Netflix’s newest limited series, Adolescence, has pleasantly surprised the entertainment industry. The four-episode British series has amassed 24.3 million views globally and 93 million hours viewed in just a few days since it started streaming on the platform. Of course, any series that becomes unexpectedly popular overnight is bound for sequel rumors.

Adolescence tells the story of a 13-year-old boy named Jamie Miller after he is arrested for murdering his classmate, Katie Leonard. The four episodes chronicle the immediate aftermath of the crime, not questioning who committed the horrible act but why Jamie turned from a bright boy into a cold murderer. Touching on the subject of online radicalization, Adolescence shines a light on the rise of dangerous misogyny fueled by Internet influencers belonging to the “manosphere,” a subculture that empowers insecure men by means of targeting women. The ending of Adolescence lacks the typical twist in crime shows, upholding the reality that the message is far more important than the dramatics. But the ending and the sheer quality of the series left people wanting more of Adolescence.

Will There Be a Season 2 of Adolescence?

Netflix Has No Plans to Renew Adolescence

Image via Netflix

Netflix has billed Adolescence as a limited series, meaning it more than likely won’t get a second season. Creators Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham intentionally wrote the series to end on the Miller family in the months after his arrest, specifically in Jamie’s bedroom as it started. The creators wanted to shine a light on the positive influences Jamie had in life — his hardworking parents and kind sister — to show that, despite having a good family and upbringing, he was still brainwashed by online hate. It’s a moment of acceptance for Jamie’s parents, especially his father, that they weren’t responsible for Jamie’s turn to crime.

Stephen Graham: “We knew that we wanted to end it in that room. We wanted the journey to finish where it began… This is where the person who Jamie became was created.”

Outside the story, Netflix has a bigger chance of snatching some prestigious awards by restraining itself from giving Adolescence another season. Netflix has dominated the Limited Series category for the Primetime Emmy Awards for the past two years, being nominated for four series and winning for Beef and Baby Reindeer. While Netflix is slightly struggling to gain traction in the drama and comedy categories, it may have found its golden ticket with limited series.

An argument could be made that Netflix can capitalize on Adolescence‘s success by making it an anthology series that features a different set of cast and characters in the following seasons. That’s how Netflix is getting away with another season of Beef, creating a new story with entirely new characters to still qualify for the Limited Series or Anthology category. But any returning characters would automatically shift Adolescence into the Outstanding Drama Series category, where it would have steep competition against (likely) Severance, The Last of Us and The White Lotus in 2025.

Why Are There Only Four Adolescence Episodes?

From a Technical and Storytelling Perspective, Adolescence Needed to Keep It Short

Even for a limited series, four episodes is considered short. Many miniseries as of late typically lie between six and eight episodes. However, Adolescence‘s intense technical exercise and immersive storytelling only requires four episodes. Each episode of Adolescence is captured in one shot with no hidden cuts. That means that the smallest mistake would require the cast and crew to start over the hour-long shot. Such meticulous filming would require a superb amount of rehearsals and planning, alongside adequate filming time to nail.

The technical aspect of Adolescence is what attracts subscribers to press play on the series, but it’s the handling of such a sensitive subject that keeps people watching until the end. Adolescence is a masterclass in not dragging out a real-life discussion longer than it needs to, while also hitting all the major points in an efficient manner of time. Adolescence isn’t a “whodunnit” crime show that questions whether Jamie killed Katie. That matter is answered pretty cut and dry at the end of Episode 1. Adolescence‘s interest is in the “whydunnit” — why did Jamie kill Katie? How did “incel culture” radicalize a good kid? How did Jamie’s parents never spot any warning signs?

Adolescence aims to bring light to the minefield that is the Internet. Over the course of four episodes, viewers see how out of touch Millenniels and Gen X are with current trends compared to Gen Alpha kids. The big twists that viewers are looking for are already there in the way the adults discover how much they don’t know about their own kids and what they’re engaged in online. Emojis have a completely different meaning than they did years ago, and kids have a whole life on their phone and computer that takes advantage of their insecurities to turn them into another victim of hateful propaganda. The show is entertaining, but it serves as social awareness for kids and adults.

Adolescence does leave some open-ended questions in the end. Viewers will be left thinking about how the Millers will adapt to their new life without Jamie and in a community of judgment. It’s also fair to question how Jamie’s school has responded to this tragedy, and whether any steps they take will even be effective enough to prevent another case of gendered violence. Most of all, will Jamie learn from this experience, or will his seclusion from society just recharge the toxic perceptions he has about men and women? These are all valid questions to have, but ones that Adolescence doesn’t need to answer to share its message.