You know what they say, a limited series is only a limited series until a lot of people watch it. That’s what’s happening with Adolescence on Netflix, which has rocketed up to become the fourth most-watched English-language series on the service as of this week. It’s about to be third, its 114 million views right behind Dahmer’s 115 million. And so, now, somehow, the conclusively-ended story may in fact get a season 2.
Deadline is reporting that Brad Pitt’s Plan B production company is in talks with director Philip Barantini about the prospect of a season 2, called the “next iteration” of the show. Plan B co-president says they want to “widen the aperture, stay true to its DNA [and] not be repetitive.”
What we should take away from this is not that the show will return to once again focus on Jamie and his trial or prison time or anything like that. A “next iteration” definitely sounds like it would follow another teen (I mean, if they’re going to keep the show name) with some sort of inherent crime or trauma. Adolescence…but starring a girl! Something like that.
It’s important to remember how the stars aligned for the first season of this show. It was carried by powerhouse performances including one from co-creator Stephen Graham (who would obviously not return for a new story) and first-time actor Owen Cooper as Jamie, a miracle that would be hard to replicate.
And of course there’s how it was shot. It’s extremely obvious a second season would have to also use the signature one-take-episode concept, one that spanned four hour-long installments and used every trick in the book, with no cheating, to make that happen. An enormous amount of staging, writing and acting all had to come together to make that work. Trying to force a second iteration could be like demanding lightning strike twice.
I mean it’s not the worst push for a limited series into more seasons. I can see how you could follow a new teen/crime story with the same concept, even if sure, I think we could all live with this being a one-season production without a demand for more. But Plan B and Netflix? They’re going to pull out all the stops to make this happen as you don’t produce the third most-viewed series in streaming history and not attempt to squeeze more out of it, for better or worse.