Netflix’s Adolescence, Disordered Desires, and the Deep Work of Formation
Netflix’s Adolescence may be a drama, but its message is anything but fictional. It tells a story—but behind the script lies a cultural siren. . A generation has been formed in the fire of expressive individualism, with no anchor, no transcendent purpose, and few adults to show them the way. In this blog, we ask the deeper questions: What are teenagers for? What has gone wrong? And what kind of discipleship is needed now? This is a call to theological clarity, deep compassion, and the slow, hopeful work of forming young hearts for Christ.
A Generation Formed in the Fire
Netflix’s Adolescence is more than a cultural artifact. It’s a series that speaks with prophetic clarity—not foretelling the future, but exposing the present. It does not reveal something new, but something we’ve refused to face: a generation being slowly discipled by a world that neither knows who they are nor what they are for.
We are witnessing the visible fruit of a culture that has catechised children in expressive individualism, enthroned autonomy, and erased the boundaries that once gave life structure, safety, and meaning. Teenagers today aren’t simply confused. They’ve been formed—by forces we’ve failed to resist, and often failed to name.
But behind the visible wounds of Adolescence lies something deeper still: a generation crying out for shepherds.
What Are Teenagers For? The Crisis of Telos
At the heart of Adolescence lies a silent but devastating truth: we no longer know what teenagers are for.
In the absence of God, we have lost not only the knowledge of who we are, but also the sense of what we are for. Without a Creator, there can be no design. Without design, there is no direction. And without direction, teenagers are left wandering—asked to forge an identity from scratch and chase a future they cannot define. They are told they must become something, but given no reason why. They are urged to express themselves, but given no true self to express. The weight of self-creation falls heavy on fragile shoulders, with no anchor to stabilise their identity and no compass to guide their becoming.
The result is what we see on screen: exhaustion masked by performance, confusion hidden behind curated confidence, and despair barely concealed beneath the surface of a generation trying to find meaning in a world that cannot give it.
But Scripture offers something far more beautiful and far more human. Teenagers are not problems to manage, projects to perfect, or potential to unlock. They are image-bearers—created by God, for God, to glorify him and enjoy him forever. Their longings aren’t mistakes; they’re signposts. Their emotions aren’t distractions; they’re windows into the soul. Their questions aren’t threats; they’re opportunities for truth to take root. All of it—desire, doubt, delight, disorientation—is part of a life designed for worship.
Without this telos, adolescence is reduced to a chaotic, confusing, and often cruel holding zone between childhood and adulthood—a time to survive rather than a season to be shaped. But under Christ, adolescence becomes sacred ground. A season of becoming. A time for repentance and renewal. A time to be formed in truth, grounded in grace, and invited into something greater than self-expression: a life of joyful submission to the God who made them and loves them.
Disordered Desires: Not Just What They Do, But What They Want
The young people in Adolescence aren’t merely misbehaving. They’re misdirected at the level of desire. Their lives reveal not just broken choices but broken loves.
This is what the Christian tradition calls concupiscence—not just sinful actions, but hearts bent inward, longings that run in the wrong direction. We are not blank slates. We are lovers. The tragedy is that culture tells teenagers their desires are pure, their instincts sovereign, and their feelings ultimate. Scripture tells a different story.
Desire is never neutral. It is either shaped by the flesh or ordered by the Spirit. To “follow your heart” is not freedom—it’s a pathway into deeper captivity.
The church must recover the doctrine of desire. Teenagers don’t just need rules. They need reformation of the heart. They need to be taught to love rightly, not just behave properly. They need leaders who understand that the gospel reorders our affections as well as our actions.
Life Under the Sun: A Generation Without Heaven
Perhaps the most suffocating feature of Adolescence is its immanence. The frame never lifts. There is no heaven. No glory. No story bigger than the self. No vision higher than survival. The transcendent has been edited out, and all that remains is the here and now—a closed system of self-referential meaning, where the burden to matter lies entirely within.
It’s Ecclesiastes without hope—life under the sun, where all is vanity and nothing truly satisfies. God has set eternity in the human heart (Eccl. 3:11), but this generation has been taught to suppress that ache, to silence transcendence, and to medicate the longing with digital noise and therapeutic mantras. The result is a profound disorientation—a generation formed to live in the shallows, stripped of cosmic meaning, and cut off from the majesty of the God who made them.
This is not just a mental health crisis. It is spiritual claustrophobia. A low-ceilinged world in which nothing is sacred, nothing is permanent, and nothing is truly worthy of wonder. A generation starved of awe, of holiness, of beauty, of purpose beyond the flickering now. And in that vacuum, self becomes both the idol and the oppressor. They are told to look within for truth, meaning, and direction—only to find a mirror too fragile to bear the weight of glory.
But we were not made to live under a closed sky. The human soul was built for transcendence—for the splendour of the Holy One, for the radiance of divine glory, for the vastness of eternity breaking into time. Teenagers do not need a more positive narrative about themselves—they need to be captured by a greater vision of God. They need to be drawn out of themselves and into the blazing centre of reality: the throne room of the Triune God, high and lifted up, holy and merciful, glorious and good.
The church must reopen the windows. We must lift their eyes. Our discipleship must not be grounded merely in moral improvement or emotional wellbeing, but in worship—in the majesty of the God who dwells in unapproachable light yet draws near in grace. Only the weight of glory can displace the tyranny of self. Only eternal splendour can reawaken hearts dulled by temporary distractions.
Teenagers need to behold who God is. Because when God is seen rightly, everything else is redefined. The goal of youth discipleship is not to make adolescents more well-adjusted to the world as it is, but to ready them for the world that is to come.
Where Were the Grown-Ups? Abdication, Not Just Apathy
If Adolescence is about teenagers, it is also about adults—the ones who should have been there.
It documents not only teen pain but adult absence. Where were the fathers? The mothers? The mentors and ministers? Too many adults have abdicated—through busyness, fear, or despair. We’ve either mimicked the world or retreated from it. Youth ministry has often entertained but not equipped. Parenting has been outsourced. Discipleship has gone light where it needed to go deep.
The result is a generation spiritually malnourished—and often, morally abandoned.
This must change. But not through moral panic or cultural nostalgia. Through repentance. Through courage. Through the quiet, long-haul presence of those who will open their Bibles, their homes, and their lives to the next generation.
The Hope of Formation: Slow, Faithful, Deep
There is a better way. But it’s slow. Hidden. Costly.
The hope for this generation isn’t found in flashy campaigns or clever content. It’s found in deep, long-term formation. In families that disciple. In churches that teach doctrine. In youth leaders who walk with teens year after year, shaping not just their Sunday schedule but their spiritual instincts and theological imagination.
Teenagers don’t need shallower teaching. They need more theology—richer, deeper, holier. They need a vision of the Christian life that calls them to die to self and live for something greater. They need to know that obedience is not repression but freedom. That holiness is not outdated but radiant. That the cross is not a tragic end but a victorious beginning.
And they need us to stay close—to keep showing up, to keep pointing to Jesus, to keep praying when their world falls apart.
Let Adolescence Be a Wake-Up Call
We should be disturbed by what we’ve seen. But we must not be paralysed.
Adolescence is not the end of the story. Jesus has not abandoned this generation. He sees. He knows. He saves. And he is still calling his people to make disciples.
So let this series shake us out of complacency. Let it drive us to our knees in repentance. Let it remind us that the formation of the next generation will not happen by accident, and will not be accomplished overnight.
Our teenagers were not made for chaos.
They were not made for screens, or slogans, or survival.
They were made for Christ.
Let’s disciple them like we believe it.
FOR DISCUSSION WITH TEENAGERS
Adolescence (Netflix) – Seeing Ourselves, Hearing God’s Voice
A Note Before You Begin
Watching Adolescence might have stirred a lot in the young people you care for—sadness, anger, maybe even a weird kind of relief: “Finally, someone said it out loud.” They might have seen people who were just like their friends. Or maybe like themselves.
This guide is here to help them reflect, ask honest questions, and hear God’s voice in a world that often feels loud, confusing, and painful.
1. What Am I Even For?
When life feels directionless
In Adolescence, we saw teenagers trying to build their identity from scratch. That’s exhausting. The world says you have to find or create yourself. The Bible says you’ve already been made—on purpose, by someone who knows you.
Discussion Questions
- What moments in the series felt hopeless or directionless?
- How do teens today try to “find themselves”?
- What’s the cost of always trying to prove who you are?
Read Together
Genesis 1:27-31
Psalm 139:14-16
Friend Focus
Who do you know that’s struggling to figure out who they are? What might help them?
Prayer Prompt
“God, sometimes I feel like I don’t know who I am or what I’m doing. But if you made me, I don’t have to figure it all out on my own. Help me trust your plan—not my feelings.”
2. Why Is Everything So Broken?
When the world—and your own heart—feel like a mess
Some scenes in Adolescence hit hard. The chaos. The numbness. The self-destruction. Maybe it looked like your friends. Maybe it looked like you. We all carry brokenness—but it’s not just out there. It’s inside us, too.
Discussion Questions
- What kind of pain stood out most in the programme?
- Why do you think people chase things that hurt them?
- Have you ever felt something inside you was broken?
Read Together
Mark 7:21–23
Romans 1
Friend Focus
How do people you know try to cope when life hurts?
Prayer Prompt
“Jesus, I don’t just mess up—I want things that aren’t good for me. I try to fix it or hide it, but I can’t. Please meet me in my brokenness and begin to heal me.”
3. Where Is God in All This?
When life feels too dark for faith
The series was heavy. And sometimes, life feels like that too—like God is absent, silent, or distant. But Scripture says Jesus didn’t stay far off. He entered our pain. He knows what it feels like to be rejected, overwhelmed, and alone.
Discussion Questions
- Did any parts of the series feel like God was missing?
- When have you felt like God was far away?
- What would it change if you believed Jesus really understood your pain?
Read Together
Hebrews 4:14–16
Revelation 21:1-8
Friend Focus
Who needs to know that God draws close to the brokenhearted?
Prayer Prompt
“God, sometimes I wonder if you care. But if Jesus came into this world for people like me, maybe I don’t have to hide. Help me trust that you are near—even in the dark.”
4. Who’s Shaping Me?
When the loudest voices aren’t God’s
We’re all being shaped—by what we watch, listen to, follow, scroll, love. The question isn’t if you’re being formed, but by whom. Adolescence showed how powerful the world’s shaping is. Are we letting God shape us more than the world?
Discussion Questions
- What voices are shaping how you think about yourself?
- What story do you think culture is telling you to live in?
- What would change if God’s Word shaped your life more than your feed?
Read Together
Romans 12:1-2
Psalm 1
Friend Focus
How can we help each other hear God’s voice, more clearly this week?
Prayer Prompt
“Father, I’m shaped by so many things—some I choose, some I don’t even notice. Help me hear your voice clearly through your word. Shape me to love what you love.”
5. Is Jesus Really Better?
When you want more than what the world offers
The series exposed a deep ache. Everyone’s chasing something—pleasure, escape, love, purpose. But nothing really satisfies. Jesus doesn’t offer escape—he offers life. Costly, but real. Freeing, forever, and worth everything.
Discussion Questions
- What were the teens in the series chasing?
- What would it cost you to follow Jesus fully?
- What kind of life are you really longing for?
Read Together
Luke 9:21–27
John 10:1-18
Friend Focus
What would it look like to follow Jesus together?
Prayer Prompt
“Jesus, I’ve seen what the world offers—and it’s not enough. I want the life you promise. Help me trust you and follow you, even when it’s hard.”
Wrapping Up
Before you finish:
- What’s one thing Adolescence exposed in you?
- What is the Holy Spirit showing you?
- What’s one step you can take this week?
