friend Tommy which may have been the murder weapon.

In this episode, I thought the single take style felt much more of a gimmick and was not really needed here. There were some moments in the episode which seemed to me to have been written simply to utilise the single take technique such as the fire alarm going off leading us to follow the characters outside. Later, the DCI chases after Jamie’s friend Tommy after he jumps out of the (ground floor) window when the DCI decides to question him again. This moment also seemed like it was just included to make use of the single take to create some action.

That being said, the episode concludes with an ambitious tracking shot of the camera moving above the school (by drone I assume) and moving towards the site of Katie’s death where Eddie, who only appears at the end of the episode, leaving some flowers at the memorial made for her.

Episode 3:

The third episode, which appears to have generated the most attention online as well as in the media, takes place 7 months after the murder and follows a psychologist named Briony, played by Erin Doherty, interviewing Jamie at a ‘training facility’ where she is providing an assessment of his case. After some initial jovial talk, Jamie becomes aggressive and threatening at times and tries to intimidate the psychologist. Briony asks him about his relationship with his father and his feelings about masculinity. Jamie mentions his father taking him to football matches although he did not enjoy it and there is some more talk about the online comments Katie had sent to Jamie. There is mention of the ’80-20 rule’ which Jamie agrees with. It is revealed in this episode that Katie’s comments on Jamie’s Instagram were in response to Jamie asking Katie out after a topless photo of her was circulated, causing Jamie to believe that she would feel vulnerable and accept. Instead, Katie rejected Jamie. At the end of the episode, Briony tells Jamie that this would be their last encounter which causes Jamie to becomes agitated and aggressive again.

From my own limited experience of encountering mental health patients, Jamie appeared to me to display symptoms of a personality disorder or some other psychological problem which makes the idea of Jamie being radicalised by the ‘manosphere’ unconvincing. This also makes the idea of Jamie being a representative of modern teenage boys also unconvincing and a little sensationalised.

Episode 4:

The final episode takes place on Eddie’s 50th birthday, 13 months after the killing and follows Jamie’s parents as they try to deal with the aftermath of their son’s crime. The atmosphere is initially light-hearted until Eddie and Manda’s daughter Lisa discovers that some other boys had spray-painted the word ‘nonce’ on Eddie’s work van. He decides to go to a hardware shop to buy some cleaning products to wipe the spray paint off but buys some paint instead. The man in the shop recognises him and says that he believes that his son is innocent. This causes Eddie to become agitated, which is exacerbated when he sees the boys who spray-painted his car outside the shop and attacks them. On the drive home, Jamie calls his father to wish him Happy Birthday and tells him he’s decided to change his plea from innocent to guilty. When the family return home Eddie questions if he is responsible for Jamie’s actions and we learn that Eddie’s father beat him as a child.

The series ends with Eddie bursting into tears as he looks around Jamie’s bedroom and tucks in a teddy bear on Jamie’s bed, essentially a surrogate for Jamie, and apologises to it.

Similar to Episode 2, the use of a single take again felt a bit unnecessary in this episode although it worked better here than in the school.

Summary:

Overall, Adolescence is a mini-series that has more style than substance. While the use of a single continuous shot in all four episodes was certainly impressive, it worked better in the self-contained environments of the police station and facility shown respectively in the first and third episodes than in the second and fourth ones. This technique is also not as ground-breaking as some people think. Alfred Hitchcock, after all, used a similar style in his film Rope back in 1948, albeit as a series of long takes stitched together. Other films which have used the same technique include 1917, Russian Ark and Boiling Point (which also stars Stephen Graham).

Similarly, while the acting was impressive for the most part, the content was fairly pedestrian. As I noted above, Jamie seemed to have some psychological issues which would contribute to his violent crime, but the series and the general reaction towards it implies that Jamie was a normal boy who turned violent by what he was viewing online. As Janice Fiamengo notes in her review of the show on her Substack, despite references to the ‘manosphere’ and Andrew Tate, the show never explores these topics beyond a brief mention, and takes aim at masculinity instead. The series implies that Jamie’s aggressive behaviour is a product of seeing his father’s own outbursts of anger, such as on one occasion destroying the family shed.

A cynical person might suggest that the inclusion of conversations about the internet was simply a way to draw viewers to the show rather than attempting any meaningful explanation to issues that affect boys like Jamie.

Adolescence could have easily just been a TV drama about a teenage boy killing a teenage girl and how his parents and the community react to it; the kind of drama you might watch on a Sunday evening on ITV. It may have received acclaim for its technical achievements and acting but wouldn’t have had the hype surrounding it had it not jumped on the toxic masculinity bandwagon.

In short, don’t feel like you have to watch this series unless you absolutely want to.

Watching TV with Mystery Man #1: Derry Girls (Part 3)

Mystery Man Leave a comment

Derry Girls is also interesting in its portrayal of fathers and father figures although we only see Erin’s and Claire’s fathers on the show. Unlike in many sitcoms, in which fathers are usually depicted as stupid, incompetent, selfish, crude or all the above, Gerry, Erin’s father, is often the most sensible member of the adult characters, who make up their own ‘gang’ alongside the main teenage characters. This group is usually the focus of the show’s subplots and consists of Erin’s parents Gerry and Mary, her Aunt Sarah and her grandfather Joe. In this group, Gerry is usually the voice of reason and often gets ridiculed and shouted down by the others, particularly his father-in-law Joe who has an intense dislike for Gerry.

Although Gerry has shades of the ‘henpecked husband’ comic stereotype – Mary is usually the more dominant parent towards Erin, reflecting the so-called ‘mammy culture’ prominent in Derry, or as Erin puts it in one episode: “Da’s (Dads) are in the pocket of Ma’s (Mums)” – Gerry is usually able to stand up for himself and Mary often tries to defend him from her father.

In Series 2 episode 3, the girls and James want to go to see the 90s boy band Take That in Belfast but are forbidden from going because there is an escaped polar bear on the loose (yes really). The girls try to talk Mary into letting them go (as Orla points out, the polar bear wouldn’t be able to get a ticket to the concert – “they sold out months ago!”) but Mary refuses. While Mary, Joe and Sarah are worried about the polar bear, Gerry believes their fear is overblown:

Gerry: The concert’s nowhere near the zoo.

Joe: But he’s not in the zoo anymore, is he, Simple Simon? He’s sauntering around Belfast, without a care in the world!

Sarah: Aye, keep up Gerry!

Gerry: What I’m saying is that it would be quite a lot of ground for him to cover.

Mary: They’re quick on their feet when they want to be, love.

The girls (and James) manage to get to the Belfast concert alone by tricking their mothers into thinking they are going to each other’s houses. The mothers realise at the end of the episode what their children have done and vow to punish them if they can get proof the girls have gone to the concert. Gerry, watching TV in the living room, sees his daughter and her friends during news coverage of the concert and just laughs quietly, implying he never tells his wife and the other mothers what he’s seen and is given a rare ‘win’ in the series.

James, like Gerry, performs a similar function in the main group of characters in that he is a bit of a punching bag for the others – particularly his cousin Michelle – but who often acts as a voice of reason as well. In Series 1 episode 2, Michelle accidentally sets some curtains on fire and tries to put out the fire by pouring alcohol on it! Although Erin points out the stupidity of this, it is James who thinks about getting a fire extinguisher to put it out. However, unlike, Gerry, James is less willing to stand up for himself possibly because he is more of a fish out of water having grown up in London rather than Derry. James nearly returns to London when his mother comes to see him and the girls are visibly upset at the news showing their fondness for him. Michelle, despite constantly berating James, convinces him to stay and tells him he’s a ‘Derry girl’ now.

Erin’s and Orla’s grandad Joe is also portrayed as a respected father figure. He is often seen looking after Erin’s baby sister and is looked up to by his granddaughters and daughters. An episode in the second series shows the girls attending a 1950s style American prom at their school and, as it’s an all-girls school, they have to invite a boy to attend the prom. Orla, takes her grandad Joe and says: “everyone kept saying you had to take a fella you really like and he’s the fella I like the most.”

Although Joe is regularly rude and hostile towards his son-in-law Gerry, which may mean he comes across to some viewers as an unlikeable bully, it is implied that Joe likes Gerry more than he lets on. A scene in the last episode of the first series shows the adults solemnly watching news on TV of a bomb attack. Joe comes in behind Gerry and puts his hand on Gerry’s shoulder – a nice piece of subtlety which is more effective than if Joe was shown openly expressing any affection towards him. One episode in the first series suggests that Joe feels competitive towards Gerry over who is the ‘man’ in the family of mainly women which might explain some of his belligerence towards his son-in-law.

In the final episode, which is set during the Good Friday agreement, Erin asks her grandad for advice on how to vote in the referendum on the agreement (this vote again is something I didn’t realise happened until I watched this show) as she is undecided. Erin asks Joe what if it’s doesn’t work and Joe responds:

“And what if it does? What if no one else has to die? What if all this becomes a ghost story you’ll tell your wains one day? Hmm? A ghost story they’ll hardly believe.”

The clip can be watched here.

Joe comes across here as a wise old patriarch whose advice Erin presumably takes. This is likely reflected in Lisa McGee’s own feelings of the Good Friday agreement – that it was ultimately a good thing. Columnists such as Peter Hitchens however, have viewed the agreement as an act of capitulation and surrender to the IRA on the part of the British as he explains here. As I said, I don’t enough about the Troubles to have a strong position either way but I can see both sides of this argument.

I was still a child when the Good Friday agreement was signed in 1998 which effectively ended the Troubles (although I only found out recently that the Omagh bombing occurred afterwards) so I don’t remember hearing about the conflict in Northern Ireland in the news and only experienced it in retrospect from lessons in school and college – this included having to watch the film Bloody Sunday in different classes on no less than 3 occasions! 

Other male characters on the show include Erin’s Great Uncle (and Joe’s brother) Colm, the young “down with the kids” priest Father Peter, cousin Eamonn (mentioned previously) and the unhinged corner shop keeper Dennis. Rather than being laughed at for being men, these male characters are funny because of their individual personalities. Uncle Colm, for example, is a man so boring that he makes a dramatic story about some IRA men who ambush him in his own home, tie him to a radiator and steal his van sound tedious to his listeners. This is also another example of the show’s contrasting the mundane with the dramatic as described in the first part.

Having looked at Lisa McGee’s Twitter/X page, she has all the ‘right on’ politics you would expect from a TV writer – i.e. feminist, pro-EU, etc. – and she appears to be friendly with certain establishment political figures such as Chelsea Clinton, the daughter of Bill and Hillary Clinton which led to a rather pointless cameo by Chelsea Clinton in the final episode (a reference to a previous episode set during Bill Clinton’s visit to Derry in 1995). That being said, McGee’s portrayal of male and female characters suggests to me that she likes at least some men and doesn’t have a chip on her shoulder about women’s issues.

McGee’s writing reminds me a little bit of that of John Sullivan, the writer of the classic sitcom Only Fools and Horses in that both shows feature memorable and larger-than-life characters who you can imagine being real people – and are no doubt based on real people – and who are specific to their respective locations of Derry and London. In other words, you cannot picture these characters existing in a different setting to the one they inhabit.

I expect teenagers in the future will be shown Derry Girls during lessons about the Troubles much like I had to watch Bloody Sunday although they may have a better time watching a sitcom than I did watching that particular film. I think the show will be remembered in years to come much like Father Ted still has a loyal cult following partly because Derry Girls already takes place in the past so will not be considered dated.

The show also does a good job of portraying female friendships without it coming across as solidarity against oppressive men unlike other films/TV shows I’ve come across which focus on women. This is probably because Northern Irish women (and men) had more important things to worry about such as whether they or their loved ones could be killed in a bomb attack rather than trivial feminist concerns like if there were enough women fighting in the IRA or British Army.

.