Why Netflix’s latest drama Adolescence makes me optimistic about the future of AI and filmmaking

Adolescence, 2025, Directed By Philip Barantini, Netflix

While I don’t tend to do a lot of reviewing of TV shows and movies, I felt compelled to comment on Netflix’s latest British drama series, Adolescence.

Stephen Graham is, without a doubt, one of my favorite actors. During my time at university, where I was discovering the joys of digital filmmaking, the highly anticipated Shane Meadows film This Is England was released. Stephen Graham’s portrayal of Combo in that movie solidified him as one of Britain’s best actors, and I have been a fan ever since.

This Is England, 2006, Directed By Shane Meadows, Optimum Releasing

Naturally, when I saw the Netflix recommendation for Stephen Graham’s latest miniseries, Adolescence, I couldn’t resist a good old weekend TV show binge!

Adolescence is the latest collaboration between Stephen Graham and director Philip Barantini, the partnership that brought us the highly acclaimed independent film Boiling Point; an incredible movie that takes place over one highly stressful evening in a prestigious restaurant.

Adolescence centers around the lives of people who have been impacted by the tragic event of a teenage boy who takes the life of an innocent teenage girl. Although there are some interesting revelations as the story progresses, the series doesn’t have much in the way of twists and turns, but rather draws the audience into the compelling events as they unfold alongside the incredible performances displayed by the actors.

Stephen Graham In Adolescence, 2025, Directed By Philip Barantini, Netflix

Once again, Stephen Graham steals every scene he appears in with a phenomenal performance that one can’t help but feel emotionally triggered by… unless of course you happen to be some kind of psychopath!

In addition, the performances delivered by the child actors, especially that of rising talent Owen Cooper, are simply breathtaking! One of my regular jobs is as a teacher and filmmaker at an acting school in Denver, Colorado and there are scenes in this show I can’t wait to show my students to dissect and be inspired by Owen Cooper’s performance.

Owen Cooper In Adolescence, 2025, Directed By Philip Barantini, Netflix

Now, there have been grumblings on social media and in the news about controversies around the series’ depiction of a teenage knife crime perpetrator in the UK and how it also tackles the concept of “toxic masculinity.” I won’t be getting into any of that. What I do want to comment on is the show from the perspective of a filmmaker and how the choices made by the director on how to shoot the series impact my thoughts on how the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools might be used for filmmaking in the future.

Like Boiling Point, each of Adolescence’s episodes is shot within one continuous take. Unless they did something very clever, I didn’t see any cuts take place in any of the episodes. This feat of filmmaking is a bold artistic choice.

Throughout the decades of cinema, directors have loved the challenge of shooting entire scenes in one take. Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas had the iconic scene with Ray Liotta’s character’s journey through the nightclub. Hitchcock gave us Rope, which incorporated clever edits to give the impression the entire film was shot in one take. More recently, Sam Mendes’ 1917, which, although used more modern techniques to incorporate and hide cuts, still had incredibly impressive sequences that would have been a lot of work to pull off.

Goodfellas, 1990, Directed By Martin Scorsese, Warner Bros.

Continuous takes in film draw the audience into the perceived reality of what is happening in the story. Over the years of evolution of film, we have become accustomed to how we as an audience read each shot and cut. There are very specific rules on camera angles, positioning of actors, and cuts that, if filmmakers stray too far from, will confuse their audience. However, shooting scenes in multiple takes and angles does make things more feasible when it comes to the many elements of filmmaking.

Positioning of the camera, lighting, microphones, and all the other equipment that needs to be used but also kept out of frame. Crew members working on the scenes might need to move around during a take and have to be mindful of casting shadows or making unwanted sounds. Actors that have large amounts of dialogue need to be able to hit their marks and remember their lines and also stay in character when delivering them. All of this is made a little easier when a production company can set up a shot, do a take, cut, and re-arrange everything for another shot.

Now imagine that the director has decided to shoot something in one take. All of the people involved have to carefully plan and choreograph their movements for the duration of that take. The actors not only have to learn their lines and positioning but have to time their entrances and exits to the millisecond as the camera switches focus from one subject to another. Crew members have to do their assigned jobs and stay out of shot at all times. There is very little room for error. The pre-planning and rehearsal must be such a long process for everyone involved, but if it is pulled off effectively, it can create an incredible viewing experience.

I wouldn’t consider myself an AI Filmmaker by any stretch of the imagination, but I am using the tools of Large Language Models (LLMs) in a lot of my workflows these days. They are allowing me to do so much more than I have been able to do in the past as an independent filmmaker and editor. But my roots as a filmmaker are more geared towards the performance-driven storytelling of films like Boiling Point and shows like Adolescence. I’ve never really been impressed by special effects in movies, but give me an intense dramatic scene delivered by fantastic actors, and I’m hooked! To this day, one of my favorite movies is 12 Angry Men, the majority of which takes place in one room.

There are many predictions and fears of how AI will impact filmmaking now and in the future. It is inevitable that production companies will start to implement LLM tools to cut costs and create more content at faster paces. It is natural for a lot of people to reject works created using AI because they don’t consider it to be true art and also because they fear it will put the artists they do love out of work. I personally am terrified of a world in which no one makes films or TV shows but just types prompts into a computer and is entertained by the results. But as they say, those not using AI will get left behind those that are. As someone who is always on the lookout for new opportunities to work on projects, I need to be utilizing these tools for a cost and productivity standpoint.

However, the release and popularity of Adolescence gives me hope for a future where, although there will likely be AI films in the future, filmmakers will still choose to create art in innovative and challenging ways. The filmmakers could have shot each episode in multiple shots and it would have still been a compelling drama. But they chose to make things a lot harder for themselves to create a show that turned out to be a masterpiece of visual storytelling. For me, it made what I watched far more impressive and engaging, knowing what everyone involved would have had to do to pull off this feat of creativity.

Similarly, when it comes to visual effects versus practical effects, I still find the latter more appealing. VFX have some so far but, in my opinion, still fall short when it comes to creating a realistic world.

AI will have its place in the future of filmmaking. The great thing about it is it gives storytellers the tools to tell stories they would otherwise be unable to do so. But I don’t believe we will see the end of traditional filmmaking techniques anytime soon. At least I hope so.