Adolescence arrived on Netflix in March 2025 with almost no marketing and became one of the most talked-about and award-winning shows of the year, sweeping the Emmys. Shot in a single continuous take per episode, it follows 13-year-old Jamie Miller — arrested for the murder of his female classmate — and asks what kind of world created him. Christian parents, educators, and youth workers are asking whether they should watch it.
What Adolescence Is Actually About
Adolescence is not a crime procedural. It uses the arrest of 13-year-old Jamie Miller (played by 15-year-old Owen Cooper in a career-defining debut performance) as a lens through which to examine the world teenage boys are being formed by — online manosphere content, social media isolation, toxic masculinity, and the failure of adults to understand the digital environments their children inhabit.
Each of the four episodes is shot in a single continuous take — a bold technical choice that creates an immersive, almost documentary-like intimacy. The first episode follows Jamie's arrest and interrogation with his father (Stephen Graham, who also co-created the show) present. The second follows a school investigation into the culture that surrounded the crime. The third is an extended one-on-one session between a psychologist (Erin Doherty, Emmy winner) and Jamie. The fourth focuses on the family aftermath.
Why Christian Parents Specifically Should Watch
Multiple Christian organizations, including Premier Christianity and Focus on the Family, have specifically recommended Adolescence for Christian parents. The show makes visible the online world many teenagers — particularly boys — are inhabiting unbeknownst to their parents. The manosphere content that radicalized Jamie is not fictional — it reflects real content that real teenage boys consume on real platforms.
Proverbs 22:6 instructs parents to 'start children off on the way they should go.' You cannot start a child on the right path if you don't understand what paths are being offered to them elsewhere. Adolescence is a guided tour of one of the most dangerous paths being offered to teenage boys in the digital age.
Content That Requires Awareness
Adolescence is rated TV-MA and contains significant profanity — at least 10 uses of the F-word in Episode 1 alone, according to Movieguide. The crime at the center of the show — a 13-year-old stabbing his female classmate — is depicted as aftermath rather than on-screen, but the weight of it is never escaped. Episode 3, the psychologist session, deals with themes of misogyny and gender ideology with complexity and intelligence.
The show does not contain sexual content or occult themes. The violence is implied rather than graphic. The content concerns are primarily the sustained profanity and the psychologically disturbing nature of watching a child have committed a terrible act.
The Bottom Line
Adolescence is genuinely one of the most morally serious and culturally important shows of 2025.
Romans 12:2 calls believers not to be conformed to the pattern of this world. Adolescence helps Christians understand exactly what that pattern looks like for teenage boys in 2025 — which is the first step toward not being conformed to it. This is a show that Christian parents, youth workers, and educators should prioritize watching, while being aware of the profanity and disturbing themes.