Don't get caught up in the craft

Lessons from an adolescent

Don’t worry. It’s not that adolescent.

No, instead, like everyone in your office, everyone on the Internet, and for some reason everyone in the Houses of Parliament, I want to talk about Adolescence. The Netflix one.

We binged it over three nights. Martin did it in one. Ben’s still on Episode Three - no spoilers.

And you know what, all the conversations go the same way.

“Oh, how good is the acting?”

“I know! The acting!”

“And the one-shot thing.”

“Yeah, the one-shot thing. Did you see the behind the scenes from episode two where they attach the camera to a drone, chase it down the road, and then catch it in the car park.”

“Yeah, I’ve seen that.”

“Amazing.”

“Amazing. Just the acting. The acting with that one-shot thing. Must be so hard.”

“So hard.”

Props to the director. The camera man. All those actors. Yeah, the acting is superb. The two-hander in Episode Three? Best-acted thing I’ve seen on telly since The Suitcase episode of Mad Men.

Wowsers.

I was really interested in what Ben thought of it. Given that he’s an actor¹ and everything.

Ignore idiot features’ stupid opinion about Severance. Go back and look at that conversation I kicked this post off with again. What are people raving about?

The acting.

The camera work.

The direction.

They say things like this:

Or this:

Alright Stephen. Wind it in a bit. It was good.

But Adolescence is supposed to be telling a really important story about a crisis of masculinity, how bald headed rapists in Romania are teaching lads that 80% of women only fancy 20% of men², and how all of this poisonous shite is translating directly into violence against not just other lost boys, but frequently against women and girls.

Do you know what’s influencing your son?

That’s the key message. That’s the key takeaway.

And it’s been lost in a lot of well-deserved talk about acting and camera work. People aren’t losing themselves in the story.

It’s an issue I see when I can tell someone’s done something really out there and crafty with a piece of copy.

Sure, it’s impressive that they’ve done all this linguistic, stylistic stuff. But I’m thinking about the craft, not the thing the copy’s actually been crafted to make me think about.

Maybe, just maybe, I’d have been even more impressed if they’d put the message first?

Something mint - a mother’s day advert that made me laugh

So much holiday advertising is shite isn’t it? It’s all just facile. It’s namby-pampy saccharine nonsense.

Mother’s Day is up there with Valentine’s Day as one of the worst offenders for me.

Ooh, aren’t mummies just lovely? Aren’t they lovely? Kisses and cuddles and blah blah blah. Life’s not a cartoon. Mums are people and people are complicated. Families are complicated.

Sometimes people are buying a present because of social pressure, or because if they don’t, their little brother will and they’ll look like a right tosspot and I don’t care if it’s revenge because I bought that foot spa for her birthday and you settled for Sainos value flowers, Phillip.

• Pain point - sibling rivalry. Tick

• Art direction - literally a gobby mum. Tick.

• Bonus benefit - there’s something for every mum so you don’t have to think too hard. Tick.

That’s got to land better than “get mumsy wumsy a cuddly wuddly hoody” or whatever Oodie farted into my email inbox this morning.

Hasn’t it?

1. He played an American Tourist in an episode of Channel 4’s Fresh Meat. A role that propelled him into the stratosphere of not having an IMDb page and having to write about agricultural pesticides for a living.

2. If that’s true, how’ve my three uncles clocked up 7 wives between them despite them looking exactly like you’re picturing them? Only one person in this house has been described as looking like a haunted tree, and it ain’t my very pretty wife. Christ, men punching up in the dating market off the back of personality and humour is a trope, you cheekbone-measuring dipshits.