As a Boy Mom, I'm Begging You to Watch the Number 1 Show on Netflix

Let me preface this by saying that as a parent to three young kids, I'm very particular about what I watch. Most nights, I'm so exhausted that I'm ready to pass out 30 minutes after the kids have gone to sleep. And honestly? Since having kids, I just can't handle watching dark, intense shows—or anything that requires too much brainpower—anymore. Friends and colleagues rave about shows like Severance and Yellow Jackets, but the truth is, if it’s more complicated than an episode of The White Lotus, I don’t have the energy.

But I recently made an exception and wow, am I glad I did.

The current number one show on Netflix, Adolescence, is a gripping four-part series that I have thought about probably every hour since I wrapped it up. The show follows 13-year-old schoolboy Jamie Miller, who is arrested on the suspicion of murdering his classmate. And if you’re a parent—especially of boys—you need to watch it. Without giving away any spoilers, here's why.

Filmed in one continuous take and unfolding in real time, every moment of the series pulses with tension. From the second the police break into Jamie’s home in episode one, to the moment he’s interrogated at the station, you feel the panic, confusion and heartbreak alongside his family. And speaking of Jamie, newcomer Owen Cooper's performance has been lauded by critics as quite possibly the best child acting debut ever. In short, he's incredible. Stephen Graham as Jamie's dad and Erin Doherty as the child psychologist tasked with profiling Jamie ahead of his trial are equally outstanding. This is edge-of-your seat kind of stuff.

I've been telling every parent I know to watch Adolescence because it’s that important. The show takes a hard, unflinching look at what today’s teens—especially boys—are facing: social media bullying, societal pressures and a terrifying lack of understanding about consequences.

I was particularly interested in hearing what my colleague, Dana Dickey, senior editor and mother to a teenager, thought of the series.

"This show has really hit home with me as the mom of a now-18-year-old who had a difficult time in middle and high school, due to a perfect storm of family illness plus pandemic isolation plus hormones," she tells me. "I appreciate that the show examines the social pressures of boys today, and exposes that there are seemingly sympathetic voices online that we as parents don't even know our boys are engaging with, who give them hateful messaging in response to their understandable anxieties."

I couldn't have said it better myself. Which brings me to my next point...

Watching this show with my husband sparked some of the deepest conversations we’ve had in a long time. Even though our sons are only 5 years and 5 months old, the series made us examine how we communicate with our kids, how we spend time together and how much we really know about what is going on in his head.

Dickey felt the same. “As a mom, it reminded me to put aside work, entertainment and even self-care—things we’re often told to ‘lean into’—and really engage with my son. Even when it feels cringey. Even when he doesn’t want me to. Because the parents in Adolescence had no idea their son was in distress, and by the time they did, it was too late.”

There’s a line in episode four that haunts me. Jamie’s mother says: ‘I think it’s OK if we admit to ourselves that we could have done a bit more.’

And that, to me, is the real takeaway of the series. Because the truth is, we could all do a bit more—parents, schools, social media companies, policymakers.

The stakes are too high not to.