‘Adolescence’ could be the ‘Cathy Come Home’ for our generation

Cathy Come Home was a BBC1 drama broadcast in 1966 which shocked the nation by its portrayal of a family’s descent into homelessness.

It was watched by a quarter of the population and produced a storm of phone calls to the BBC, discussion in Parliament and inspired the start of the homeless charity Crisis.  One commentator described it as

“an ice-pick in the brain of all who saw it”.

Compelling

It appears that Netflix’s drama Adolescence is having a comparable impact. It makes for compelling viewing for many reasons: the arresting, single-shot style of filming, the great writing and brilliant acting. Also, four tight episodes is a welcome contrast to the over-extended, bloated nature of many contemporary TV series.

But Adolescence is mainly compelling because of its content. It is a prophetic commentary on the state of our society and the predicament facing families and young people today.

Angles on a murder

The episodes give different angles on the murder of a teenage girl by a boy in her school.

The first episode through the lens of the police and criminal justice system. The second on the school, with teachers struggling to maintain order amid the hidden dynamics and tensions between pupils. The third reveals the blend of vulnerability and threat within the accused boy himself when he meets with a psychologist. And the final episode focuses on the impact on the accused boy’s family. 

Toxic influences

The final episode is the most rambling and least coherent but also the most insightful and relevant for many of us. To see the dad of the accused boy suffering under the weight of his ‘failure’ to manage the toxic influences on his beloved son is tragic, powerful and profound.  The final scene, of him weeping on his imprisoned son’s empty bed, is haunting. 

Being a parent is by far the hardest thing I have done. And I know how common it is for parents to be anxious that they have not made the right calls or done enough to protect their children. I know some parents who do not want to even watch Adolescence because the issues are all too close to home. This unveiling of uncomfortable reality is what makes it such an important programme.

Relationships and identity

And what challenged society in the 1960s is not the same as what is needed today. And rather than systemic issues around material poverty exposed by Cathy Come Home, Adolescence is a commentary on the contemporary poverties of relationships, how young people relate to others, and identity, how they see themselves.

Online technology has made things worse by providing an accessible platform for twisted misogyny and every other form of hate.

It dramatizes what Jonathan Haidt has called The Anxious Generation in his meticulously researched book on how smart phones have profoundly damaged young people’s mental health. As he puts it:

“My central claim in this book is that these two trends—overprotection in the real world and underprotection in the virtual world—are the major reasons why children born after 1995 became the anxious generation.”

Distraction

Watching Adolescence reminded me of the novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. It is set in a dystopian future where humans are controlled and coerced through pleasure and distraction. It is a very different vision than George Orwell created in 1984. Rather than the state control of Big Brother and the Thought Police, it is narcotics and sex that control and sedate society.

As Neil Postman puts it in Amusing Ourselves to Death:

“Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley’s vision…people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.”

Dystopian reality

The ‘brave new world’ of internet has given us so much in the last 25 years, but it also had disastrous side-effects. And it is not simply ‘externally imposed oppression’ by some centralised institutions but something we have all played a part in.

The endless choice and freedom of the online world is deeply seductive for all of us because it offers us a mirage what we most want: connection and validation. But this freedom of choice comes at a price because everyone can easily connect to those whose messages are damaging and whose agenda is destructive. Adolescence is a glimpse of how this culture has affected the well-being of young people.

Cathy Come Home was a ground-breaking TV drama which transformed how people viewed homelessness. Let’s hope that Adolescence can do something similar when it comes to the toxic influence that smart phones and social media have on young people.