Summary
Adoration is a serviceable teen drama with the usual hallmarks, but its hostility can be a little off-putting.
Ironically for a show titled Adoration, everyone in this seems to hate each other. There are more arguments in the first couple of episodes that there are normal conversations, which is not the best way to welcome an audience to yet another international Netflix mystery series about wayward teens.
There are two wayward teens at the show’s core – Elena and Vanessa. They’re best friends, which for teenagers means very little. One day you’re out shoplifting and partying, the next you’re quietly seething about your exam results. Vanessa passes; Elena fails. That’s just the start of it.
Full disclosure: I like the idea of this core relationship, and a lot of its nuance. I have a fifteen-year-old daughter and I tell her constantly that while her friends pretend not to care about school and exams, you can virtually guarantee that they’ll do just enough to be heading somewhere when they leave. You don’t want to be the one person who gets left behind. It’s a blow.
There’s a compelling idea of this small thing being the catalyst for a series of small things that ultimately result in Elena going missing. Kidnapped? Absconded? We don’t know, and neither, frustratingly, does Vanessa. Through six episodes things unfurl in the usual manner, with new revelations revealing old secrets, and the seeds of jealousy and dysfunction bearing unexpected fruit down the line.
Adoration Still | Image via Netflix
Good stuff! This is what Adoration is on paper, and it sounds like a hundred other halfway decent teen dramas. But I bounced off it like it was made of rubber because it’s actively hostile from minute one. Everyone is shouting and screaming at each other so much that I felt like they were shouting and screaming at me.
Part of the show’s dramatic arc is how the community as a whole responds to Elena’s absence once it is noticed, lending more time to friends, relatives, and associates as they explore their confusion, grief, and concern. But nothing seems to be going especially well for any of them, and the attitude becomes trying quickly – at least it did for me, anyway.
Despite this I respect the crux of Adoration’s narrative, which is a reminder that even the people you believe are closest to you can become strangers at a moment’s notice. However much you think you know, about anyone or anything, there’s a great deal more that you don’t know, and this is true for just about everyone. It’s healthy to remember that.
But, of course, people always forget, and the sense of unease caused by the gradual, community-wide realization of Elena’s hidden contours provides some decent drama and one or two solid turns. At six episodes, all under an hour, the show isn’t overlong, but the pacing is still quite deliberate. Given the likelihood that you’ll be put off by a lot of the characters and relationships, it could feel even longer.
Mileage will, as ever, vary, perhaps more so here than usual. The vibes conjured up by director Stefano Mordini are quite distinct, and the performances – despite sometimes veering a little too close to melodrama for my tastes – are pretty good. But you really have seen it all before in a much less fractious, off-putting way.
