It was back in March this year that I called Stephen Graham 'the British actor of a generation'. The star's prominence is only going from strength to strength, given his recent win of an Emmy Award.
That's also why his hit limited series, Adolescence, has made a return to Netflix's top 10 chart once more. It's the most-viewed British show ever on the streaming service and continues to gather attention months after first airing.
Adolescence has been on Netflix for 6 months already, arriving to much critical fanfare. Graham isn't the only one awarded, either, with its teenage protagonist, played by Owen Cooper, also winning an Emmy – the youngest person ever to do so.
Adolescence trailer
What's Adolescence about?
Adolescence follows the story of a 13-year-old school kid, Jamie Miller (played by Cooper), who is accused of murder. This flips a whole family's world upside down, as you'd expect, but the way the show is shot puts you, the viewer, in the thick of it, as if part of the community.
While the series puts a lens on knife crime in the UK, its writer also references the 'manosphere' – I'll again cite an Independent article here – and the changing culture in the country. It's one reason why critics called the show "masterful".
Reviews were full of praise from the off – its 98% Rotten Tomatoes score makes that clear– but not all viewers agree by quite a margin. It's difficult viewing, no doubt, thought-provoking content that just not everyone could quite believe.
How awarded is Adolescence?
It's not all about Rotten Tomatoes scores, though, with IMDB's rating of 8.1/10 proving higher than your average. The show's range of awards continues to grow.
Following the National Television Awards in the UK, in which Cooper won the public vote for Drama Performance, the Emmys followed. In addition to Graham's and Cooper's wins, the series took a further six awards – bringing the Emmys total to eight.
The cinematography is unwavering, too. The four episodes were each captured in one single take – like live theatre on TV, really – with the best take of each being the episode in full. It exaggerates that feeling of fly-on-the-wall viewing, in a way few shows achieve.
Adolescence has remained on my 'watch list' for months, as it clearly has on other people's too. The awards wins have proven it a success, with more flocking to catch what they've missed – hence it now being at no.10 in Netflix's chart. And that could rise yet further yet.
