Adolescence Full Season TV Beat Sheet Analysis
Why We Chose to Do a Save a Cat! Full Season Beat Sheet Analysis of Adolescence
Adolescence is a worldwide phenomenon, rising to #3 on Netflix’s all-time Top 10 list in a very short time.
The four episodes are technically noteworthy, because each episode is only one shot, the events unfolding in real time. Four episodes totally four shots is remarkable and one reason the show feels so authentic and involving.
But it’s the substance of the series that is really gripping. And it is a “textbook” case of how an entire series—in this case from the Opening Image of the first episode to the Final Image of the fourth episode—can hit the Save the Cat! beats so perfectly, including one of the best examples of a Five-Point Finale we’ve ever seen.
Adolescence
Created and Written by: Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham
Directed by: Philip Barantini
The World: A small, working-class town in present day England set against the invisible but invasive world of social media
Franchise Type: Dude(s) with a Season-Long Problem/Whydunit
An innocent hero is yanked into a life-or-death problem and, despite massive odds against them, must overcome it using their wits. Many stories are about dudes or dudettes with problems. But the keys to this genre are ordinary people who are undeservingly pulled into the predicament and forced to react.
The 3 elements of a DUDE WITH A SEASON-LONG PROBLEM story are:
1) An innocent hero who is dragged into a mess without asking for it—or even aware of how he got involved.
2) A sudden event that thrusts our innocent(s) into the world of hurt—and it comes without warning.
3) A life or death battle is at stake—and the continued existence of an individual, family, group, or society is in question.
A hero/detective pursues a case where the real puzzle is “‘why” the case proves so compelling that the hero is willing to dive into the darkness to find the answer. The investigation into the dark side of humanity is often an investigation into ourselves, for a good Whydunit turns the x-ray machine back on us and asks: “Are we this evil?”
The 3 elements of a WHYDUNIT story are:
1) The detective does not change, we do; yet they can be any kind of gumshoe—from pro to amateur to imaginary.
2) The secret of the case is so strong it overwhelms the worldly lures of money, sex, power, or fame. We gots to know! And so does the Whydunit hero.
3) Finally, the dark turn shows that in pursuit of the secret, the detective will break the rules, even their own—often ones they have relied on for years to stay safe. The pull of the secret is too great.
Platform: Netflix
TV Genre: Limited drama series
Story DNA
Heroes: 13-year old Jamie Miller, the prime suspect in the murder of a classmate; Eddie Miller, his bewildered and grief-stricken father; DI Luke Bascombe, the policeman tasked with the terrible job of finding out the truth
Goal: At first, to prove Jamie’s innocence; later, to understand the motive for his crime
Obstacle: There is evidence for Jamie’s guilt and the virtual world that he and his friends inhabit is utterly confounding to their parents and teachers
Stakes: The lives of young teenagers barely past childhood and their heartbroken families
Save the Cat! Full Season Beat Sheet Analysis for Adolescence
Episode 1/Act 1
Opening Image
We begin with a short scene that plays out more like a situation comedy than a psychological crime drama: an eyerolling father listens to a voicemail from his son who claims illness and asks to stay home from school. DI Luke Bascombe (Ashley Walters), slightly nauseated from his new habit of eating apples instead of smoking cigarettes and annoyed that he’s the “soft touch” in the family, tells his partner Misha Frank (Faye Marsay) that his wife will sort it out and make sure their son gets to class.
This small, light-hearted exchange sets the stage for a far more grievous example of fatherly deflection and avoidance.
Theme Stated
When reading Jamie his rights, the booking officer declares, “Because you’re a juvenile, you need to be supported by an appropriate adult.” Truer words were never spoken, at least when it comes to this dark version of adolescence. Where were the adults in Jamie’s life? He has an intact family and his parents and older sister appear to be supportive and loving; they are certainly devastated by these events.
Then, we wonder, how in God’s name could this have happened? Adolescence will spend its four episodes answering that question, but those answers will just lead to more questions, baffling and battering us at every turn.
Set-Up
Although we find out most of the exposition in bits and pieces after the Catalyst, what we witness is the police, led by Bascombe and Frank, storming a small house in a working-class neighborhood and confronting a skinny, barely-a-teenager in his bed.
Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper) is under suspicion of murder and the very idea that this weeping, sweet-faced boy who’s so terrified that he wets his pajama pants is somehow a cold-blooded killer strikes us as beyond ludicrous, so painfully unjust that we experience his parents’ indignation and rage along with them.
Jamie’s father, Eddie Miller (Stephen Graham), pushes back hard. This absolutely has to be a mistake, this is not the normal thesis world they’ve lived in until this point.
Catalyst
Jamie is arrested for the murder of his classmate, Katie Leonard.
Debate
Jamie is placed in the police van and driven to the station, followed by his family. He sobs the entire way and Bascombe finds himself trying to comfort the boy, with some obvious unease.
At the station, we follow a bewildering series of events in real time; the assigning of an appropriate adult, the arrival of a state-appointed lawyer, a humiliating strip search and blood draw, a father’s fear and anguish that he’ll say something in the interview that will incriminate his son.
Eddie is shaking and near tears when he finally looks Jamie in the eyes and begs him for the truth, “Did you do this?” Jamie looks back steadily and swears he did not, which gives Eddie renewed strength to face what comes next: the police interview.
Bascombe comes in hot: they have evidence of Jamie’s Instagram posts where he’s shared pictures of scantily-clad women and made aggressive comments. They know who his best mates are and they know that he knew the victim, Katie Leonard, and does he know how many times she was stabbed?
Jamie, rattled, insists that they’ve confused him with someone else. But the police have CCTV images and a timeline emerges of Jamie’s movements, followed by video footage of a confrontation. The tape is dark and a little hard to make out, but we see Jamie and Katie, and we watch him stab her, again and again.
We can’t believe our eyes, but this is not a mistake, not a witch hunt.
Break into Two
Left alone, father and son sob in one another’s arms and Jamie whispers, “It wasn’t me, Dad. I’ve not done anything…”, a painful and mystifying claim that pushes our “truth” buttons and moves our story into:
Episode 2/Act 2, Part 1
B Story
The B Story relationship between Jamie and his dad, Eddie, forms the backbone to the body of the A Story, the Whydunit of Jamie’s crime. Jamie and Eddie seem close, except… not really. Kind of like many fathers and sons who have not been taught how to love each other.
Fun and Games
Could there be a more upside-down world than police entering a secondary school to try to get answers about one student murdering another?
Bascombe and Frank visit Jamie and Katie’s school, which just so happens to also be the school of Bascombe’s son, Adam (Amari Baccus), and perhaps the toxicity of the environment accounts for Adam’s attempts to beg off attending.
We meet Jamie’s mates, Tommy (Lewis Pemberton) and Ryan (Kaine Davis), who looks so much like Jamie that for one moment, our minds go to a crazy place—could there have been a case of mistaken identity? Of course not, but it makes about as much sense as anything in this troubling antithesis world.
Bascombe and Frank are primarily searching for two things: the murder weapon and a motive. They interview Katie’s best friend, Jade (Fatima Bojang), about what she might know, but Jade turns it back on Bascombe: what does he know about his own son?
Bascombe is indeed floundering and when Jade attacks Ryan during a fire drill screaming that he killed her best friend, we are just as lost as Bascombe. Ryan is questioned, but evasive as Bascombe pushes desperately for any kind of explanation. Were Jamie and Katie friends? Enemies? Does Ryan know anything at all about his supposed best mate?
Finally, Adam intervenes, telling his father that he’s just not getting it. Adam proceeds to school Bascombe on the coded language of Instagram, that Jamie was involved in the “manosphere,” a la Andrew Tate; that by her emojis, Katie was calling Jamie an incel for life; that she was leading others in cyber-bullying him.
Bascombe is stunned, both by the implications for motive, and that Adam is speaking to him at all—another father and son separated by miles of silence and too many misunderstandings.
Armed with this new information, Bascombe tries to approach Ryan one more time inside the school, only to be stunned again when Ryan jumps out a window and leads Bascombe on an exhausting chase through the school grounds and out into the surrounding neighborhood. When Bascombe finally catches him, Ryan admits that he gave Jamie the knife and is arrested as an accomplice.
Bascombe has achieved his goal of finding motive and the murder weapon, but his success is weighted down with haunting implications. When he sees Adam leaving school, he approaches and asks his son to go out for chips and Coke. Adam is suspicious and wary, but Bascombe makes an effort he’s never made before—he tells Adam that he wants to hang out with him simply because he loves him.
The warmth in Adam’s sudden smile gives us a flash of relief and hope. Perhaps this relationship can be healed before something unthinkable happens.
Midpoint
A and B Stories cross as the camera lifts up from this touching scene, flies over the neighborhood, and descends to find Eddie, looking exhausted and anguished, bringing flowers to a makeshift memorial for Katie.
Episode 3/Act 2, Part 2
Bad Guys Close In
We pick up the story seven months later as forensic psychologist Briony Ariston (Erin Doherty) enters the youth detention center where Jamie is being held. She is the second psychologist to question him and this is her second visit as she tries to assess Jamie’s mental state.
He seems genuinely happy to see her and they banter in a friendly manner until the conversation moves to the concept of masculinity, particularly the example of his dad. Jamie quickly gets agitated and we start to see his shadow self as his internal bad guys emerge.
Jamie loudly claims his innocence, saying that the evidence video was “fake news,” and getting upset over the types of questions Briony is asking. When she tries to calm him, Jamie erupts in rage, knocking things over and belittling her viciously. Then his whole demeanor changes; he seems genuinely regretful and we recall him saying that his dad has fits of anger sometimes.
We continue to watch Jamie cycle in and out of extreme emotional states, from sweetness to rage to mocking cruelty, and finally to a frightening moment where he looms over Briony like a genuine predator. Briony doesn’t flinch, but we do.
When the topic finally turns to Katie, everything starts to unravel for Jamie. We discover that a topless photo of Katie circulated through the school and everyone turned on her, gossiping and calling her out. Jamie took advantage of Katie’s embarrassment, hoping she was in a “weak” state and suddenly “gettable.” He asked her out, but she laughed in his face, saying, “I’m not that desperate.” Jamie calls Katie a bullying bitch and he should have killed her, but… he didn’t.
All Is Lost
Jamie realizes he’s said too much. He anxiously tries to get Briony to agree that Katie was a bully, but Briony says that their session is now over.
Dark Night of the Soul
Jamie erupts in despair and rage again, shouting that she can’t leave him like this, that Briony shouldn’t tell anyone what he did, especially not his dad, then crying and screaming, “Don’t you like me? At all?!” He is dragged from the room by a guard as Briony shakes with terror, fighting back tears and nausea.
Break into Three
As Jamie disappears and silence descends, Briony pulls herself together. She puts her notes back into her folder and exits the room and we can only wonder how she will share her findings with the court.
Episode 4/Act 3
Five-Point Finale
Thirteen months have passed since the crime and life goes on, as much as it can. It is Eddie’s 50th birthday and Jamie’s mom, Manda (Christine Tremarco), and sister Lisa (Amélie Pease) try to smile and celebrate with a big English breakfast, but everything quickly goes south when they discover someone has spray-painted the word “nonse”—a British slur for someone involved in a sex crime—on the side of Eddie’s work van.
Gathering of the Team
Eddie, barely holding back his rage, determines to not let this affect his (remaining) family. He’s going to (man)handle it, he’s going to get the day back.
Execution of the Plan
Eddie insists that Manda and Lisa go with him to the hardware store to get paint remover and as they drive, he tries to make normal conversation—asking for music, planning an outing to the cinema later, joking around. They settle into a warm and familiar rhythm, able to think about something other than the crime, if only for a few blissful moments.
But a normal public outing for this now-infamous family is not to be. Eddie is recognized inside the hardware store by an employee who offers his theory of the murder in a true conspiracy-theory style. Deeply rattled, Eddie buys a can of paint and rushes outside, only to spy the kids he suspects tagged his van. He erupts in rage, chasing and screaming at the teenagers, then turns around and flings the entire can of paint on the side of his van, splashing over the windows, the doors, and the parking lot.
High Tower Surprise
On the tense ride home, Manda and Lisa cry silently. Then Eddie gets a call from the detention center, Jamie calling to say happy birthday. After a few moments of small talk, Jamie drops the bomb: he’s going to change his plea. He’s going to plead guilty.
Dig Down Deep
Eddie is devastated, but doggedly holds onto his idea that they couldn’t have stopped Jamie, that his descent into the dark rabbit hole of social media wasn’t their fault. He was a much better father than his own dad, who used to viciously beat Eddie with a belt, right? Wasn’t he?
Eddie’s shell finally cracks. He admits to Manda that he didn’t know how to parent a sensitive child like Jamie, that he was often embarrassed by him, that he allowed Jamie to disappear into the internet for hours every day and never checked if he was safe.
Execution of the New Plan
Manda and Eddie face each other and come to terms with their own guilt, admit it for the first time. Then Eddie enters Jamie’s room and fully lets out his grief, scream-sobbing into the pillow on Jamie’s bed.
Final Image
Exhausted with crying, Eddie tucks Jamie’s teddy bear under the covers and kisses its forehead, speaking to the stuffed animal as if it were Jamie. “I’m sorry, son,” he whispers. “I should have done better.”
Of course, too little, too late, and Eddie knows it. And our hearts break right along with his.
