Episode #1.3

Jamie is interviewed by child psychology Briony Ariston, who attempts to get him to open up with hot chocolate and sandwiches, but she finds him reluctant to talk, until he expresses his real views on Kate.

Such is the way this series is going, you never quite know what's coming next, I don't think I was expecting this.

The first two were excellent, this third episode was nothing short of sensational, the level of acting here was off the scale, two powerhouse performances.

In every episode we've been taken down a path, we've seen a seemingly sweet boy, who loves his dad commit a shocking act, we now get an insight into the dark recesses of his mind, even at this age, he is one disturbed boy, the interview clearly had a big impact on poor Briony.

Erin Doherty and Owen Cooper were both sublime in their respective roles, I honestly cannot throw enough superlatives at the pair, unbelievable.

Off the scale!

10/10.

50 minutes of conversation-when that's this entertaining, you know they've done an incredible job.

This episode was absolutely phenomenal. The acting was outstanding, and as a behavioral scientist myself, I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. The episode masterfully tackles the impact of social media, focusing on the need for validation and the pursuit of being liked. But what happens when that validation slips through your fingers?

A big thank you to the actors, director, and writers for their incredible work. And most likely, a nod to the psychologist who contributed to making this so authentic. You've reminded me just how great television can be.

I just finished watching this for the first time. I am absolutely in awe of what I just witnessed.

Obviously, there's the technical aspects, that these two actors managed to put in such outstanding performances in one take. Owen Cooper needs to take home every award under the sun; he is the most talented child actor I've ever seen. Erin Doherty was also pheomenal.

But the meat of the episode is the outstanding script. It would have been so easy to write the boy as a monster, an arch misogynist who watched Andrew Tate and decided to hate all women. Instead we get a far, far, far more interesting and realistic portrayal.

Yes, he obviously has awful views about women, most obviously moments such as when he is talking about finding a girl who is 'weak' to go out with him, being angry at the boy who shared the photos not because of the invasion of privacy but because he wanted to see other girls, him expressing that he wished he had killed that girl while still denying doing it, him thinking that most boys would have violated her and he is good for not doing it.

But he's also deeply damaged; a victim of cruel bullying, extremely low self-worth, feelings of shame and unworthiness. He's nothing close to a 'sociopath' as one review here puts it. The far more disturbing truth is that you can imagine a lot of his thoughts and feelings among your average 13 year old boy. Trading naked pictures of their classmates is a sadly common thing for boys to do; they're raging with hormones, their brains are far from fully developed and are often lacking in empathy, they're spurred on by one-another, and they have natural curiosiity. The "80/20 rule" nonsense is something you can easily imagine frustrated boys telling each other when they're struggling to get a girlfriend. And clearly most important the crushing lack of self-worth and feelings of inadequacy and loneliness: society rightly talks a lot about the pressures facing girls, but we almost never talk about the pressures facing boys; the struggles with self-worth, the loneliness that stems from fathers who often are emotionally repressed themselves and struggle to express their love, the expectations stemming from what it means to be a man, and the cruelty of other kids around them, boys and girls, them going through their own struggles.

Katie is not your 'perfect victim'. She bullied Jamie and was very cruel to him. That is a brave decision the writers made that speaks to the awful dynamics at play in schools. Katie is treated like an object by the boys in her school, having her private photos passed around to be mocked and objectified. The way Jamie tells it, almost all the boys have seen and talked about the photos, which is sadly believable. Jamie then decides she is 'weak', in his words, and that maybe she's ostracised enough that she'll go out with him. I saw one highly upvoted review here saying that there was a 'reveal' that he planned to rape her. I don't view the scene that way at all. I think he planned to scare her with the knife, but his murder seemed to be a fit of rage after she shoved him. I don't know if he even had a clear plan, I think he just wasn't thinking, his mind filled with anger, hatred, and low self-confidence. Which is unforgiveably reprehensible of course, but I don't think it's implied he was planning on assaulting her.

But his feelings, that maybe she would go out with him because she's "weak" and he's so undesirable, it's simultaneously deeply misogynistic and contemptible, while also deeply sympathisable; this is a boy with extremely problematic views on women and girls, but also with a crushing lack of self-worth and deep feelings of loneliness.

And this is what the episode chooses to end on; Jaime is devastaed to hear that he won't see Briony again. He has acted with contempt and aggression towards her, but has also clearly bonded with her, clearly likes her in a completely non-sexual way. He felt understood by her. He felt heard. Even, god forbid, liked. So the episode ends with him desperate for her to just say he liked him; not at all in a sexual way, he purely wanted to feel validated and understood. It's the central tragedy of his character, a boy who feel into misogyny and voilence as a product of a society that led to him feeling worthless and unvalued.

It's disappointing, watching this quite late after airing, to see what the conversations following this miniseries have been like. They've almost entirely talked about the problem of social media, the problem of growing misogyny in boys fed by online radicalism. And that is undoubtedly a hugely important part of the story. But equally important are the crises of loneliness, isolation, emotional repression, and low self-esteem facing boys. Obviously it goes without saying that Jamie's feelings could never come remotely close to justifying any of his actions, but as a society we need to look at these issues at a far deeper level than simply "social media is bad" whilst absolving ourselves of responsibility.

Absolutely phenomenal writing, directing and acting. The dialogue felt very grounded and raw; I enjoyed that the therapist actually stayed professional rather than trying to act as a friend to him, it's so hard but it's the reality. So often shows like this take a maternalistic approach with therapists and teachers (ie. Gifted, Shrinking, Palmer, etc) where they go out of their way to unprofessionally take the client or student under their wing, treating them as their own child. This show did it RIGHT, and it made it all the more emotional and REAL.

Obviously we all know Owen is a star in the making, if he delivered each of those monologues with little to no cuts that's unbelievable; he embodied exactly the emotions an angst filled teenager would portray when faced with such conflicting feelings. Oscar worthy all the way.

This is the most interesting, captivating, shocking, and frankly scary episode. Owen's performance as Jamie was nothing short of an Oscar- or Emmy-winner. He is so young but he conveys the turmoil, and complex emotions of a psychologically unstable teenager so incredibly well. He did it with such ease that even made I was scared for my life whenever the outburst began.

In conjunction, Erin's performance as the psychologist matches that of Owen. The episode is literally just 2 characters playing a mind game. One is young yet cunning, while the other is older but calm, collected, and experienced yet vulnerable.

If this episode didn't win Owen at least an Emmy nomination, I don't know what deserves more.