The Netflix seriesAdolescencehas become a surprise hit, the rare streaming series that is both critically acclaimed and massively popular.Adolescencehas broken records in the U.K.after its first episode became the most-streamed show in a single week. The topical themes of the series, regarding a teenager who murders a female classmate, have kept it in the cultural zeitgeist;Adolescencehas remained at the top of Netflix’s most-streamed shows in America since its release. It’s 2025, though, so we can’t have nice things, and the show is being criticized by right-wing figures who would’ve preferred to see a person of color play the teenage murderer.Adolescenceco-creator Jack Thornehas now responded.
The right-wing messaging against the series blew up whenElon Muskreposted a message from Ian Miles Cheong, a far-right figure known for the misogynist harassment campaign GamerGate. Cheong is Malaysian and a resident of that country; he’s not a U.S. citizen and doesn’t live in America, but is nonetheless fixated on hyping up alt-right sentiment in the West.His March 20 social media postreads:
“Netflix has a show called Adolescence that’s about a British knife killer who stabbed a girl to death on a bus and it’s based on real life cases such as the Southport murderer. So guess what. They race swapped the actual killer from a black man/migrant to a white boy and the story has it so he was radicalized online by the red pill movement. Just the absolute state of anti-white propaganda.”
Related:Netflix’s ‘Adolescence’ Solves the Problems with True Crime
Musk then reposted the message, simply writing, “Wow.” While Cheong has a sizable following on Twitter (currently known as X), with 1.2 million ‘followers,’ Musk has 218.8 million (and, of course, owns the platform), so the fact that he reposted his message means that the toxic rhetoric has been massively amplified. Social media user Dave Lawrence commented with some clarity:
How ‘Adolescence’ Co-Creator Jack Thorne Responded
Speaking toThe News Agentspodcast,Adolescenceco-creator Jack Thorne responded to the criticism by saying, “We’re not making a point about race with this. We are making a point about masculinity. We’re trying to get inside a problem. We’re not saying this is one thing or another. We’re saying this is about boys.” Thorne also elaborated on his intentions withAdolescencein an interview withDeadline, saying:
The big question was why is violence from young men or boys towards young women or girls going up? Why is this happening? Looking into it and trying to pose that question as fulsomely as possible, without providing easy answers, was the aim that Stephen [Graham] and I set out on years ago.
“I hope what we’ve done is shine a light on an area which has been talked about but not looked at,” continued Thorne. “This is an issue that everyone has been aware of, but discovering it through Jamie is something we’ve been set on capturing. That people are excited to watch and understand Jamie, and try to understand the issue through Jamie, is rewarding.” It’s doubtful that Cheong and Musk have actually watchedAdolescence; maybe if they do, they’ll develop that rewarding empathy as well. You can stream the series through the link below:
Watch Adolescence
Adolescence
