Adolescence
Netflix
Netflix has a new series, Adolescence, that has debuted at #1 instantly, which is a touch surprising given its lack of promotion or big stars. But it does arrive with a perfect 100% critic score, one that may have been boosted if word of those stellar reviews spread around (and I personally did quite a bit of that).
Now I have seen the series in full, which is only four episodes, but you will soon understand why as you watch. It’s a crime drama about a teenager accused of killing his classmate, a concept perhaps we’ve seen before, but the hook here is that each episode is filmed in entirely one take. And we are talking about full 50-60 minute episodes here, and watching the series, I am wondering how this was remotely possible from a camerawork, staging and acting perspective.
Each episode focuses on a different point in this story, starting with the first day and ending months later, focusing on how the arrest affects the teen and his family. In terms of the way this is shot, for instance, the first episode opens with the SWAT team capture of the teen, films through the ride to the police station and goes through the entire booking and interview process in the course of an hour, all in real time, all in one continuous shot weaving back and forth between three or four characters, never breaking.
Adolescence
Netflix
The director of Adolescence, Philip Barantini, has experience with this concept, his one-take movie Boiling Point doing the same thing, and with the same actor, and now Adolescence co-creator Stephen Graham, who plays the boy’s father. But this is four separate hours in four very different kinds of locations. I have absolutely no idea how some of these shots were filmed, or what it might have taken to time out the events of these episodes. Furthermore, in one episode that is effectively a lengthy interview focused on two characters alone, they memorized an hour-long scene with no breaks or cuts at all, while acting the living hell out of it at the same time. It’s incredible work.
The show is hard to watch. Not because of the one-take concept, but because of the subject matter. As the father of a (young) son, this being “every parent’s worst nightmare” is gut-wrenching, and the emotional stages this family goes through is nothing short of absolutely brutal. But the end result is so compelling that it’s a must-watch for any fan of crime dramas, or really any fan of cinema, as this is something I’ve never seen to this extent before. Everyone involved should be applauded, and I cannot wait to see what Graham and Barantini do next.
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