The four-part Netflix series “Adolescence” is already making waves after its debut on Friday, with many wondering if the tale of a teen who has been accused of killing a female classmate is based on a true story.
The young boy, played by Owen Cooper, is quickly revealed to be guilty of the crime in the first episode, and the series begins a larger, steeper dive into incel culture and gender violence that has been promoted by influencers such as Andrew and Tristan Tate.
“In the U.K., there’s a real problem with knife crime, certainly in the younger generation. There have been a series of of young boys who were killing young girls with knives, and it was really upsetting,” director Philip Barantini told TheWrap this month. “That was the seed that we wanted to explore, and send a bit of a message and maybe spark a bit of a conversation.”
Writer Jack Thorne also said he didn’t want to come up with a story that immediately blamed Jamie’s parents for his crime. “‘I don’t want to make this easy and blame the parents. I want to create a complicated portrait,” he explained. After a female colleague suggested he explore incel culture online, Thorne soon realized he had a starting point for Jamie’s radicalization.
The series also stars Stephen Graham, Owen Cooper, Erin Doherty, Ashley Walters, and Faye Marsay. Here’s what you need to know about the harrowing truth behind “Adolescence.”
Is “Adolescence” based on a true story?
The series’ creators have made it clear that “Adolescence” isn’t based on one specific story, but rather on several similar events in the U.K.
In March, Graham told reporters, “We’d been asked to create a one-shot piece which was going to be a series, so we were coming up with the possibilities of what we’d make it about, and I’d read an article in the paper about a young boy stabbing a young girl.”
“It made me feel a bit cold. Then about three of four months later, there was a piece on the news about a young boy who’d stabbed a young girl,” he continued. “They are young boys, they’re not men. And it was completely the opposite end of the country.”
Graham was in the car with Barantini when he came up with the idea for the show. And though it becomes clear early in the series that the boy at the heart of the show is guilty, Graham also said that he wanted to ask questions that extend beyond what did or didn’t happen.
“One of our main aims is that beautiful saying ‘it takes a village to raise a child.’ We didn’t want to point the blame at anyone specifically or in particular,” he also said according to Dexerto. “We wanted to say we’re all accountable in many ways for this kind of thing, be that parents, teachers, government, society, community.”
Graham didn’t cite the specific news stories that inspired the series, but there have been several such events in recent years. In January 2023 Axel Rudakubana, then 17, stabbed three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Liverpool.
In July 2024, a high school boy stabbed a female classmate at school in South Korea, and in 2016 then-16-year-old Daniel Stroud stabbed his 16-year-old classmate Bailey Gwynne. In November 2024, four boys (aged 14, 15, 16, and 17) and two girls (14 and 15) were arrested for attempted murder after another 13-year-old girl was found stabbed.
“Adolescence” ends with the young boy changing his plea from not guilty to guilty, and his parents coming to terms with what their son has done and what his future will be.
“In Episode 4, he’s much further along on his journey than before,” Thorne told Netflix. “Jamie now knows what he’s done and what his future might be. That allows him to put his feelings in a box and close the lid on himself in some way.”
“Jamie is always trying to impress his dad and make sure his dad is proud of him. But I don’t think he finds that,” Cooper said of the Jamie’s conclusion. “He’s obviously bothered about the plea, but he’s more bothered about his dad. Although he doesn’t want to let down his whole family, his dad’s at the core of his heart. Jamie doesn’t want to let Eddie down.”
