Quik review: Netflix Adolescence

[Doug Eastick]

British cop show about an adolescent murder. I'm only two episodes in.

Interesting characters and mystery. Also kinda nice to see a different justice system rather than referring to Miranda or amendments :).

The cinematography seems to use one long steady continuous steadicam shot for a whole episode.    I'm starting, I think, to see where they make either cuts (panning walls, passersby ) or digital fades).  Either way, still fascinating to watch. 

/Doug
eas...@mcd.on.ca

[Adam Bowie]

The episodes are indeed all "one-ers" as they call them. Each episode was rehearsed for two weeks before they shot it in a single take. I don't believe any trickery was used to hide edits.

The director has worked before with actor/creator Stephen Graham, in this style on the movie Boiling Point, set behind the scenes at a restaurant. That too was a single take. (The spin-off TV series did not use the same technique).

That all said, I've still to watch Adolescence, although writer/co-creator Jack Thorne has an incredible resume, including everything from Toxic Town on Netflix to the Harry Potter stage show.

Adam 

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[Doug Eastick]

Fascinating.

Well near the end of episode two there must be a camera handoff from a steadicam support to a drone or chopper for a high altitude flyover transition from one plot area to another plot area. 

/Doug
eas...@mcd.on.ca

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[Adam Bowie]

I've now seen this miniseries, and it's truly exceptional. Magnificent acting from everyone, especially the young kid, Owen Cooper, who's making his screen debut as the subject of the whole series. The second episode set in a school is a technical tour de force with hundreds of school kids as extras being moved around classrooms and playgrounds, and it examines some very relevant aspects of society. The third is the simplest of the four episodes, yet is easily the most powerful, essentially being a remarkable two-hander. 

Highly recommended.

There's also a bit more floating around about how this series was actually made. As I mentioned, each episode really was done in a single shot. And yes, they attached the camera to a drone at the end of episode two to get the flight over to the car park. Netflix has posted a video showing how it was achieved: https://x.com/NetflixUK/status/1901617851192033326

Each episode was first carefully rehearsed in short segments until they'd put together the full hour. Then they had multiple attempts at filming the whole episode. I believe the idea was they have five filming days for the episode with one take in the morning and a second in the afternoon. But in reality, fluffs and mess-ups meant more than 10 takes for many episodes. According to Netflix the takes used were:

Ep 1 - Take 2 - shot on shoot day 1 of 5
Ep 2 - Take 13 - shot on shoot day 5 of 5
Ep 3 - Take 11 - shot on shoot day 5 of 5
Ep 4 - Take 16 - shot on shoot day 5 of 5

Adam

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[Doug Eastick]

12 minutes explaining it.

youtube link

The Making Of Adolescence In One-Shot | Netflix

[Adam Bowie]

Be warned that there are lots of spoilers in that video! 

Watch after you've seen the series.

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[Doug Eastick]

When I had started this thread, I had watched 2 of the 4 eps.    We just finished 3 and 4.    OMG 3 and 4 are so intense and emotional.    

Give those actors BAFTAs, SAGs, Emmys, whatever they qualify for. 

Holy moly what a series.    

/Doug
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[PGage]

It’s just stunning. The single take episodes in one way are a bit of a distraction, as it is hard not to be taken out of it wondering how they did it. But mostly it deepens the storytelling, and it is almost like watching 4 one hour plays. I wonder what it would have been like to use takes where there were a few flubs? And I too was totally obsessed with how they got all those background teenagers to hit their marks.

Most of the actors are superb, and I agree Owen Cooper is amazing (I read he was not a professional actor), but, maybe because I am a father, I was most deeply effected by Stephen Graham (also co-creator and co-writer). Graham is always attention getting in his previous work, but I never dreamed he was capable of this depth of subtlety and complexity.

This is the kind of show that if you don’t have a Netflix subscription you should get one for a single month just to watch this (and then maybe a couple of seasons of “Is it Cake”).

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[Kevin M.]

I’ve watched the first two episodes. The writing is above average, the acting less so. 

Critics are remarking about the ability of the actors to do what they do in a single cut, as if such feats weren’t routine in a few thousand years of live theater. People still marvel at SNL being live, even though that’s how most TV was done for a couple of decades in the so-called golden age. 

I’ll keep watching for the story, but the visual gimmick isn’t adding anything. The technology allowing them to do it has come a long way since “Russian Ark”, which is impressive, but it isn’t needed, and as PGage wondered about using alternate takes, I think the acting might be better if the actors were able to offer a few versions of scenes instead of being locked into one take in this format. 

Kevin M. (RPCV)

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[Adam Bowie]

Here's a thing - in the week ending March 16, Adolescence was the most watched show on UK television overall! 

The first episode got 6.45m viewers over 7 days (the measure the UK ratings body uses for weekly top tens). 

To be clear, this is not just number one in streaming, but all of broadcast too. That's bigger than any other show - drama, sport or anything that aired in the UK that week. Episode 2 was the second biggest show, with episodes 3 and 4 both in the top 10 as well. The first two episodes were just ahead of the UK version of The Apprentice (Just renewed for three more seasons!) and Death in Paradise.

Obviously, it's a British show, so if it's going to do especially well anywhere, it's here. But this is the first time that Netflix has had the #1 show on all UK TV in ratings measurement history in the UK. 

To put this into perspective, this calendar year, only Harlen Coben's Missing You (also British), and Squid Game (definitely not) had cracked the top UK 20. 

Note that this is the number of viewers and it's not based on Netflix's own internal numbers. BARB, the body that measures TV ratings in the UK is our version of Nielsen using a combination of technologies to measure viewing in around 6,000-7,000 households. 

I note that in the US, Nielsen uses different measures for streaming shows (millions of minutes) vs 'television' shows (millions of viewers), making comparisons trickier. And the streaming data comes with a month's delay. Also, looking at the equivalent Nielsen week for TV, the number one show was Tracker with 8.5m viewers in a country about 5x the population of the UK. So that puts the success of Adolescence here into context.

Adam (who does love his stats)

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