We have a bit of a specialist industry here in the UK when it comes to top-level but very depressing crime dramas that are absolutely drenched in realism. Over the last decade the country has become a superb producer of these popular shows, which are often unbelievably stressful to watch, and Netflix just unveiled a new example that looks terrific in every sense.
Adolescence stars the inimitable Stephen Graham, who is literally always brilliant in everything he appears in, as the father of a child who's arrested and accused of playing a part in a heinous crime. It looks like it'll go into real detail on what it's like to live through this sort of thing as a parent, and also take a microscope to the societal forces affecting boys today, when it arrives on Netflix on 13 March.
From what the trailer divulges, Eddie Miller (Graham) will find himself at the centre of the police's investigation when he's named as his son's 'appropriate adult', which means he sits in on every interview and interrogation as a guardian. That gives him full visibility of what his son's being accused of, and of how his son actually handles those accusations.
That son is just 13 years old, at a vulnerable age in terms of hormones and the titular process of adolescence, and it's clear that the show will also look at how boys of school age are being brought up to think potentially heinous things by an online 'manosphere' of toxic influencers and misogynists.
Of course, this being a crime drama, we'll also to get to see the police's point of view as they investigate the whole affair, and with one of them (Ashley Walters) having a son of his own, he'll clearly have his own concerns mixed in. Erin Doherty, meanwhile, will play the psychologist assigned to the case, and she'll clearly have some interesting and upsetting interviews with the boy in question.
For those who love these sorts of gritty dramas, then, Netflix might be about to add one that'll make it even more powerful in the race to be the best streaming service on the market. I have to admit that I find these shows incredibly hard to watch – I don't mind a dark detective story (and I love True Detective for that reason), but those set in the UK just feel a little too credible and close to home for me.
