Adolescence on Netflix

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People don’t want to believe kids are born this way but a small percentage of kids really are. They just don’t have the same feelings as others.

Think of the James Bulger case where a two year old boy was kidnapped, tortured extensively, and killed by two ten year olds.

That is what the therapist completely realizes but she is hired by the defense. So she is in a quandary of how to write it up when she knows he is evil and has an explosive temper.

She would do her correct right up, submit it, and be fired. Prosecution would then hire her.

I don’t think she was hired to see if he was guilty.

They had the tape. She was supposed to figure out why. Maybe to merit a lighter sentence/sympathy?

I think she was hired to determine competency. She seemed to be trying to get at whether he understood what he had done. That's why she asks him if he understands that death is forever.

I do think she's devastated at the end because she knows how dangerous he is. He's not just a troubled boy who snapped in a moment of passion -- he planned and executed a revenge killing.

I think when he asks her if she likes him, she is sad because of course she doesn't like him, but also she recognizes that her dislike of him, like Katie's dislike of him, can only drive him further towards violence. It's a very disturbing realization.

He clearly wants love and acceptance, but now he will never get it (at least not from women like Briony) because he's shown himself to be capable of so much premeditated violence and hatred.

That's why I do think it's important in the last episode when Jaime's sister Lisa says they need to stay where they are and support Jaime, because he's theirs. Someone does have to step up and love this child. It makes sense that it's his family. That doesn't mean he'll for sure rehabilitate, but he definitely wouldn't without their love and support.

Yes all true, once you determine yours dealing with someone volatile you walk on eggshells. Doctors included.

The rest of the family’s lives are over as now they have to coddle and cater to the most dysfunctional member.

Not uncommon. The murder part is but the rest is not.

No, I think she was crying because she thought the boy was so tragic.

At that point she knew she was safe from him (he was being dragged off by a guard). She did not shudder, she cried. Someone in her field probably cares about children and she is sad that this one is so damaged.

She was crying because of how skillfully nasty and evil he was talking and being.

Oh yeah, I am sure that someone who spends her days interviewing hardened criminals cried because someone was nasty to her. 🙄

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The actor who played the father (Stephen Graham), who was also a co-creator and producer, just appeared on Morning Joe. It was interesting. He says they purposely revealed at the end of episode 1 that the boy was guilty, so the series would not be a “whodunit.” Rather, he wanted the focus to be on “why.” His concept was whether many parties (e.g., social media, the government) share culpability.

He says they wanted to give new talent the opportunity, so they considered more than 500 boys for Jamie’s role. The first scene with him that they shot was Episude 3 (with the psychologist). He said the boy has no acting training but he thinks he is a once in a generation talent.

So political goals?

Nothing to do with consulting psychologists or mental/personality disorder profiles?

They left that part out entirely in order to try to pin it on social media and government??? Not even the parent misbehaving the same way (net of knifing murders).

You did not even see the segment, yet you are on your soapbox. Of course he mentioned parents (do you know what “e.g.,” means, vs “I.e.,”?.). An entire episode was spent with a psychologist! You are the one with an agenda.

DP but agree. Did the PP watch the series? The third episode is all about Jaime's psychological profile and he is clearly deeply disturbed, frequently engaging in splitting -- he would totally lose it in a violent tirade and then one minute later be incredibly polite, asking for more hot chocolate (because he trashed the first one when he lost his temper) but saying "no you don't have to" as though in apology for his behavior. Just these wild swings from acting like a totally normal kid, even kind, and then going into a violent rage. It clearly depicts a psychological issue and the show doesn't make it seem like this is easy to address. The therapist is clearly distraught at the end of the episode and I thought the implication was that she knew he was a lost cause.

And there is a very moving scene in the last episode where the parents discuss how each of them may be culpable, talking about how there were red flags that they failed to investigate, how they knew his temper was an issue and knew it was a problem that he was staying up all night on his computer, but they didn't do anything -- didn't call a therapist, take him to a doctor, didn't force the issue. They clearly carry around enormous guilt.

But you can also understand why they didn't do anything, because you also see that they are working class, don't have an abundance of time or money. As the parent of a child with special needs, I know this dance so well. When you think your kid could benefit from an intervention but you don't know where to start and it takes a lot of time and effort to figure out what that intervention would even be. And sometimes you take your kid to a doctor or even a specialist and they say "no, seems fine" or kind of condescend to you that xyz is developmentally normal and seem to think the real problem is that you are being overzealous as a parent or trying to pathologize "normal" behavior. As a parent you are often stuck between worrying that your child has issues that are too big for you alone to fix, but also not having access to other resources that would help.

And that's what the creator was saying. When you have a kid with serious mental health issues, and the parents know he needs help but don't know how to connect him to the help, and when the medical community and schools and therapists can sometimes be dismissive because they don't trust parents, and when the influences of screens and social media offer an easy way for these parents to placate their kids when they can't deal with them and aren't getting other help, then yes, this is a society-wide problem. If you believe the problem is mental health and parenting, they you should be looking for ways to get better mental health care for kids and to support parents who have children like this in finding solutions. That's the point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People don’t want to believe kids are born this way but a small percentage of kids really are. They just don’t have the same feelings as others.

Think of the James Bulger case where a two year old boy was kidnapped, tortured extensively, and killed by two ten year olds.

That is what the therapist completely realizes but she is hired by the defense. So she is in a quandary of how to write it up when she knows he is evil and has an explosive temper.

She would do her correct right up, submit it, and be fired. Prosecution would then hire her.

I don’t think she was hired to see if he was guilty.

They had the tape. She was supposed to figure out why. Maybe to merit a lighter sentence/sympathy?

I think she was hired to determine competency. She seemed to be trying to get at whether he understood what he had done. That's why she asks him if he understands that death is forever.

I do think she's devastated at the end because she knows how dangerous he is. He's not just a troubled boy who snapped in a moment of passion -- he planned and executed a revenge killing.

I think when he asks her if she likes him, she is sad because of course she doesn't like him, but also she recognizes that her dislike of him, like Katie's dislike of him, can only drive him further towards violence. It's a very disturbing realization.

He clearly wants love and acceptance, but now he will never get it (at least not from women like Briony) because he's shown himself to be capable of so much premeditated violence and hatred.

That's why I do think it's important in the last episode when Jaime's sister Lisa says they need to stay where they are and support Jaime, because he's theirs. Someone does have to step up and love this child. It makes sense that it's his family. That doesn't mean he'll for sure rehabilitate, but he definitely wouldn't without their love and support.

Yes all true, once you determine yours dealing with someone volatile you walk on eggshells. Doctors included.

The rest of the family’s lives are over as now they have to coddle and cater to the most dysfunctional member.

Not uncommon. The murder part is but the rest is not.

No, I think she was crying because she thought the boy was so tragic.

At that point she knew she was safe from him (he was being dragged off by a guard). She did not shudder, she cried. Someone in her field probably cares about children and she is sad that this one is so damaged.

She was crying because of how skillfully nasty and evil he was talking and being.

Oh yeah, I am sure that someone who spends her days interviewing hardened criminals cried because someone was nasty to her. 🙄

She's a child psychologist, so she probably mostly interviews kids, but I still agree. If she is being hired to do a competency assessment, she almost certainly would be spending a lot of time with kids in juvenile detention, accused of violent crimes. There's no way this would be her first experience dealing with a kid who is vicious, belligerent, or violent. I actually think what was most upsetting to her was that Jamie was NOT always like that. She clearly had conversations with him where she accessed vulnerable, kind parts of his personality.

A lot of times kids facing charges for violent crimes have very little of that left in them -- I have a good friend from law school who was a public defender and represented a lot of teens. Most of them were *hard*. A lot of them had been exposed to so much violence and trauma from such a young age (for some, probably in utero) that there was no kindness at all in them. Many likely had brain injuries from early abuse and that can alter your personality really severely.

But Jaime has a lot of moments where he seems like a typical kid, sometimes it almost seems like he feels remorse or shame, but then pushes it away. That would be such a difficult thing to witness up close. To feel like there is almost room for this kid to rehabilitate but then when they really get into discussing what he did to Katie, realizing it's almost certainly not possible. Something is broken and he is no longer able to see the moral wrongness of killing or harming a woman just because she made fun of you or made you feel bad.

[Anonymous]

I thought the psychologist was primarily nauseous and horrified at the end, followed by sad. Ie, she was physicality disgusted that a young girl was dead over such stupid and childish thinking; then, after a beat, sad for everyone involved

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The actor who played the father (Stephen Graham), who was also a co-creator and producer, just appeared on Morning Joe. It was interesting. He says they purposely revealed at the end of episode 1 that the boy was guilty, so the series would not be a “whodunit.” Rather, he wanted the focus to be on “why.” His concept was whether many parties (e.g., social media, the government) share culpability.

He says they wanted to give new talent the opportunity, so they considered more than 500 boys for Jamie’s role. The first scene with him that they shot was Episude 3 (with the psychologist). He said the boy has no acting training but he thinks he is a once in a generation talent.

So political goals?

Nothing to do with consulting psychologists or mental/personality disorder profiles?

They left that part out entirely in order to try to pin it on social media and government??? Not even the parent misbehaving the same way (net of knifing murders).

You did not even see the segment, yet you are on your soapbox. Of course he mentioned parents (do you know what “e.g.,” means, vs “I.e.,”?.). An entire episode was spent with a psychologist! You are the one with an agenda.

DP but agree. Did the PP watch the series? The third episode is all about Jaime's psychological profile and he is clearly deeply disturbed, frequently engaging in splitting -- he would totally lose it in a violent tirade and then one minute later be incredibly polite, asking for more hot chocolate (because he trashed the first one when he lost his temper) but saying "no you don't have to" as though in apology for his behavior. Just these wild swings from acting like a totally normal kid, even kind, and then going into a violent rage. It clearly depicts a psychological issue and the show doesn't make it seem like this is easy to address. The therapist is clearly distraught at the end of the episode and I thought the implication was that she knew he was a lost cause.

And there is a very moving scene in the last episode where the parents discuss how each of them may be culpable, talking about how there were red flags that they failed to investigate, how they knew his temper was an issue and knew it was a problem that he was staying up all night on his computer, but they didn't do anything -- didn't call a therapist, take him to a doctor, didn't force the issue. They clearly carry around enormous guilt.

But you can also understand why they didn't do anything, because you also see that they are working class, don't have an abundance of time or money. As the parent of a child with special needs, I know this dance so well. When you think your kid could benefit from an intervention but you don't know where to start and it takes a lot of time and effort to figure out what that intervention would even be. And sometimes you take your kid to a doctor or even a specialist and they say "no, seems fine" or kind of condescend to you that xyz is developmentally normal and seem to think the real problem is that you are being overzealous as a parent or trying to pathologize "normal" behavior. As a parent you are often stuck between worrying that your child has issues that are too big for you alone to fix, but also not having access to other resources that would help.

And that's what the creator was saying. When you have a kid with serious mental health issues, and the parents know he needs help but don't know how to connect him to the help, and when the medical community and schools and therapists can sometimes be dismissive because they don't trust parents, and when the influences of screens and social media offer an easy way for these parents to placate their kids when they can't deal with them and aren't getting other help, then yes, this is a society-wide problem. If you believe the problem is mental health and parenting, they you should be looking for ways to get better mental health care for kids and to support parents who have children like this in finding solutions. That's the point.

As a parent, you also second guess. Like isn’t it normal in 2025 for an adolescent to spend a lot of time on their computer (I mean he did have friends). And how much anger is pushback due to him being a teenager (and therefore resisting parental control). Parents qrapple with these judgement calls. They might have thought, “At least he was safe in his room.” And the father kept his vow to not resort to corporal punishment, unlike his own father.

I wonder how many if these judgemental posters have actually tried to raise an adolescent to healthy adulthood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People don’t want to believe kids are born this way but a small percentage of kids really are. They just don’t have the same feelings as others.

Think of the James Bulger case where a two year old boy was kidnapped, tortured extensively, and killed by two ten year olds.

That is what the therapist completely realizes but she is hired by the defense. So she is in a quandary of how to write it up when she knows he is evil and has an explosive temper.

She would do her correct right up, submit it, and be fired. Prosecution would then hire her.

I don’t think she was hired to see if he was guilty.

They had the tape. She was supposed to figure out why. Maybe to merit a lighter sentence/sympathy?

I think she was hired to determine competency. She seemed to be trying to get at whether he understood what he had done. That's why she asks him if he understands that death is forever.

I do think she's devastated at the end because she knows how dangerous he is. He's not just a troubled boy who snapped in a moment of passion -- he planned and executed a revenge killing.

I think when he asks her if she likes him, she is sad because of course she doesn't like him, but also she recognizes that her dislike of him, like Katie's dislike of him, can only drive him further towards violence. It's a very disturbing realization.

He clearly wants love and acceptance, but now he will never get it (at least not from women like Briony) because he's shown himself to be capable of so much premeditated violence and hatred.

That's why I do think it's important in the last episode when Jaime's sister Lisa says they need to stay where they are and support Jaime, because he's theirs. Someone does have to step up and love this child. It makes sense that it's his family. That doesn't mean he'll for sure rehabilitate, but he definitely wouldn't without their love and support.

Yes all true, once you determine yours dealing with someone volatile you walk on eggshells. Doctors included.

The rest of the family’s lives are over as now they have to coddle and cater to the most dysfunctional member.

Not uncommon. The murder part is but the rest is not.

No, I think she was crying because she thought the boy was so tragic.

At that point she knew she was safe from him (he was being dragged off by a guard). She did not shudder, she cried. Someone in her field probably cares about children and she is sad that this one is so damaged.

She was crying because of how skillfully nasty and evil he was talking and being.

Oh yeah, I am sure that someone who spends her days interviewing hardened criminals cried because someone was nasty to her. 🙄

She's a child psychologist, so she probably mostly interviews kids, but I still agree. If she is being hired to do a competency assessment, she almost certainly would be spending a lot of time with kids in juvenile detention, accused of violent crimes. There's no way this would be her first experience dealing with a kid who is vicious, belligerent, or violent. I actually think what was most upsetting to her was that Jamie was NOT always like that. She clearly had conversations with him where she accessed vulnerable, kind parts of his personality.

A lot of times kids facing charges for violent crimes have very little of that left in them -- I have a good friend from law school who was a public defender and represented a lot of teens. Most of them were *hard*. A lot of them had been exposed to so much violence and trauma from such a young age (for some, probably in utero) that there was no kindness at all in them. Many likely had brain injuries from early abuse and that can alter your personality really severely.

But Jaime has a lot of moments where he seems like a typical kid, sometimes it almost seems like he feels remorse or shame, but then pushes it away. That would be such a difficult thing to witness up close. To feel like there is almost room for this kid to rehabilitate but then when they really get into discussing what he did to Katie, realizing it's almost certainly not possible. Something is broken and he is no longer able to see the moral wrongness of killing or harming a woman just because she made fun of you or made you feel bad.

Yes! In the beginning he just seemed like a scared little boy. The soft parts of him were the result of the parenting they got right.

A very well done piece of art.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People don’t want to believe kids are born this way but a small percentage of kids really are. They just don’t have the same feelings as others.

Think of the James Bulger case where a two year old boy was kidnapped, tortured extensively, and killed by two ten year olds.

That is what the therapist completely realizes but she is hired by the defense. So she is in a quandary of how to write it up when she knows he is evil and has an explosive temper.

She would do her correct right up, submit it, and be fired. Prosecution would then hire her.

I don’t think she was hired to see if he was guilty.

They had the tape. She was supposed to figure out why. Maybe to merit a lighter sentence/sympathy?

I think she was hired to determine competency. She seemed to be trying to get at whether he understood what he had done. That's why she asks him if he understands that death is forever.

I do think she's devastated at the end because she knows how dangerous he is. He's not just a troubled boy who snapped in a moment of passion -- he planned and executed a revenge killing.

I think when he asks her if she likes him, she is sad because of course she doesn't like him, but also she recognizes that her dislike of him, like Katie's dislike of him, can only drive him further towards violence. It's a very disturbing realization.

He clearly wants love and acceptance, but now he will never get it (at least not from women like Briony) because he's shown himself to be capable of so much premeditated violence and hatred.

That's why I do think it's important in the last episode when Jaime's sister Lisa says they need to stay where they are and support Jaime, because he's theirs. Someone does have to step up and love this child. It makes sense that it's his family. That doesn't mean he'll for sure rehabilitate, but he definitely wouldn't without their love and support.

Yes all true, once you determine yours dealing with someone volatile you walk on eggshells. Doctors included.

The rest of the family’s lives are over as now they have to coddle and cater to the most dysfunctional member.

Not uncommon. The murder part is but the rest is not.

No, I think she was crying because she thought the boy was so tragic.

At that point she knew she was safe from him (he was being dragged off by a guard). She did not shudder, she cried. Someone in her field probably cares about children and she is sad that this one is so damaged.

She was crying because of how skillfully nasty and evil he was talking and being.

Oh yeah, I am sure that someone who spends her days interviewing hardened criminals cried because someone was nasty to her. 🙄

She doesn’t spend her days with adult hardened criminals. I know people who though, uneducated hardened criminals don’t say much at all to anyone much less hours of ranting about what you look like, or guessing why you asked that, or attacking you verbally. Lol. Yeah that’s exactly how the cartel or mafia would handle a female psych exam….

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The actor who played the father (Stephen Graham), who was also a co-creator and producer, just appeared on Morning Joe. It was interesting. He says they purposely revealed at the end of episode 1 that the boy was guilty, so the series would not be a “whodunit.” Rather, he wanted the focus to be on “why.” His concept was whether many parties (e.g., social media, the government) share culpability.

He says they wanted to give new talent the opportunity, so they considered more than 500 boys for Jamie’s role. The first scene with him that they shot was Episude 3 (with the psychologist). He said the boy has no acting training but he thinks he is a once in a generation talent.

So political goals?

Nothing to do with consulting psychologists or mental/personality disorder profiles?

They left that part out entirely in order to try to pin it on social media and government??? Not even the parent misbehaving the same way (net of knifing murders).

You did not even see the segment, yet you are on your soapbox. Of course he mentioned parents (do you know what “e.g.,” means, vs “I.e.,”?.). An entire episode was spent with a psychologist! You are the one with an agenda.

DP but agree. Did the PP watch the series? The third episode is all about Jaime's psychological profile and he is clearly deeply disturbed, frequently engaging in splitting -- he would totally lose it in a violent tirade and then one minute later be incredibly polite, asking for more hot chocolate (because he trashed the first one when he lost his temper) but saying "no you don't have to" as though in apology for his behavior. Just these wild swings from acting like a totally normal kid, even kind, and then going into a violent rage. It clearly depicts a psychological issue and the show doesn't make it seem like this is easy to address. The therapist is clearly distraught at the end of the episode and I thought the implication was that she knew he was a lost cause.

And there is a very moving scene in the last episode where the parents discuss how each of them may be culpable, talking about how there were red flags that they failed to investigate, how they knew his temper was an issue and knew it was a problem that he was staying up all night on his computer, but they didn't do anything -- didn't call a therapist, take him to a doctor, didn't force the issue. They clearly carry around enormous guilt.

But you can also understand why they didn't do anything, because you also see that they are working class, don't have an abundance of time or money. As the parent of a child with special needs, I know this dance so well. When you think your kid could benefit from an intervention but you don't know where to start and it takes a lot of time and effort to figure out what that intervention would even be. And sometimes you take your kid to a doctor or even a specialist and they say "no, seems fine" or kind of condescend to you that xyz is developmentally normal and seem to think the real problem is that you are being overzealous as a parent or trying to pathologize "normal" behavior. As a parent you are often stuck between worrying that your child has issues that are too big for you alone to fix, but also not having access to other resources that would help.

And that's what the creator was saying. When you have a kid with serious mental health issues, and the parents know he needs help but don't know how to connect him to the help, and when the medical community and schools and therapists can sometimes be dismissive because they don't trust parents, and when the influences of screens and social media offer an easy way for these parents to placate their kids when they can't deal with them and aren't getting other help, then yes, this is a society-wide problem. If you believe the problem is mental health and parenting, they you should be looking for ways to get better mental health care for kids and to support parents who have children like this in finding solutions. That's the point.

Great post.

You also likely know how difficult it is to help someone who doesn’t want help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People don’t want to believe kids are born this way but a small percentage of kids really are. They just don’t have the same feelings as others.

Think of the James Bulger case where a two year old boy was kidnapped, tortured extensively, and killed by two ten year olds.

That is what the therapist completely realizes but she is hired by the defense. So she is in a quandary of how to write it up when she knows he is evil and has an explosive temper.

She would do her correct right up, submit it, and be fired. Prosecution would then hire her.

I don’t think she was hired to see if he was guilty.

They had the tape. She was supposed to figure out why. Maybe to merit a lighter sentence/sympathy?

I think she was hired to determine competency. She seemed to be trying to get at whether he understood what he had done. That's why she asks him if he understands that death is forever.

I do think she's devastated at the end because she knows how dangerous he is. He's not just a troubled boy who snapped in a moment of passion -- he planned and executed a revenge killing.

I think when he asks her if she likes him, she is sad because of course she doesn't like him, but also she recognizes that her dislike of him, like Katie's dislike of him, can only drive him further towards violence. It's a very disturbing realization.

He clearly wants love and acceptance, but now he will never get it (at least not from women like Briony) because he's shown himself to be capable of so much premeditated violence and hatred.

That's why I do think it's important in the last episode when Jaime's sister Lisa says they need to stay where they are and support Jaime, because he's theirs. Someone does have to step up and love this child. It makes sense that it's his family. That doesn't mean he'll for sure rehabilitate, but he definitely wouldn't without their love and support.

Yes all true, once you determine yours dealing with someone volatile you walk on eggshells. Doctors included.

The rest of the family’s lives are over as now they have to coddle and cater to the most dysfunctional member.

Not uncommon. The murder part is but the rest is not.

No, I think she was crying because she thought the boy was so tragic.

At that point she knew she was safe from him (he was being dragged off by a guard). She did not shudder, she cried. Someone in her field probably cares about children and she is sad that this one is so damaged.

She was crying because of how skillfully nasty and evil he was talking and being.

Oh yeah, I am sure that someone who spends her days interviewing hardened criminals cried because someone was nasty to her. 🙄

She's a child psychologist, so she probably mostly interviews kids, but I still agree. If she is being hired to do a competency assessment, she almost certainly would be spending a lot of time with kids in juvenile detention, accused of violent crimes. There's no way this would be her first experience dealing with a kid who is vicious, belligerent, or violent. I actually think what was most upsetting to her was that Jamie was NOT always like that. She clearly had conversations with him where she accessed vulnerable, kind parts of his personality.

A lot of times kids facing charges for violent crimes have very little of that left in them -- I have a good friend from law school who was a public defender and represented a lot of teens. Most of them were *hard*. A lot of them had been exposed to so much violence and trauma from such a young age (for some, probably in utero) that there was no kindness at all in them. Many likely had brain injuries from early abuse and that can alter your personality really severely.

But Jaime has a lot of moments where he seems like a typical kid, sometimes it almost seems like he feels remorse or shame, but then pushes it away. That would be such a difficult thing to witness up close. To feel like there is almost room for this kid to rehabilitate but then when they really get into discussing what he did to Katie, realizing it's almost certainly not possible. Something is broken and he is no longer able to see the moral wrongness of killing or harming a woman just because she made fun of you or made you feel bad.

Again: schizophrenics, bipolar, or borderlines are like this.

[Anonymous]

Hated this limited series. From a "craft" perspective it was obviously very well done and the whole gimmick of making each episode a single shot was interesting but again, gimmicky. And the actors were excellent. But if I needed trauma porn, I would just turn on the news. There's plenty of real stuff going on to be distraught about.

[Anonymous]

I think my favorite short scene is when Jaime's assigned solicitor starts talking about his favorite subject at school. You could see that Eddie wanted to scream and say "what the hell are you going on about?!" But even in that tense situation, politeness has been drilled into us to remain respectful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Haven’t watched it yet but what do people think about watching it with 14/16 yo sons?

Why not?

Exactly, get them started on trauma porn early. Netflix thanks you.

Pretty much this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People don’t want to believe kids are born this way but a small percentage of kids really are. They just don’t have the same feelings as others.

Think of the James Bulger case where a two year old boy was kidnapped, tortured extensively, and killed by two ten year olds.

That is what the therapist completely realizes but she is hired by the defense. So she is in a quandary of how to write it up when she knows he is evil and has an explosive temper.

She would do her correct right up, submit it, and be fired. Prosecution would then hire her.

I don’t think she was hired to see if he was guilty.

They had the tape. She was supposed to figure out why. Maybe to merit a lighter sentence/sympathy?

I think she was hired to determine competency. She seemed to be trying to get at whether he understood what he had done. That's why she asks him if he understands that death is forever.

I do think she's devastated at the end because she knows how dangerous he is. He's not just a troubled boy who snapped in a moment of passion -- he planned and executed a revenge killing.

I think when he asks her if she likes him, she is sad because of course she doesn't like him, but also she recognizes that her dislike of him, like Katie's dislike of him, can only drive him further towards violence. It's a very disturbing realization.

He clearly wants love and acceptance, but now he will never get it (at least not from women like Briony) because he's shown himself to be capable of so much premeditated violence and hatred.

That's why I do think it's important in the last episode when Jaime's sister Lisa says they need to stay where they are and support Jaime, because he's theirs. Someone does have to step up and love this child. It makes sense that it's his family. That doesn't mean he'll for sure rehabilitate, but he definitely wouldn't without their love and support.

Yes all true, once you determine yours dealing with someone volatile you walk on eggshells. Doctors included.

The rest of the family’s lives are over as now they have to coddle and cater to the most dysfunctional member.

Not uncommon. The murder part is but the rest is not.

No, I think she was crying because she thought the boy was so tragic.

At that point she knew she was safe from him (he was being dragged off by a guard). She did not shudder, she cried. Someone in her field probably cares about children and she is sad that this one is so damaged.

She was crying because of how skillfully nasty and evil he was talking and being.

Oh yeah, I am sure that someone who spends her days interviewing hardened criminals cried because someone was nasty to her. 🙄

She's a child psychologist, so she probably mostly interviews kids, but I still agree. If she is being hired to do a competency assessment, she almost certainly would be spending a lot of time with kids in juvenile detention, accused of violent crimes. There's no way this would be her first experience dealing with a kid who is vicious, belligerent, or violent. I actually think what was most upsetting to her was that Jamie was NOT always like that. She clearly had conversations with him where she accessed vulnerable, kind parts of his personality.

A lot of times kids facing charges for violent crimes have very little of that left in them -- I have a good friend from law school who was a public defender and represented a lot of teens. Most of them were *hard*. A lot of them had been exposed to so much violence and trauma from such a young age (for some, probably in utero) that there was no kindness at all in them. Many likely had brain injuries from early abuse and that can alter your personality really severely.

But Jaime has a lot of moments where he seems like a typical kid, sometimes it almost seems like he feels remorse or shame, but then pushes it away. That would be such a difficult thing to witness up close. To feel like there is almost room for this kid to rehabilitate but then when they really get into discussing what he did to Katie, realizing it's almost certainly not possible. Something is broken and he is no longer able to see the moral wrongness of killing or harming a woman just because she made fun of you or made you feel bad.

Again: schizophrenics, bipolar, or borderlines are like this.

Is this strong possibility addressed or sounded to at all in this fictional mini series?
Haven’t seen it yet, and may not bother.

That British reindeer games serious was bizarre enough.

[Anonymous]

* alluded to

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People don’t want to believe kids are born this way but a small percentage of kids really are. They just don’t have the same feelings as others.

Think of the James Bulger case where a two year old boy was kidnapped, tortured extensively, and killed by two ten year olds.

That is what the therapist completely realizes but she is hired by the defense. So she is in a quandary of how to write it up when she knows he is evil and has an explosive temper.

She would do her correct right up, submit it, and be fired. Prosecution would then hire her.

I don’t think she was hired to see if he was guilty.

They had the tape. She was supposed to figure out why. Maybe to merit a lighter sentence/sympathy?

I think she was hired to determine competency. She seemed to be trying to get at whether he understood what he had done. That's why she asks him if he understands that death is forever.

I do think she's devastated at the end because she knows how dangerous he is. He's not just a troubled boy who snapped in a moment of passion -- he planned and executed a revenge killing.

I think when he asks her if she likes him, she is sad because of course she doesn't like him, but also she recognizes that her dislike of him, like Katie's dislike of him, can only drive him further towards violence. It's a very disturbing realization.

He clearly wants love and acceptance, but now he will never get it (at least not from women like Briony) because he's shown himself to be capable of so much premeditated violence and hatred.

That's why I do think it's important in the last episode when Jaime's sister Lisa says they need to stay where they are and support Jaime, because he's theirs. Someone does have to step up and love this child. It makes sense that it's his family. That doesn't mean he'll for sure rehabilitate, but he definitely wouldn't without their love and support.

Yes all true, once you determine yours dealing with someone volatile you walk on eggshells. Doctors included.

The rest of the family’s lives are over as now they have to coddle and cater to the most dysfunctional member.

Not uncommon. The murder part is but the rest is not.

No, I think she was crying because she thought the boy was so tragic.

At that point she knew she was safe from him (he was being dragged off by a guard). She did not shudder, she cried. Someone in her field probably cares about children and she is sad that this one is so damaged.

She was crying because of how skillfully nasty and evil he was talking and being.

Oh yeah, I am sure that someone who spends her days interviewing hardened criminals cried because someone was nasty to her. 🙄

She's a child psychologist, so she probably mostly interviews kids, but I still agree. If she is being hired to do a competency assessment, she almost certainly would be spending a lot of time with kids in juvenile detention, accused of violent crimes. There's no way this would be her first experience dealing with a kid who is vicious, belligerent, or violent. I actually think what was most upsetting to her was that Jamie was NOT always like that. She clearly had conversations with him where she accessed vulnerable, kind parts of his personality.

A lot of times kids facing charges for violent crimes have very little of that left in them -- I have a good friend from law school who was a public defender and represented a lot of teens. Most of them were *hard*. A lot of them had been exposed to so much violence and trauma from such a young age (for some, probably in utero) that there was no kindness at all in them. Many likely had brain injuries from early abuse and that can alter your personality really severely.

But Jaime has a lot of moments where he seems like a typical kid, sometimes it almost seems like he feels remorse or shame, but then pushes it away. That would be such a difficult thing to witness up close. To feel like there is almost room for this kid to rehabilitate but then when they really get into discussing what he did to Katie, realizing it's almost certainly not possible. Something is broken and he is no longer able to see the moral wrongness of killing or harming a woman just because she made fun of you or made you feel bad.

Again: schizophrenics, bipolar, or borderlines are like this.

Is this strong possibility addressed or sounded to at all in this fictional mini series?
Haven’t seen it yet, and may not bother.

That British reindeer games serious was bizarre enough.

It is not bizarre at all. More a nuanced psychological analysis of a troubled tween, from multiple perspectives.