Netflix’s limited series Adolescence, co-created by Stephen Graham and Jack Thorne, has critics and viewers talking about more than its extraordinary technical prowess. A show that begins when a young boy is arrested for the murder of his classmate, Adolescence sparks a conversation Graham told Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show on Wednesday the production team intended people to have.

“As a collective, we didn’t want it to be a whodunnit, we wanted it to be more of a why,” Graham told Fallon. “I read an article in the paper. It was about a young boy who stabbed a young girl to death. A couple of months later on the news there was a piece about a young boy who stabbed a young girl to death. And these were at opposite ends of the country. If I’m really honest with you, Jim, it hurt my heart.

“I just think what kind of a society are we living in at the moment where young boys are stabbing young girls? And you know that beautiful saying, ‘It takes a village to raise a child?’ Well, I just thought, what if we’re all accountable? The education system, parenting, the community, the government,” Graham said. “I’m not blaming anyone, I just thought maybe we’re all accountable and we should have a conversation about it.”

Adolescence is streaming now on Netflix.

Topics The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon