Amélie Pease as Lisa Miller in Adolescence (2025)
In recent years, Netflix has picked up the habit of turning miniseries masterpieces into multi-season dramas. The likes of Squid Game and Beef both started out as one-off releases, before returning for subsequent seasons off the back of spectacular success.
However, the streaming giant should tread carefully before taking this step with a four-part miniseries which took the world by storm upon its release 12 months ago. Stephen Graham and Jack Thorne’s extraordinary crime drama Adolescence works perfectly as a self-contained story told across a handful of chapters. To revive the tragic tale of Jamie Miller with a sequel season could only detract from a series widely regarded as the best TV show of 2025, and one of the best Netflix originals ever produced. Yet, it appears that Adolescence season 2 is very much on the cards. In January 2026, Stephen Graham effectively confirmed that he has a plan in mind for the show to continue. The moving scene featuring Graham which ends Adolescence isn’t really the end after all, then. Netflix bosses must be delighted that the creator of this global streaming smash will keep it going, even though his decision is fraught with danger. Adolescence Is The Perfect 4-Part Crime Drama While Adolescence is far from an easy binge, four hour-long episodes feels like the perfect length for this uniquely captivating drama series, which is quite unlike anything else that’s ever been seen on television. Depicting the aftermath of a horrifying crime from four different angles, the show gets to the heart of its subject matter in profoundly unexpected ways. At the same time as exploring the fragility of adolescent masculinity, the role of fathers and peers in shaping it, and the destructive consequences of vulnerable young boys being exposed to misogynistic ideas online, Adolescence is a deeply moving portrayal of various parties impacted by a truly awful event. In many cases, it touches nerves we didn’t know were there. Of course, it helps that the series is filled with jaw-dropping performances, including career-best turns from Stephen Graham, Erin Doherty, and Christine Tremarco, and a spell-binding screen debut from Owen Cooper. Every piece of acting we see across each of its episodes feels painfully authentic. When we factor what it took behind the camera to produce Adolescence, the series becomes even more impressive. In addition to the searingly brilliant scripts written by Graham alongside Jack Thorne, the crew had to capture each episode in a single shot – a process which involved extensive rehearsals, dialogue rewrites with the actors, and all sorts of cutting-edge technical wizardry. Giving Adolescence A Second Season Will Spoil It Great works of art are best left untouched, and that’s certainly the case with this rendering of a harrowing story of teenage homicide. If Adolescence returns with a sequel story about Jamie Miller, it’s inevitably going to spoil a flawless masterpiece that’s specifically designed to be left partial and limited by specific perspectives and moments in time. History is littered with TV sequels and revivals that took the shine off the work they followed. We’re better off not knowing what happens to Jamie Miller and his family after he decides to change his plea to guilty, so that we can sit with the difficult questions posed by the series in its current form. Adolescence has set an impossibly high standard for any sequel season to try and maintain. If a follow-up story doesn’t match the quality of the four episodes already out there in every single respect, it will be deemed a failure, and the reputation of the show as a whole will suffer. On the other hand, perhaps the second season of the series that’s being discussed isn’t a sequel to Jamie’s story at all. Instead, it could have a completely unrelated plot which also falls under the wide-ranging umbrella of adolescent trauma, with different characters in a different setting. In other words, Adolescence could become an anthology series. Adolescence's Title Opened The Door For An Anthology Series From The Start From the moment it dropped on Netflix, the title of Adolescence didn’t tally with the specificity of its plot. Although it addresses a topical theme relevant to most teenagers in today’s world, the show isn’t actually about teenage life in general. The adolescence we encounter is associated with incels, a violently misogynistic male subculture that’s pervaded dark corners of the internet in recent years. While this subculture has become worryingly widespread among vulnerable teenage boys, it isn’t representative of the universal experience of all adolescents. It feels as though the show was purposely given a vague and abstract title to leave open the possibility that it could become a multi-season anthology series covering different adolescent experiences, somewhere down the line. This choice would make sense, given the enormously broad spectrum of teenage-centric topics that could be addressed in further seasons. Subscribe to our newsletter for smart takes on Adolescence Get sharper context on shows like Adolescence by subscribing to the newsletter — clear-eyed analysis of performances, themes and the creative questions a potential second season raises, with detailed coverage and thoughtful perspective on TV drama. Get Updates By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime. If Adolescence is to be brought back for another season, approaching it as an anthology of unrelated stories would be the best way to preserve the integrity of season 1. It could well be this approach that Stephen Graham has in mind as he looks forward to another season of the show. Season 2 Of Adolescence Should Be As Different As Possible If It Happens Graham confirmed that Adolescence season 2 is something we should expect to see released in a few years’ time while being interviewed at the 2026 Golden Globes. He didn’t have any more to say on the matter, though, meaning that speculation as to what a second season of the series could involve is set to continue indefinitely. Both for the sake of preserving the legacy of the show’s first season, and to fit the general nature of its title and underlying conceit, Adolescence season 2 needs to be as different as possible from what we’ve already seen. At the very least, it should contrast with season 1 thematically. There are various burning questions about modern teenage life that the four extant episodes of the series don’t address, any one of which could serve as the basis for a captivating character study. For instance, the problem of social inequality has barely been touched upon in Adolescence so far, and the theme of race hasn’t come up at all. What’s more, since the show’s four existing episodes are primarily concerned with masculinity, female perspectives play a largely secondary role. Any second season of Adolescence would surely need to make a female teenager its central focus. 68 8.2/10 9/10 Adolescence 10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Like Follow Followed TV-MA Crime Drama Release Date March 13, 2025 Network Netflix Directors Philip Barantini Writers Stephen Graham, Jack Thorne Cast See All
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