When Stephen Graham's Boiling Point collection, both the 2021 film and the series a couple of years later, were released, they introduced us to a novel viewing experience: What if something wasn't a nail-biting crime drama, but gave us all the anxiety and dread of one?
Both properties landed us firmly in the big renaissance of ‘Yes, chef’ content, but while The Bear has its fair share of high-octane moments about being in the belly of the steaming back room, Boiling Point, about the kitchen staff at a London restaurant, turned the heat up to 800 degrees, flambéing all our nerve endings in the process.
Now, Graham and the director behind both Boiling Points are teaming up again for something that will once again raise our cortisol levels to new heights: an upcoming four-part crime drama for Netflix called Adolescence.
Here's everything we know about Adolescence so far.
What is Adolescence about?
So far, the details about Adolescence are thin on the ground. During a recent event, Netflix announced the project along with a slew of other titles, and simply said that the series is “an ambitious crime drama told in a real-time, one-shot style.”
Reductive comparisons between the two furious kitchen dramas abound. But Boiling Point is more than equal to its cross-Atlantic cousin
Fans of Boiling Point will immediately recognise that one-shot style as a visual hallmark, as it is part of what made the film and series such a tense and unflinching watch. It was stressful enough to dart your eyes across a buzzing kitchen looking for disasters waiting to happen, so who's to say how it will feel when that technique is utilised in actual nefarious situations?
Who is starring in Adolescence?
While we don't know a lot about the meat of Adolescence, we do know that Graham will produce alongside his wife and production partner Hannah Walters, and they've teamed up another old favourite to get the perfect recipe.
First, Graham has co-written Adolescence alongside Jack Thorne, who is one of the most accomplished names in the TV and playwriting game. As well as writing and directing the recent Stranger Things West End production (another partnership with Netflix), he's frequently collaborated with Graham in the past. Their joint ventures include the This is England franchise, which Thorne wrote and Graham starred in as Joseph, and The Virtues, a Graham-fronted series about a man who unearths forgotten trauma from his past.
Then, there's Philip Barantini, who directed the Boiling Point film and a few of the show's episodes, cementing that unique one-shot technique. Barantini will serve as the series director.
As for in front of the camera, as of right now, we know very little other than that Graham will be starring.
When will Adolescence be released?
Netflix has announced that Adolescene will hit our small screens in 2025, so until then, we'll just have to get our fill of adrenaline from a Boiling Point rewatch.
