Copyright Screen Rant
When we look back on TV in 2025, it should be remembered first and foremost as the year of Adolescence. There’s been plenty of great television so far this year, with two months of hotly-anticipated small-screen releases still to come. But Adolescence has impacted viewers more than any other show, with one of its episodes coming in for special praise. It isn’t often that an hour-long installment of a TV drama focuses almost exclusively on two characters in a single, enclosed setting. It’s even rarer that such a minimalist premise for a television episode manages to hold a mass audience captive for the whole of its runtime. But Adolescence’s universally top-ranked episode is no ordinary piece of television. There’s a strong argument to make that this small-screen masterpiece should be counted among the best TV episodes of all time. With precision staging, deft writing and two mind-blowing acting performances, the third episode of Netflix’s Adolescence is the pinnacle of screen drama in 2025. Adolescence Episode 3 Is 2025’s Best TV Episode It’s incredible to think that Adolescence episode 3 features the first acting role of Owen Cooper’s young career. One of this year’s highest-rated TV episodes on IMDb, it depicts the psychological evaluation of Cooper’s character Jamie Miller by forensic psychologist Briony Ariston, who’s played by Erin Doherty with a profound sense of empathy. The episode isn’t just a TV highlight for 2025. It’s the best thing to have arrived on television this year. Described by the show’s creator Stephen Graham and his co-writer Jack Thorne as inspired by a David Mamet play (via Tudum), it sees Cooper and Doherty go head-to-head in a claustrophobic two-hander captured entirely in a single shot. In the 52 minutes we spend with the two characters, we come to know Jamie more intimately than we could possibly have anticipated. By the end of the episode, it’s difficult not to be completely overwhelmed with emotion as a viewer. This Episode Is A Major Reason For The Show’s Critical Acclaim Adolescence’s record-breaking success at the Emmys, including acting awards for Owen Cooper and Erin Doherty, came about in large part because of the show’s astonishing third episode. It was episode 3 which garnered mass critical acclaim from reviewers when the miniseries was first released, and it’s this episode that’s most frequently come up in interviews and audience reactions. As well as singlehandedly earning Doherty a raft of awards and nominations this year, the episode shines a light on Cooper’s rare acting talent more than any other part of Adolescence. It’s worth bearing in mind that he was just 14 years of age at the time the series was shot. Why Adolescence Episode 3 Is So Special Episode 3 of Adolescence articulates the show’s deeper meaning, through a direct conversation between Jamie Miller and the psychologist assigned to evaluate his understanding of the awful crime he’s been charged with. As a highly-skilled mental health professional, Briony Ariston manages to open Jamie up in ways he isn’t expecting, revealing the psychology behind his murder of a school classmate. We learn about the extent to which Jamie has been made to feel inadequate as a young male, the bullying he’s faced at school, and the rage these things provoke in him. Meanwhile, we get the sense that Briony is the first person Jamie’s ever been able to talk to about his feelings of shame and inadequacy. As well as Owen Cooper and Erin Doherty’s extraordinarily powerful performances, the expert staging and cinematography involved in the episode’s single-shot conceit emphasize the intensity of the encounter between Jamie and Briony. Underpinning everything, though, is Stephen Graham’s initial idea for this chapter in the story of Adolescence, and Jack Thorne’s masterful approach to writing its naturalistic dialogue and action.
