Adolescence

[mackenzie]

I agree, just watching E4 now and it's all seemed pointless.

What I don't understand is how, 7 months later the can have a Psychologist assessing him for a judges pre-sentence report, yet 14 months later they're talking about him changing his plea...

There is no real information about the crime.

I think this was just an exercise in doing single shot programs which is an achievement in itself but it could've been better content and storyline.

I honestly think it was the 4 episodes that detracted from it. Maybe better as a film or even 8 episodes. Just felt that it signposted a lot of issues that we already knew about.....and that was it.

 

[Kompany Car]

My take for what it's worth:

Kids are mollycoddled at school now from day one. Of course, everything was always better in my day/your day etc. but when I was in school (the early/mid 90s) if we weren't pulling our weight we got pulled up on it, it'd get mentioned in school reports/parents evenings and we'd get a bollocking at home, at least I would. Now teachers can't say or do anything because of how it might affect a kid's mental health*. Don't get me started on 9th place ribbons at sports day either.

Problem with the above is when kids enter the real world they're not used to any rejection or harshness and have no idea how to deal with it.

*Please don't think for one minute I'm playing down mental health because it is a thing, but we're talking primary school age kids here.

I generally agree that we are, as a society, we are failing to make people resilient, the problem is there used to be a bit of a sanctuary from life in general and the harsh realities within the home or whilst out with friends. Now social media makes it 24/7 with no place to hide.

We had an incident at work a few months back where a graduate, didnt do something quite right which resulted in some financial losses. They got pulled up on it by a manager and in the nicest possible way explained what she had done wrong and what additional training she needed to do along with how she could help develop a process to stop a similar thing happening again.

This wasn't a disciplinary, just a general chat. The following week she went off sick citing mental health and saying that the whole experience had affected her and that she now feels unable to do her job. This is someone who came to the business with a 1st from a top university. Three months later she is still off sick.

 

[mexico1970]

I honestly think it was the 4 episodes that detracted from it. Maybe better as a film or even 8 episodes. Just felt that it signposted a lot of issues that we already knew about.....and that was it.

We seem to be good at talking and navel gazing these days and not much actual doing, most of the problems youngsters are facing in down to a lack of honesty from the people in their lives or their peers.

Everyone is equal until they are not.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

My take for what it's worth:

Kids are mollycoddled at school now from day one. Of course, everything was always better in my day/your day etc. but when I was in school (the early/mid 90s) if we weren't pulling our weight we got pulled up on it, it'd get mentioned in school reports/parents evenings and we'd get a bollocking at home, at least I would. Now teachers can't say or do anything because of how it might affect a kid's mental health*. Don't get me started on 9th place ribbons at sports day either.

Problem with the above is when kids enter the real world they're not used to any rejection or harshness and have no idea how to deal with it.

*Please don't think for one minute I'm playing down mental health because it is a thing, but we're talking primary school age kids here.

I couldn't disagree more. I went to school in the 70s and 80s and bullying was basically part of the fabric of youth. Everyone had to live with it and the teachers didn't care and in some cases contributed. Now I've brought up kids and I'm the coach of a youth football team and bullying is massively reduced and schools come down on it like a ton of bricks. Being a bully has a stigma now. It used to be practically a badge of honour.

 

[CTID1988]

I thought it was boring shite with any "message" just shoehorned in there and slapping you in the face with it. The people saying its genius won't be able to give you a specific reason, they're just parroting what other people have said.

Going to really wind people up now and say I think Stephen Graham is a shite actor. His attempt at natural acting takes me out of anything he is in and his upset face does my head in

 

[mexico1970]

I thought it was boring shite with any "message" just shoehorned in there and slapping you in the face with it. The people saying its genius won't be able to give you a specific reason, they're just parroting what other people have said.

Going to really wind people up now and say I think Stephen Graham is a shite actor. His attempt at natural acting takes me out of anything he is in and his upset face does my head in

I agree with what you say in general but Graham played an outstanding part in Taboo.

 

[Nevizade]

I generally agree that we are, as a society, we are failing to make people resilient, the problem is there used to be a bit of a sanctuary from life in general and the harsh realities within the home or whilst out with friends. Now social media makes it 24/7 with no place to hide.

We had an incident at work a few months back where a graduate, didnt do something quite right which resulted in some financial losses. They got pulled up on it by a manager and in the nicest possible way explained what she had done wrong and what additional training she needed to do along with how she could help develop a process to stop a similar thing happening again.

This wasn't a disciplinary, just a general chat. The following week she went off sick citing mental health and saying that the whole experience had affected her and that she now feels unable to do her job. This is someone who came to the business with a 1st from a top university. Three months later she is still off sick.

Yep. I was recently offered a promotion in work which would have been from trainer to department manager. Turned it down because I know from a man-management point of view I can't manage how I would like for the above reason, whereas as I trainer I really know my stuff and I can leave people regularly being late or turning up in unsuitable work attire to someone else.

 

[mr t]

What a tough watch.
One of my mates teaches the same age group and they said this is a fair reflection of what’s going on in their school.
They said that so much goes on online in out of school hours and it carries on during the school day.
This had led to what they call an ever increasing army of pastoral / emotional wellbeing people being employed to safeguard pupils from their peers.
They said the teachers staff room no longer existed as the space was needed for intervention / wellbeing rooms.

 

[Gaz76]

I agree, just watching E4 now and it's all seemed pointless.

What I don't understand is how, 7 months later the can have a Psychologist assessing him for a judges pre-sentence report, yet 14 months later they're talking about him changing his plea...

There is no real information about the crime.

I think this was just an exercise in doing single shot programs which is an achievement in itself but it could've been better content and storyline.

Tend to agree with you, yes it was watchable and I can understand why so many have watched it, but the hoo har over it is making it a lot better than it actually was.
Kier starmer saying it should be shown to all kids? Erm why Kier? It didn't show any knifes, it didn't show any effect on the victim, we only found out about the incel business from the coppers son.
I really can't see how showing it to kids at school would make a blind bit of difference, not a chance is a kid who is bold enough to go buy a knife and carry it around all the time going to just bin it after watching that, he/she will just go back to listening to whatever knobhead rapper talking about cutting up folk, it's going to take a lot more than a TV program to change it

 

[dronefromsector7G]

It was decent but not the best TV ever. I thought they padded out some scenes and glossed over a few other potential angles. I thought it was going to uncover a network of incels at the school for example

 

[I'm With Stupid]

Tend to agree with you, yes it was watchable and I can understand why so many have watched it, but the hoo har over it is making it a lot better than it actually was.

I haven't seen it yet, but you definitely get super long single-take shots being done as an act of self-indulgence these days. When Scorsese did it in Goodfellas, there was a clear narrative reason for it, but often these days, it's more about showing off, and ironically can bring you out of the scene as soon as you notice it. I remember one of the recent Bond films started with a 15 minute shot and that was the only good thing about it.

 

[City Hobgoblin]

I thought it was boring shite with any "message" just shoehorned in there and slapping you in the face with it. The people saying its genius won't be able to give you a specific reason, they're just parroting what other people have said.

Going to really wind people up now and say I think Stephen Graham is a shite actor. His attempt at natural acting takes me out of anything he is in and his upset face does my head in

He got shown up to a degree in The irishman, up against DeNiro, Pacino, Keitel and Pesci.

 

[BlueHammer85]

He got shown up to a degree in The irishman, up against DeNiro, Pacino, Keitel and Pesci.

I thought that was a poor movie overall.

 

[pride in battle]

What a tough watch.
One of my mates teaches the same age group and they said this is a fair reflection of what’s going on in their school.
They said that so much goes on online in out of school hours and it carries on during the school day.
This had led to what they call an ever increasing army of pastoral / emotional wellbeing people being employed to safeguard pupils from their peers.
They said the teachers staff room no longer existed as the space was needed for intervention / wellbeing rooms.

A time to ban social media for under 16's ?

 

[I'm With Stupid]

A time to ban social media for under 16's ?

Time to regulate it like any other media. We had adults willing to murder refugees last summer because of shit they'd read on social media. All around the world you see angry mobs whipped up by social media. To pretend this is just an issue affecting kids is wrong.

 

[SWPISHOME]

I really enjoyed it, I thought it was a powerful and unfortunately I'm sure many parents can relate to the series in many ways.

I don't like keep repeating myself, Social Media is the fucking devil (especially for kids), Sooner the better it's illegal for anyone under the age of 16 to be on Social Media.

The young lad playing that part was absolutely fantastic, Stephen Graham too...One part in had me filling up!

I'd definitely recommend it.

 

[BlueHammer85]

Time to regulate it like any other media. We had adults willing to murder refugees last summer because of shit they'd read on social media. All around the world you see angry mobs whipped up by social media. To pretend this is just an issue affecting kids is wrong.

Yep, why not. You can’t access a gambling website without giving full details of who you are, address, passport details in some cases - why should Social Media get a free pass ? When kids and adults can scroll through seeing rape, beheadings, Tate telling them to be more masculine and don’t take rejection, peado hunter clips, anti migrant clips all designed to enrage.

 

[BlueTG]

My take for what it's worth:

Kids are mollycoddled at school now from day one. Of course, everything was always better in my day/your day etc. but when I was in school (the early/mid 90s) if we weren't pulling our weight we got pulled up on it, it'd get mentioned in school reports/parents evenings and we'd get a bollocking at home, at least I would. Now teachers can't say or do anything because of how it might affect a kid's mental health*. Don't get me started on 9th place ribbons at sports day either.

Problem with the above is when kids enter the real world they're not used to any rejection or harshness and have no idea how to deal with it.

*Please don't think for one minute I'm playing down mental health because it is a thing, but we're talking primary school age kids here.

Because many discliplinary powers have been removed from schools. Coupled with parents who enrol their students with the ‘customer/consumer is always right’ kind of attitude, and slowly the shift has set in.

 

[Kompany Car]

I couldn't disagree more. I went to school in the 70s and 80s and bullying was basically part of the fabric of youth. Everyone had to live with it and the teachers didn't care and in some cases contributed. Now I've brought up kids and I'm the coach of a youth football team and bullying is massively reduced and schools come down on it like a ton of bricks. Being a bully has a stigma now. It used to be practically a badge of honour.

I too was at school in the 70s and 80s and yes I agree physical bullying was bad and teachers often enjoyed making a fool of less able kids. But the difference, particularly with peers, was if you had a scrap with someone, it was generally one on one, now the whole gang culture and normalisation of extreme violence makes it much worse. In addition you also have 24/7 social media where kids can easily change images/information and share things widely to bully kids, often in an anonymous manner and in some cases for the whole world to see.

That said and I think this is the point the other person was making, is the reluctance of schools these days to tell kids that they are not performing at an educational level and instead following a softly softly approach doesn't help them prepare for the world they will enter. Infantilism of kids by parents also doesn't help them develop their emotional response. That continues through to post 16 education and is now even expected in the university setting, which I have seen through my work within higher education.

We have a strange situation where kids (teens) seem to be less psychologically and emotionally mature than they were 30-40 yrs ago at the same age, with many unable to accept failure is part of life and actually key in the process of learning and growing. Meanwhile they are being exposed to some of the most extreme views and images, all pumped via the little box in their hand with algorithms created by the tech giants feeding it.

Bottom line is you cant have the softly softly approach whilst being exposed to the ills of the world and not being equipped to deal with it from a psychological point of view and be able to rationalise it.

In the Adolescence TV series, episode 3 with the psychiatrist, you see the emotional immaturity coupled with the switch to violence as the kid gets frustrated. Now obviously this is an extreme situation, but the propensity of kids to resort to violence when they are challenged by authority seems much higher today than it ever was in the 70s and 80s. I can only remember one instance of a teacher being assaulted by a student when I was at schools, yet talk to most teachers and its a weekly if not daily occurrence.

 

[.db.]

I thought it was excellent. It was that good, I’ll watch it again soon.

There were a few procedural things in the Police Stn (before they put the kid in the cell, they would have taken the shoe laces out of his shoes) and the school (the Police would have been signed in with a photo taken at Recenption and a school lanyard given to them, and that teacher who had the murdered girl’s best friend in the classroom would not - or should not - be alone with a pupil in a situation like that and certainly not putting her hand on her shoulder or touching her hands like she did) that weren’t quite on the button.

Maybe others who have experience in other roles in the series may spot other slight mistakes like that.

I also think it could have delved into the InCel Social Media thing a bit more, my Father’s watched it and doesn’t have a clue what it is even when I’ve explained it.

But the storyline was superb and the way it was shot created an atmosphere around it that really worked.