Sun Mar 23 09:00:48 UTC 2025: ## Netflix’s ‘Adolescence’: A Gripping Crime Drama Exploring Docility and Control
**London, UK** – Netflix’s new British crime drama miniseries, *Adolescence*, is generating significant buzz, hailed as a “technical masterclass” and “peak television.” The show, which unfolds in a series of single-take episodes, centers on the arrest of 13-year-old Jamie for murder.
The first episode immediately plunges viewers into the sterile, procedural world of the police investigation, highlighting the calculated movements and measured speech of officers, lawyers, and medical personnel. This cold, mechanical rhythm, the author argues, reflects Michel Foucault’s concept of docility – individuals molded by subtle forms of control and surveillance. The characters, while appearing polite, are portrayed as cogs in a machine, their actions devoid of warmth, even when offering care.
Subsequent episodes expand upon this theme, examining docility in different institutional settings: a chaotic school where order momentarily emerges during a fire drill; and a children’s mental health facility, where Jamie’s interactions with a psychologist expose the psychological manipulation influencing his actions. The show doesn’t simply illustrate Foucault’s theories; it challenges and reinterprets them in the context of modern society, particularly exploring the influence of online misogyny and the role of technology in reinforcing control.
The final episode shifts the focus to Jamie’s family, questioning the impact of his father’s unchecked anger and the family’s failure to truly see and understand him. The show’s stylistic choice of continuous takes isn’t merely aesthetic; it’s a visual representation of the surveillance and control it critiques, implicating the viewer in the act of watching. Ultimately, *Adolescence* is a powerful exploration of docility, masculinity, and the insidious ways societal structures shape individuals’ behavior, leaving a lasting impression long after the credits roll.
First Piper 