A single standout episode of ‘Adolescence’ reveals the power of strong themes and narrative throughlines – offering essential lessons for storytellers across all forms, writes Dr Erin O’Dwyer
Netflix’s Number 1 drama series Adolescencemakes a brave attempt at understanding the complex issues impacting today’s teens – from screen addiction to gender politics to family dynamics.
Of its four episodes, Episode 3 is an exceptional example of the power of story when it is focused on a singular theme or premise.
Three characters, one room, one unsettling truth
Ep 3 centres on Jamie, a 13-year-old boy, who is accused of murdering a girl from his school. The one-shot scene has three main characters – Jamie, a young female child psychologist, and a creepy older male prison warden.
Jamie (played by first-time actor Owen Cooper, in a near-flawless performance) is terrifying not because he is overtly violent, but because of how effectively the episode shows us his psychological complexity.
We see his innocence, his rage, his ability to beguile and how deeply he has been influenced by toxic masculine culture. The lewd prison warden represents misogyny and hypermasculinity, and how the ‘male gaze’ impacts all women as they go about their everyday lives.
Everything in the 52 minute episode – actors, dialogue, character development, subplot, cinematography, set and costume design – serves the central message: how to understand the mind of a psychopath? It’s simple, gripping and deeply disturbing.
The series poses multiple questions…Are schools to blame? Are screens? Are parents?
Where the rest of the series falls short
Episodes 1, 2 and 4 lack the thematic discipline that makes Episode 3 so compelling. Rather than following a single clear throughline, the rest of the series poses multiple questions – Are schools to blame? Are screens? Are parents? What about porn and the so-called ‘manosphere’?
It’s confused, confusing and there’s no clear premise or point of view.
Also these questions are flawed – psychopaths are not made, they are born. A screen-addicted anti-social child does not a killer make. (For more on this, see, Speaking of Psychology: Why psychopathy is more common than you think, with Abigail Marsh, PhD.)
Speaking of parents, it’s a great shame that the always-brilliant Stephen Graham (playing Jamie’s father) shares very little on-screen time with Owen Cooper’s Jamie. A missed opportunity, if ever there was one. (Graham shines in Episode 4 but it’s a long wait and we could have watched so much more of Jamie’s shocked and grieving family, as they come to terms with the fallout of his arrest.)
A screen-addicted anti-social child does not a killer make.
Why themes and throughlines matter
In storytelling, I teach the principle of themes and throughlines.
Themes are the central ideas or messages that ties a story together and gives it meaning. A throughline is the unbroken narrative thread that connects characters, scenes and plot points, guiding the audience from complication to resolution. Without these, a story risks becoming slow, fragmented and forgettable.
This principle applies to all forms of storytelling, be it memoir, fiction, screenwriting, podcasting or brand storytelling.
Three questions for storytellers to ask
If you’re developing a story, ask yourself:
1. What is the central idea I want my audience to walk away with?
2. Does each scene, chapter, or element reinforce this theme?
3. Can I draw a clear line from the beginning of the story to its resolution?
Adolescence Ep3 reminds us that a razor-sharp throughline allows a story to cut through the noise. But when the premise or point of view is confused – as it is in the other three episodes – the result is a predictable police procedural that lacks genuine psychological insight.
