Just watched the first two episodes last night and I was blown away. The acting, the story were top notch. And can you imagine how many things have to go right to get a whole one hour episode right in one take? If anyone messes up or misses a beat, you have to start over. And the camera follows the kid through the window and into the street seamlessly! I don’t know how they did that, but it sure added to the immediacy. And urgency. Looking forward to the next two episodes.
Great show, and one I find myself thinking back on several days after finishing it. The acting and writing were top-notch, and the actor that played Jamie was just amazing, particularly in episode 3.
Going into it, I didn’t realize each episode was done in one shot. I think it added to the intensity and immersion, particularly for the 1st and 3rd episodes.
I also like that they didn’t try to present any answers or solutions. Rather that it’s more important to get the conversation going so that people are more aware of what’s happening. I also think that’s an acknowledgement that there are no easy solutions or one-size-fits-all.
It’s not easy being an adolescent these days. And yet, they don’t ALL turn into psycho killers (qu’est-ce que se, fa fa fa fa….). This was a compelling story. They could have made another six episodes and it would still work. An even ten.
According to IMDb, when the psychologist says “Am I boring you?” and Jamie responds with a smile, that line was ad-libbed. Not easy to improvise when you’re filming a whole hour with beats very carefully timed. But it worked.
I listened to an interview about this one-take technique with Stephen Graham. The main point was to show the shock and confusion by everything happening in real time - such as when they were asked who should be the appropriate adult, and they were just completely muddled about it. It’s putting people into a surreal experience where they don’t know how to respond, and events overtake them before they can process things - the one take helps that sense of confusion.
I think the programme was shining a light on attitudes such as this. Precisely. I have very little sympathy.
I have sympathy. I don’t think our society provides good guides or role models for young men; it feels like a lot of them are lost and don’t know what opportunities are out there for them.
And I rather expect the political response to this work of fiction will be to double down on some of the things causing young men to feel alienated: treating masculinity or male attributes as bad or undesirable, seeing crimes against women and girls as more important than those against men and boys, failing to make them feel valued by society.
I ask again: did you watch the series?
If there are any political responses the series implies they might be limiting the unsupervised access to social media in kids, and improving the school environment. For parents prioritizing spending the time with our kids, obvious but often real world prevents.
I really don’t think this is true. I think the issue is that you have your own idea of masculinity that you think should be enforced, and any deviations from that are cheap and easy targets to blame for any complex societal issues.
If you personally loathe modern culture and the relaxing of gender norms, of course it will be the first thing you blame and confirmation bias will run wild
Actually I love modern culture and the relaxation of gender norms. I’d hate to be a housewife, and most of my interests are more popular with men.
But just because current day society works well for me doesn’t mean that’s true for everyone. I don’t believe helping boys has to come at the expense of hurting girls - and both sexes need each other anyway.
I interpret you’re ignoring the question again as confirmation that you have not seen the show.
What I saw was a show that had positive traditional images of masculinity and that did not blame those images for anything. An episode with a therapist who was trying to understand what Jamie’s image of masculinity was, and offered up her own fairly traditional positive views of good at fixing things, liking sports, hanging out with mates at the pub …
That is actually a huge part of the show… Episode 4 deals almost entirely with Jamie’s family (Jamie only appears via a phone call) and gives some insight into their parenting, and particularly how his father interacts with his Mom and sister. It shows him somewhat ambiguously, as most real people are, but he was absolutely not a terrible Dad. He didn’t beat his kids, he interacted with him, he seems to genuinely love his wife. In fact, he tried to introduce many of the “masculinity” and “male attributes” you talk about to Jamie; Jamie just didn’t take to them. In fact, one through-line was how Jamie’s indifference to and lack of ability in traditional “masculine” activities like sports caused alienation from his parents. If his Dad had instead cultivated his seeming love of art, and shown genuine interest and passion in that rather than trying to force him into activities he didn’t seem to love, things might have been different.
If anything, the only real failure they point to is how both of his parents seemed OK with letting Jamie draw away from the real-life world and into the internet/social media culture that seemed to permeate his school.
I also felt they made a point to show how well-adjusted and mature his sister seemed to be. Reinforcing the point that it’s not as simple as “bad parents”=“bad kid”. Each kid responds differently to the pressures that adolescence, particularly in the age of social media, puts on them.
This is a great question. The criticisms @DemonTree seems to be making don’t seem well supported based on the series itself. They sound much more like the repetition of sound-bite level claims made by folks with a political axe to grind. I’d love to hear a criticism that’s actually based on the content of the show.
No I haven’t, I barely watch any TV at all. Most of what I see these days is the kids’ cartoons my daughter watches.
I’m in favour of limiting social media access for kids, banning phones from schools etc. It is a problem. But our government has a history of heavy handed measures that don’t address the real problem, eg wanting to ban sale of knives online because a deranged 17 year old who stabbed and killed multiple little girls at a dance class bought one on Amazon.
And from all the data I’ve seen, parents spend far more time with their kids today than they did 50 or 70 years ago. Helicopter parenting and a lack of unsupervised activity that allows kids to build self-reliance are a far bigger problem than lack of parenting IMO.
Okay then.
I wasn’t planning on posting in this thread again, but someone replied to me.
Moderating:
Let’s stick with discussion of this show, please. There are other threads to address general topics of parenting, gender roles, and government intervention.
To everyone: please don’t reply to any of these off-topic comments.
Remarkable. It’s been a while since I’ve found a tv drama that gripping and mesmerizing.
I heard about the single take ‘gimmick’ before watching and figured it would be a distraction. It turned out to be the opposite. It drew you in and gave the impression of being a witness to events as they unfolded. Intimate, even claustrophobic at times, like I needed to stop everything just so I could get some air. The choreography of the scenes in the police station and the school…wow, just wow. Brilliantly executed.
The acting was excellent all around but especially Owen Cooper and Erin Doherty in episode 3. Stephen Graham is always good, but really, everyone in it held up their end. Kudos to whoever cast the production.
I’m imagining being the person who decided to cast a kid who never acted before in this part filmed in this way where a flub is the whole shot all over again. Nah I can’t even imagine having the confidence to make that call. But what a call!
That kid should win a Bafta or Golden Globe or whatever.
Am I the only one that didn’t pick up immediately that the video in episode one was showing Jamie stabbing Katie and not punching her?
Also in the last episode with the call with Jamie on their way home, the mom and sister seemed distant and almost hesitant to interact with him. I really wish there were more episodes coming to explore some things like that, but it’s probably just me being greedy. Better to leave us wanting more than find ourselves bored of it.
And I agree about Owen Cooper. If he doesn’t come away with some acting awards, he’s been robbed.
Jamie called his Dad and the call was answered on the speaker in the van. Jamie didn’t know that his Mom and sister were listening until near the end of the call, after he had told his father he was changing his plea to guilty. At that point I think their reserved nature was a bit of guilt at overhearing what Jamie probably intended to be a private conversation to his father.
At least that’s how I read that scene.
One question had from the last episode - the subtitles made it seem like one of the boys that tagged the van and then followed the family to the hardware store was “Fredo”. I remember that name from the school episode, but not anything specific about him. Was he one of the boys that was harassing the cop’s son? Or was there some other connection I should have made there other than “asshole teenage boy”?