Netflix’s new miniseries Adolescence has taken the streaming world by storm, amassing almost 100 million views worldwide and turning into one of many platform’s most profitable reveals ever. The sequence’ 4 episodes — every of which is filmed in such a manner as to appear like one steady take – revolve across the knife homicide of a teenage lady named Katie Leonard and the following arrest of her classmate, Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper), who’s the prime suspect. Along with Jamie, the sequence follows his mother and father (Stephen Graham and Christine Temarco), law enforcement officials Luke Bascombe and Misha Frank (Ashley Walters and Faye Marsay, respectively), and forensic psychologist Briony Aritston (Erin Doherty) as they attempt to discover solutions about what led to this horrific crime.
The present has garnered immense vital reward, incomes an almost excellent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Nonetheless, it has additionally earned some controversy and backlash, significantly from the so-called “manosphere,” which Wired defines as “an internet universe of male, right-wing influencers who proffer misogynist recommendation on the best way to be extra masculine and get laid — typically lowering ladies to sexist stereotypes and blaming feminism for points like male loneliness.”
A number of figures which can be both a part of or affiliated with the manosphere have attacked Adolescence for associating their views and content material with real-world violence towards ladies. Many others, nonetheless, have praised the present for bringing consideration to the manosphere and its poisonous affect on many younger males and boys by way of social media.
The Purple Capsule and Incel Tradition
Adolescence
- Launch Date
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March 13, 2025
- Community
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Netflix
Most of the concepts and terminology that originate from the manosphere are instantly named and addressed within the present. One in every of these phrases is “the purple capsule,” which refers to the concept the manosphere is “woke up” to the methods through which ladies and feminism marginalize males. The time period will get its identify from a scene within the sci-fi movie The Matrix (1999), through which Keanu Reeves’ character, Neo, is given the selection of both taking a purple capsule to reveal the phantasm of the Matrix, or take a blue capsule and keep blind to it.
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Two different manosphere phrases introduced up within the present are “incel” and “the 80/20 rule.” “Incel,” brief for “involuntary celibate,” is a reputation for males and boys who’ve by no means been in a position to have intercourse or get a girlfriend. The “80/20 rule,” in the meantime, is a pseudo-scientific principle that 80% of all ladies are drawn to solely 20% of all males (i.e. probably the most enticing males). These phrases are interrelated, as many self-identified incels attribute their incapacity to discover a associate to their seems to be, genetic make-up, or wealth (or lack thereof), which regularly results in emotions of despair, rage, and typically violence, as depicted in Adolescence.
Reactionary Backlash to ‘Adolescence’
In all probability probably the most well-known manosphere determine is Andrew Tate, a British-American former kickboxer turned social media influencer and self-described misogynist, who’s presently going through trial in three nations for costs that embrace rape and intercourse trafficking. Though the present by no means explicitly mentions Tate other than a short dialog between Bascombe and his son Adam (Amari Bacchus) within the second episode, Tate evidently took subject with the present implicating his content material within the homicide.
In a written assertion to Newsweek, his spokesperson accused the present of “mak[ing] him a scapegoat for complicated issues…, which stem from far wider cultural and systemic elements.” This can be a questionable characterization, because the present devotes most of its runtime to exploring the extra fast social and psychological elements that contributed to the homicide, reminiscent of bullying, cyberbullying, and inattentive parenting, as a substitute of merely blaming Tate and the manosphere. In different phrases, the sequence does exactly what Tate accuses it of not doing.
However Tate wasn’t the one far-right determine to complain about Adolescence. Based on The Hollywood Reporter, a outstanding right-wing pundit named Ian Miles Cheong conspiratorially claimed in a put up on X (previously Twitter) that the showrunners based mostly the present on the Southport mass stabbing of July 29, 2024, whose perpetrator was of Rwandan background, however made the killer white within the pursuit of constructing “anti-white propaganda” and smearing the “red-pill motion” (one other identify for the manosphere). The put up gained additional consideration when Tesla CEO and White Home official Elon Musk, who additionally owns X/Twitter, commented “Wow” below Cheong’s put up.
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Nonetheless, sequence co-creator Jack Thorne referred to as the race-swapping allegation “absurd” and countered that “not one single half” of the present relies on a real story, whereas additionally mentioning that “historical past reveals a number of circumstances of children from all races committing these crimes.” Thorne elaborated on the present’s intentions in the identical interview: “We’re not making a degree about race with this. We’re making a degree about masculinity. We’re attempting to get inside an issue. We’re not saying that is one factor or one other. We’re saying that is about boys.”
Obligatory Viewing for Obligatory Discussions
Other than the backlash from sure figures on the far-right, the political reception to Adolescence has in any other case been largely optimistic, significantly within the UK. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who watched the present together with his two teenage youngsters, efficiently lobbied Netflix to make the present free for screening in secondary colleges. He additionally met personally with Thorne and the present’s producer, Jo Johnson, to debate the rising threat of younger individuals being uncovered to poisonous, misogynistic content material on social media like that unfold by Tate and different manosphere figures. However solely time will inform whether or not the present will likely be profitable in bringing a couple of main cultural shift and serving to curb misogynistic violence.
Within the meantime, anybody who needs to take a look at Adolescence and be a part of the rising dialogue can discover the present on Netflix. You’ll be able to watch it via the hyperlink beneath:
Watch Adolescence