Aesthetic ambivalence and ethical tensions on streaming platforms: examining the television series adolescence as a case study

What is it about?

Teen dramas on streaming platforms often combine entertainment with sensitive issues such as violence and mental health. This study analyzes the Netflix miniseries Adolescence, which portrays a 13-year-old boy who commits a shocking crime, using both “cute” and “macabre” aesthetics to show how innocence and cruelty can coexist. We found that while the series risks turning suffering into spectacle, it also exposes the fragility of families, schools, and institutions in protecting young people in the digital age. This ambivalence makes Adolescence both disturbing and thought-provoking, highlighting how streaming platforms shape cultural views of adolescence, responsibility, and ethics

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