THE KIDS ARE NOT ALRIGHT

THE first thing I did after watching Adolescence was call up my young niece, urging her to check it out immediately.

- NAMRATA JOSHI

The British crime drama mini-series, streaming on Netflix, is an authentic, searing portrayal of the hardships of growing up in an age when the digital world and social media don't just overshadow the real but manipulate and maul it in disquieting ways. It also speaks to the guardians in all of us, aware of the stresses that today's young must face and anxious for not being able to help and support them effectively enough. It's about the worst of our nightmares getting real. 13-year-old Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper) is accused of the murder of his classmate Katie. As the cops, solicitor, therapist and family try to piece together the puzzlewhat really happened, why and how the sordid, disturbing details come to the fore in a most agonising way. Directed by Philip Barantini and cowritten by Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham, who also plays Jamie's dad, Eddie Miller, Adolescence is being talked about the most for the ingenuity of shooting every episode in real-time and in a single take. How would it have been accomplished and what would it have entailed, not just when it comes to the technical teams behind the camera, especially cinematographer Matthew Lewis, but also the brilliant ensemble (props to casting director Shaheen Baig) being filmed.