SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers for “Adolescence,” now streaming on Netflix

Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham‘s gut-wrenching crime drama “Adolescence” is currently topping Netflix’s most-watched TV chart, and its leading many viewers to ask the same question: Is the show based on a true story?

“Adolescence” is a four-part limited series that tracks the arrest of 13-year-old Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper) for the murder of one of his classmates. Each episode is filmed in a one take and broadens the scope of the crime and its aftermath. The first episode centers on Jamie’s arrest. The second follows the detectives as they go to Jamie’s school looking for answers about his motive and the murder weapon. The third episode centers on a session between Jamie and a child psychologist tasked with writing a pre-trial report on his mental health. The last episode focuses on Jamie’s family members as the emotional turmoil of his actions unravels them months after his arrest.

Both Thorne and Graham, who also stars in the series as Jamie’s father, have been clear that “Adolescence” is not based on a true story in the sense that it’s not a retelling of a particular crime that happened. However, Graham told Tudum the series is inspired by the alarming increase of real-life knife attacks in the United Kingdom.

The Office for National Statistics (via People) has reported that knife attacks in England and Wales have doubled over the past decade, with the Ministry of Justice reporting in March 2023 that it had convicted or cautioned upwards of 18,000 knife related crimes over the course of a year. 17.3% of the offenders in these attacks were youth between the ages of 10 and 17. 

“One of our aims was to ask, ‘What is happening to our young men these days, and what are the pressures they face from their peers, from the internet, and from social media?’” Stephen Graham told Tudum. “And the pressures that come from all of those things are as difficult for kids here as they are the world over.”

Over the course of “Adolescence,” it becomes clear that online bullying played a role in fueling Jamie’s aggression toward his classmate, Katie Leonard. Katie used emojis in Instagram comments that referred to Jamie as an incel. Bullying seemingly plays a role in Jamie’s low self-esteem as well, as he repeatedly tells the child psychologist that he is ugly. Andrew Tate and the “manosphere” also get name-checked in the series as it becomes increasingly apparent that Jamie’s views were shaped by his internet usage, including that men need to trick girls into liking them and and that 80% of women are attracted to just 20% of men.

While many crime dramas center on whether or not the suspect committed the crime, “Adolescence” does not hide the fact that Jamie did kill Katie. The final moments of the show’s first episode sees Jamie in custody and his father by his side as they watch surveillance footage of a suspect wearing Jamie’s sneakers stabbing Katie seven times. Jamie then appears to accidentally confess to the crime in the third episode, only to go into a rage by shouting at the psychologist: “I didn’t fucking say that! You’re fucking putting words in my mouth! It’s a fucking trap in here!”

Whether or not Jamie committed the crime is made even more clear in the show’s final episode when Jamie calls his dad and tells him that he is switching his plea to guilty as his trial date looms closer.

“In episode 4, he’s much further along on his journey than before,” Jack Thorne told Tudum about Jamie’s series-ending decision. “Jamie now knows what he’s done and what his future might be. That allows him to put his feelings in a box and close the lid on himself in some way.” 

Jamie’s decision to plead guilty gives way to the final scenes of the show, as his mother and father break down and contemplate if their parenting decisions shaped a killer.

“I told them, ‘Imagine that someone you love has been on a life support machine,” director Philip Barantini told Tudum about Jamie’s family’s mental state during the show’s final scenes. “You’ve been hoping and praying that they stay alive. Then, in this moment, the doctor finally tells you, ‘There’s nothing else we can do, and we’re going to switch the machine off.’ That’s what Jamie pleading guilty is for the Millers.”

“Adolescence” is now streaming on Netflix.