Few shows on the 2025 TV schedule are as engaging or talked about as Adolescence is. The bingeable Netflix original series, which follows a 13-year-old boy accused of murdering a classmate, took the world by storm earlier in the year. Said buzz was mostly because of the child-related conversations the sparked and the one-shot approach that created an intense and sometimes dizzying effect. More recently, CinemaBlend was able to speak with the show's director, who compared production to Bill Murray's Groundhog Day.
Shortly after receiving a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for his work on Adolescence (one of 13 the series received) the series received, Philip Barantini and I got together for a chat. During our discussion, we talked about everything from how the show has impacted us as fathers of young children to what it was like filming each episode as a single one-shot. When I asked Barantini what it was like when there was a mistake most of the way through a take, the Enola Holmes 3 director referenced the aforementioned classic Bill Murray comedy:
After the first take, I might give a bunch of notes to people. And then we come back into the second take. And you don't have to think about, ‘Oh, I need to match that because otherwise it doesn't make sense because it's just, it's like Groundhog Day.’ You're going back to the beginning, you know? And it's almost like, it's a different moment in time.
So what does a 2025 Netflix show about a brutal murder and an iconic ‘90s flick about a weatherman trapped in a time loop have in common? Well, not much in terms of story. It goes without saying that Harold Ramis' 1993 time-bending comedy doesn't contain subject matter nearly as bleak as what's portrayed on Adolescence.
However, my view on that changed when Philip Barantini shared a story about working with child actor Owen Cooper in his portrayal of accused murderer Jamie Miller. Barantini specifically pointed to the show’s third and overall best episode, and that's when the whole “start over and take a different approach” comparison made total sense:
Owen had a bit of a sore throat at the very end of the day. And he had a cough. He kept saying to me, ‘I've got this cough. Is it, is it okay?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, do you want, do you want us to not do the final take? Because we've got the take, so we can always use that. I'm happy with that take.’ He's like, ‘No, no, no, I want to do it.’ I said, ‘Okay, well, in that case, because we've gone back to the beginning, it's Groundhog Day. Jamie's got a cough today. It's fine.’
Barantini, who got his start as an actor on shows like Dream Team before joining the Band on Brothers cast, remembered being blown away by the young star during the final take. It was at that point that Cooper, in the moment, made an unplanned change to his character by saying he had a sore throat. If the first-time actor hadn’t pushed for a final take, and the director had played it safe, that incredible moment would have never happened.
Though it seems like there won’t be a continuation of Jamie’s story if Adolescence ever does return, you can check out the first season with a Netflix subscription before the Primetime Emmy Awards take place on Sunday, September 14.
