re: Adolescence on Netflix is a tough watch, but very well done.

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And then right after that at the very end when the dad goes into Jamie's room and breaks down...and tucks in the teddy bear and kisses it on the forehead and says "I'm sorry, son." That shite hit me like a ton of bricks and had me bawling. I can't imagine dealing with something like that as a parent, and I hope and pray I never have to.

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As a dad of a 12.5 year old it was definitely tough. Jaime kinda built like my boy, in that awkward preteen/early teen gangly stage.

Having read some reviews it seems like a lot want to applaud its take on “toxic masculinity” and all that shite.

I didn’t really get that sense from the show at all. To me it was more of “here is what is possible with this cauldron of social media, bullying, insecurity, and THEN some of these turds like Tate influencing kids.

So much of the social media issues in early teens seem to be focused on young girls. The constant cyber bullying, the spike in suicides, body dysmorphia, depression, anxiety, etc.

Boys obviously a different breed and as opposed to the death by a thousand cuts through bullying, often times they’re going to boil over at some point.

To me the most important themes were from the school episode in that all kids need ONE thing that they love and feel good about through these tough times. Fortunately my guy has jujitsu/wrestling and his music. You can just see how much improvement in these things helps with confidence and his overall sense of happiness. Jaime didn’t really have anything so he goes to the computer every afternoon and long into the night. That’s just pure poison on these young minds and is basically an epidemic across the west.

The other theme was that even in a good family which they were, this shite can creep in. Eddie busted his arse and had great pride in establishing his business, the mom was attentive and loving, the daughter was great…but their ONE blind spot was the screen time/online world, they even acknowledged it.

Think the show did a good job of contrasting this (if a bit muted) with their family NOT recognizing this pattern and the investigator kinda seeing in his own son that “whoa my boy isn’t the son I pictured having but I better get the hell back into his world of which I know very little about, because this kinda thing can happen anywhere.”