Some may assume that Netflix’s Adolescence is a murder mystery with a procedural slant. We learn that there is a victim, the cops close in, but then we are baffled when we discover that the accused in question is a young, fourteen year old boy. Adolescence doesn’t offer any easy answers, and the officer that arrests Jamie Miller doesn’t realize how much this case would affect him, especially when he realizes how close it could’ve hit home. As DI Luke Bascombe, Ashley Walters delivers a performance as a man who is trying to grapple with this case’s learning curve as quickly as possible.
Before Owen Cooper’s Jamie is arrested, we spend time with Walters’ Bascombe and his partner, DS Misha Frank. Something is in the air as they chatter away, their conversation lighter than what their actions will be in just a few moments. When you have visited a crime scene, and you know what’s stake, I couldn’t help but ask Walters what is going through Bascombe’s mind
“Make sure you get it right,” Walters says. “It’s loaded already. I learned doing this show that for people like Bascombe, the most important thing is saying the right things and then doing the right things at the right time. Otherwise you could get your perp but they could walk free if you don’t say what you need to when you need to. I think Bascombe is really concerned about that, especially because Jamie is a minor. Witnesses need to be in the room during all the searches, but I don’t think a lot of people feel the weight of what’s happening until they see Bascombe in the house and then he goes into Jamie’s room. That’s where the emotions come in. Bascombe has seen Katie Leonard’s dead body, and he’s seen how it has affected her parents. That makes you angry as a policeman, I suspect. There’s a lot of adrenaline to make this arrest, and then you open the door and it’s a little kid. It starts to play on his mind quite a bit right away.”
All of Adolescence‘s episodes are done in one shot, and the ride to the station is miraculous in its ordinariness. Bascombe is facing Jamie as the young suspect gazes out the window.
“It’s surreal, totally,” he says. “It messes with you. I think the only saving grace for Bascombe, and not yet for the audience, is that he knows what’s happened already. He walks in, and it’s even hard for him, in the moment, to believe that this kid could’ve committed this crime.”
Episode one ends with an interrogation unlike one we’ve seen before. When Bascombe and Frank begin their questioning, Jamie is joined by his father, Eddie, played by series creator Stephen Graham. Walters gives Bascombe an easy air–maybe he knows he has to be straight-forward because of Jamie’s age. Jamie begins to answer all of their questions with ‘No comment,’ and Bascombe pushes harder. The talk of social media comments falls away as Bascombe presents Jamie and his father with some harsher facts, CCTV footage, and more pressing details of the violent crime.
“I have to tip my had to Owen [Cooper] and Erin [Doherty] for how they showed us to play table tennis,” Walters says, with a grin. “Them being in one place and only being able to rely on each other and the words was really great to see. There has to be nuance, there have to be level changes, and there has to be a change in tact from at least one side. None of that felt hard, honestly, because Owen was so good. It felt instinctive. I felt his frustration, because he was dealing with someone so young. Bascombe couldn’t speak to him in a certain, rough way, but, at the same time, he had to put the pressure on at some point.”
Episode two shifts from the interrogation room to Jamie’s school, as Bascombe and Frank are swallowed by the unruly mob of students. They are looking for Jamie’s friends as they try to find information about the missing murder weapon, and Frank makes a comment that Bascombe didn’t need to come all the way down for some routine questioning. We think it’s a throwaway line at first, but we soon learn that Bascombe is more concerned than he lets on.
“I think what frustrates him the most is that he has a son of a similar age,” he says. “He goes to the same school and this could’ve, potentially, been his son. Bascombe considers himself to be a good parents, and he works hard. He provides a good home for his child, and he’s in a stable marriage. He doesn’t get to spend enough time with his son, though, which means that they are quite disconnected. Bascombe might worry that his son could’ve been looking for another male role model, or father figure. What if he looked on the internet like Jamie did? When he’s at the school, it feels so at home for him, and it becomes less about justice at that point. He is desperate to understand why this happened.”
I was surprised that Walters didn’t dive into research of the Manosphere and the toxicity it carries, but when he tells me why, I would’ve done the same thing. Bascombe didn’t have to worry about becoming lost online or being manipulated by what other’s say from a glowing screen.
“I purposely didn’t look into some of the things in the script,” Walters admits. “Like the Manosphere, the 80-20 rule, and the emojis. I needed my reaction to feel like it was new to me, especially when you go into the different color hearts and things like that. That stuff blew my mind when I eventually found out. It gets so much more toxic than you could imagine. It was important to me to feel like I was learning something new every time that I did it. Because I am a dad and I have young boys, I liked that I was able to show a more vulnerable side to the character.”
Adolescence is streaming now on Netflix.
