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Adolescence Shows the Full Kaleidoscopic Possibilities for the ‘Oner’
The new Netflix murder mystery’s one-shot formula lets each episode explore a new emotional reality.
In Adolescence, the four-episode limited series created by His Dark Materials ’s Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham (who also stars), 13-year-old Jamie (Owen Cooper) is accused of murdering one of his classmates, and each episode was filmed in a single take — a process explored in this Twitter thread — from a scene as straightforward as two characters speaking in a row to some complicated aerial drone magic. What remains so potent about the third and fourth episodes — about Jamie’s dad, Eddie, trying to celebrate his birthday as his son’s trial nears — is that they don’t follow a clear emotional line because grief and processing it aren’t necessarily linear. The choreography of the shots during a “normal day” in Jamie’s life is undoubtedly impressive, but Graham’s performance, alongside those of Christina Temarco and Amélie Pease, who play Eddie’s wife and daughter, sits in the dismay and confusion that often settle in the aftermath of an inexplicable event.
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