Otago University media studies lecturer Dr Rosemary Overell will be joined by the department’s Dr Rachel Billington, Dr Michael Daubs and Dr Brett Nicholls for a special seminar on the show today at the Burns 1 lecture theatre.
The series is created by Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham and directed by Philip Barantini.
It centres on a 13-year-old schoolboy named Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper), who is arrested after the murder of a girl in his school.
Dr Overell said the show "tells us something about the broader context we live in".
"We’ve got a problem around the child being from a good lower middle-class family, the teachers are well meaning, the psychologist is well meaning — all of this — but men’s violence still is a problem here."
The show’s relationship with media was fascinating, she said.
"Most standard generic approaches to the issue of gender-based violence demonise media as the problem.
"But this one offers something more complex, which I think hooks into how people experience social media in their everyday lives. So it doesn’t just offer a quick fix.
"In the final episode, the sister says it’s all about the combination. She’s talking about her outfit, but we could think about this in terms of how power and hetero-patriarchy works. It’s not fixable."
Adolescence has coincided with the New Zealand government proposing banning under-16s from using social media.
"In the past week we’ve had a fix offered by the government that policy regulation is the way to control this [sort of violence], but that doesn’t really work.
"So I think that hits something.
"People have all this knowledge, they know the right behaviour online, they know about consent, they know about the MeToo moment but sexual violence still occurs."
The way large online companies "profit off the circulation of misogynist images and misogynist ideas" could be a good point for discussion, Dr Overell said.
"People are at a loss when understanding gender-based violence, particularly around sexuality. And sexuality is always a puzzle — it’s always impossible.
"I suppose the show grapples with that without an answer."
People also had to consider whether — as depicted in the show — there was a lack of solidarity among men in modern society.
"So everyone’s sort of sectioned off into their own job-based role; the lower-middle class plumbing father or the detective are both sort of married to their job in a way.
"That’s not an easy answer, but we could think about how and why there’s no lateral solidarity. And in fact ... everybody [in the show] seems quite atomised.
"There’s also good teachers at the school, but obviously something’s gone wrong. The students won’t line up, literally."
However, despite the difficult material in Adolescence, she did not find it "depressing", Dr Overell said.
"I have to say I was moved by it.
"I just rewatched it for the panel and I still burst into tears in that final episode and I’m usually someone who is pretty hardened by media ... But Adolescence did seem to cut through and I felt like a lot of people I talked to [about the show] have that sense that it generated some affects or feelings which, though hard, we’re still affected by it."
The seminar runs today from 3pm to 4pm.
