12 TV Shows Like Adolescence You Need To Check Out

Every so often a series like “Adolescence” comes along. Over just four episodes, this powerful piece of storytelling shows us how we can probe for answers to the question of how a child who seems to love his parents and has friends can become a murderer, but still come up short. “Adolescence” focuses on not just the suspect in the case, 13-year-old Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper), but also his parents and sister, his classmates and teachers, the police officers who have charged him, and the psychologist who is trying to assess his mental state. 

We know from the first episode that Jamie did it; the question then becomes why. It’s a question Jamie himself has to deal with, along with his friends, his family, and even the viewers, as he goes from an innocent young teenager to a frightening monster and back again.

As a result of its devastating narrative and innovative style, with all four episodes shot in single takes, “Adolescence” has quickly become a cultural touchstone for how we understand teenagers today. The series listed below each have elements of “Adolescence,” whether it’s because they’re crime dramas, like “Broadchurch” or “Mare of Easttown,” they spotlight children accused of crimes, like “Defending Jacob” or “When They See Us,” or they feature one of the stars and the director of “Adolescence,” as “Boiling Point” does. Whatever the connection, here are 12 TV shows like “Adolescence” you need to check out.

The BAFTA-winning series “Broadchurch” is, like “Adolescence,” a British crime series, but in this case it’s about the murder of an 11-year-old boy named Danny Latimer (Oskar McNamara). The action centers around Detective Inspector Alec Hardy (David Tennant) and Detective Sergeant Ellie Miller (Olivia Colman), who investigate the case in the small fictional town, which was actually filmed in several different locations. 

The first season, in particular, has echoes of “Adolescence,” as Danny’s murder brings up terrible grief for the community and a wariness of the townsfolk’s neighbors who hadn’t been there before. Yet while “Adolescence” is briefer and more insular, “Broadchurch” takes a broader view. It incorporates the family of the murdered boy, the press there to report on the story, the town’s Reverend (Arthur Darvill), Ellie’s family, and more.

Many people come under suspicion as a result of Alec and Ellie’s investigation, and many secrets are unearthed as a result. Some even result in terrible consequences that turn out to have nothing to do with the murder. But the most harrowing revelation is saved for last: the identity of the murderer. There was an American adaptation of this show called “Gracepoint” starring Tennant in a similar role, but do yourself a favor and see the original; it’s far better despite the two series’ many similarities.

“Baby Reindeer” is another limited series on Netflix that, much like “Adolescence,” is a tough but worthwhile watch. This one is a work of autobiographical fiction by Richard Gadd, who stars as Donny, a bartender at a London pub who aspires to be a comedian. Donny attracts the attention of Martha (Jessica Gunning) after he offers her a free tea.

Martha develops a fixation on him, sending him hundreds of texts a day, stalking him in person, and eventually taking up a position at a bus stop across from his house. When asked why he doesn’t report her to the police, Donny flashes back to his time with Darrien (Tom Goodman-Hill), a successful TV writer who drugged and sexually assaulted him. While Donny eventually stopped going to Darrien’s apartment, the damage was done, so when something similar happens with Martha, Donny goes into a state of denial about it.

“Baby Reindeer” is difficult viewing and is even scarier if you know the real story, but it can also be rewarding if you can stomach everything the show brings to light. Even with the controversy spawned from the claim that it is “a true story,” and not “based on a true story,” it manages to be an emotionally complex series that has a lot to say about emotional, psychological, and sexual abuse.

“Sharp Objects,” adapted from the novel of the same name by Gillian Flynn, is about a journalist who comes back to her hometown of Wind Gap, Missouri, to cover a crime. Though Camille Preaker is a reporter, she’s also an alcoholic and recently left a psychiatric hospital, with all of it seemingly due to her mother, Adora Crellin (Patricia Clarkson), who is a shining socialite to the town, but a terrible monster to her daughter.

Nonetheless, during her time in Wind Gap, Camille goes to live with Adora, her stepfather Alan (Henry Czerny), and her teenage half-sister Amma (Eliza Scanlen), even though Adora continues to tell her daughter in no uncertain terms what she thinks of her.

“Adolescence” and “Sharp Objects” both share a dual focus on the crime and the family involved, though in the case of the latter, this is more nebulous until about halfway through the series. In fact, the focus on Camille’s family seems to take center stage for most of the series, with the crime taking a secondary role until the ending of “Sharp Objects,” when the two come together in unexpected ways. “Sharp Objects” was nominated for Emmys, Golden Globes, and many more awards, and when you watch it, you’ll understand why.

If you liked the police interrogation in the first episode of “Adolescence,” you’re in luck. “Criminal: United Kingdom” is a whole show about nothing but police interrogations. With additional versions of the series set in France, Spain, and Germany, and filmed in the local language, “Criminal” is an anthology series where each episode deals with the interrogation of a specific criminal suspect. 

The series never steps too far away from the interrogation room and the viewing quarters on the other side of the glass. The moment the suspect gets in an elevator to go elsewhere, we never hear from them again. But this show has a way of getting under your skin nonetheless.

Each individual in the hot seat has a story, but whether they’re telling the truth or whether it’s been made up out of whole cloth is up to the interrogator to find out, and they always manage to get their man … mostly. With a parade of stars, including David Tennant, Hayley Atwell, and Kit Harrington, who portray the individual suspects for a single episode each, this show keeps you guessing while the detectives do their work, even as they don’t move from the cramped confines of the interrogation room and its surroundings.

In “The End of the F***ing World,” 17-year-old James (Alex Lawther) decides he’s a psychopath. He starts out killing animals galore, but grows bored and wants to try killing a human being as a natural progression. So he picks out a girl at his school for the “honor,” Alyssa (Jessica Barden), a rebellious nightmare with a despicable stepfather. Alyssa, after a particularly bad day with her stepfather, suggests the pair run away together, and James agrees in the hopes that he’ll find an opportunity to kill her when they’re away from their homes.

This doesn’t seem like a premise that will generate a lot of laughs, but in fact, it’s hilarious, heartfelt, and tragic. It’s also the perfect antidote for “Adolescence,” if you can handle some of the more gruesome aspects of the series. Like “Adolescence,” “The End of the F***ing World” concentrates on kids who murder, but “The End of the F***ing World” has a very different sensibility. Quirkier and funnier, yet almost as sad, this show has a lot to say about the horrors of youth, the difficulties of relating to others, the impact of trauma, and the challenges of falling in love.

Kate Winslet sports a Delco accent as the title character in “Mare of Easttown,” and she’s wonderful in the role of a former high school basketball star who’s now a detective with her hometown police department. Mare is called to investigate the case of a teen mother (Cailee Spaeny) who was murdered; that case makes up the backbone of this show, but there’s so much more to it. 

In the limited series, which focuses on Mare’s difficult personal life as well as her professional struggles, Mare is grappling with a variety of things, especially the suicide of her son, Kevin (Cody Kostro), and a custody battle with her son’s girlfriend, Carrie (Sosie Bacon), over her four-year-old grandson, Drew (Izzy King). But Mare’s detective work is being called into question too, as she hasn’t solved the case of a missing girl, Katie (Caitlin Houlahan), for over a year.

Though the concerns are different, the combination of crime procedural and family drama resembles “Adolescence.” “Mare of Easttown” was nominated for a number of awards, and Kate Winslet, Evan Peters, and Julianne Nicholson won Emmys for their portrayals of characters in the series. Like “Adolescence,” this is an excellent series that will keep viewers glued to the TV.

“Yellowjackets” has released three seasons so far and has been renewed for a fourth at press time. It has gotten steadily more depraved throughout its run, but we knew it was headed in this direction from the beginning. That’s because the first scene of the series shows a girl falling into a trap and being dragged away to be slaughtered and eaten by a group of people who we quickly discover are members of a high school girls’ soccer team. As a result, the show, like “Adolescence,” isn’t about what happened but about why it happened.

“Yellowjackets” unfolds in two timelines: One takes place in 1996 when the soccer team, called the Yellowjackets, experiences their plane going down in the middle of the wilderness as they’re on their way to a national championship competition; the other takes place 25 years later when the remaining survivors reunite and continue to deal with the fallout from their ordeal. (Both timelines are a masterclass in how to use music on TV.)

“Yellowjackets” presents numerous mysteries about who did what and why they did it, but never is there any doubt that if they appear in the present day, they all eventually became cannibals in the past. Yet the brilliance of the show is that the revelation of just how bad things got comes slowly. Though we know they were rescued, we also know the 19 months the teens spent in the woods continues to affect them 25 years later. It’s a skillful depiction of past and present trauma.

“Boiling Point,” based on the movie of the same name, is a four-episode miniseries that centers on the chefs and staff at a fancy restaurant in England. The premise seems to have more in common with the restaurant-centric “The Bear” than “Adolescence”; however, one of the stars of the show is Stephen Graham, who co-created both “Boiling Point” and “Adolescence.” Plus Philip Barantini directed “Adolescence” as well as both the “Boiling Point” movie and the television show, so “Adolescence” and “Boiling Point” share some DNA. 

Both shows use continuous shots, although the shots in the TV version of “Boiling Point” are more like homages to the full-length single shots that take up whole episodes in “Adolescence.” Also, the two are similar thematically: They’re both deadly serious examinations of the difficult lives of the people involved. In the case of “Boiling Point,” that means that while the restaurant Point North struggles financially, there are dozens of other issues.

The head chef, Carly (Vinette Robinson), has to deal with her ailing mother; pastry chef Jamie (Stephen McMillan) commits an act of self-harm; kitchen porters Jake (Daniel Larkai) and Holly (Hannah Traylen) have their hours docked and end up committing a criminal act as a result; head pastry chef Emily (Aine Rose Daly) reaches for the bottle; and Andy (Graham), the former head chef of a different restaurant, attempts to make up with Carly for what he did on the job there. It’s a tense stew that’s all the more strained for the incredible stakes of their work at Point North.

The Emmy-nominated miniseries “Unbelievable” is based on the true story of a serial rapist, told in part through the eyes of one of his victims. In 2008, Marie Adler (Kaitlyn Dever), a former foster child, tells police officers about a rape she suffered. But the officers don’t believe her and accuse her of filing a false police report. 

In 2011, Detective Karen Duvall (Merritt Wever), who is investigating a case of sexual assault, is told by her husband, Max (Austin Hebert), who works at a different precinct, that Detective Grace Rasmussen (Toni Collette) is working on a case similar to hers. After some initial difficulty between the two, Duvall and Rasmussen start working together to discover who is guilty. The cases take the pair all the way back to 2008, where a photo of Marie proves that she was telling the truth about her assault.

“Unbelievable” and “Adolescence” are both harrowing stories of how crimes are figured out and the tough police work involved in investigating a case. However, “Unbelievable” also grapples with the police’s lack of belief in Marie, driving home the point that individual police officers will have different levels of faith in victims and criminals. It’s a shocking, disturbing series — especially because it’s true.

“When They See Us” focuses on 1989’s Central Park jogger case, in which a white woman was assaulted and raped in the historic Manhattan park. Five Black and Latino male teenagers were charged with the crime, just like the young teenager who’s charged in “Adolescence.” However, unlike in “Adolescence,’ the teenagers in this real-life case weren’t actually guilty. Known as the Central Park Five, they were falsely accused, tried, and convicted, only to be finally exonerated 15 years later when the true rapist was found.

The four-episode series, which was created, co-written, and directed by Ava DuVernay, tells the troubling story. One member of the Five, Korey Wise, endures a particularly grievous time, spending time in prison instead of a juvenile facility. Jharrel Jerome won an Emmy for his heartbreaking work as Wise, and the series, which depicts all the details of the case, was nominated for multiple other awards. The Central Park Five filed a suit for wrongful conviction in 2003, but while the city settled in 2014 — as the series shows — the quintet still have the trauma of their time behind bars to deal with.

While “13 Reasons Why” centers on a suicide, not a murder, it has similar elements to “Adolescence.” Specifically, the first season of “13 Reasons Why” tackles bullying, peer pressure, and clueless parents, all things that crop up in “Adolescence” too. In “13 Reasons Why,” the action centers on Clay Jenson (Dylan Minnette, who has since disappeared from Hollywood), who finds a box full of audiotapes at his front door that were recorded by Hannah Baker (Katherine Langford), the student that he was in love with who killed herself a couple of weeks earlier.

The tapes tell the story of why Hannah decided to end her life, detailing her disappointments, from Jessica (Alisha Boe) blaming Hannah for her breakup with Alex (Miles Heizer) to her rape by a classmate. This is a troubling story that, while told in a YA style, has many adult themes, not the least of which is the explicit end of Hannah’s life, as she goes from a more or less normal, if angsty, teen to lost, depressed, and broken. It’s an emotionally draining watch, yet it has a ring of truth to it that makes it worth taking in.

“Defending Jacob,” like “Adolescence,” is about a child accused of a murder, but in this case the evidence is a lot less conclusive. The story, based on the book of the same name by William Landay, centers on 14-year-old Jacob Barber (Jaeden Martell) and his parents, Andy (Chris Evans) and Laurie (Michelle Dockery). Andy, in particular, is put in a tough spot by the accusation against Jacob because Andy is the assistant district attorney who is initially put on the case, until Jacob ends up being booked for the murder.

The series, even more so than “Adolescence,” deals with parents’ inability to truly know their children, especially in the era of social media. There are several instances of Jacob posting incriminating things online, but just because he posted them doesn’t necessarily make him a murderer. Both Andy and Laurie have trouble grappling with this, and Laurie in particular takes her inability to truly know what happened to a scary place. That ends up being the crux of the series: We know the what, but we don’t know the why or even who’s guilty of the crime. It’s a disturbing mix that leaves viewers to draw their own conclusions.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, needs help with addiction issues, or is struggling or in crisis, contact the relevant resources below: