The Observer.

Finally gutting out the excellence of "Adolescence," and wishing the end of "Your Friends & Neighbors" was a finale. Plus, Korean "Witch" movies!

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The Observer is a spoiler-free curated collection of television series and films.

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“Adolescence,” Netflix.

When “Adolescence” dropped on Netflix in the middle of March, I knew that I would “put it on the list” and watch later, not because I was too busy but because I have a long-held apprehension about watching series or movies where children are in extreme peril, with various additional shadings on that.

Basically, it wasn’t my Spring thing.

Knowing about it, however, even from a distance, I worried that all the hype over the “shot in one take” hot-takes about that technical brilliance (even if it wasn’t entirely true) would obscure its writing, acting and main point.

Ultimately, I think the odd, spastic reaction to one-take anything is so over-done that it was inevitable that the hype would fade and attention to the important details would actually win out, and they did.

I wasn’t the only person protecting themselves from the emotional fallout from “Adolescence,” as a number of readers commented that they, too, had trepidation about the intensity of it and would eventually get to it.

Clearly, I got to it and I took the emotional gut-punch it delivers, particularly if you’re a parent. I loved the writing — Jack Thorne (“The Last Panthers,” “His Dark Materials,” “This Is England (‘86, ‘88, ‘90) and series star and co-writer Stephen Graham did an excellent job — but I ended up being a little surprised about what I liked most about it.

Thorne and Graham, who also co-created the series, maybe knew that at least the visual “feel” of a one-track shot would add intimacy, especially in compact rooms (a house, jail, school classroom, car, etc.), but I wonder if they realized what that technical feat would require from viewers. In short, it’s this: a lot of patience with moments that are usually edited out — long walks to a car, going up and down stairs, filtering out of a crowded school, etc. — which not only felt foreign but more importantly felt real.

If anything, there’s a slow, claustrophobic feel to at least 75 percent of the four-part limited series, and I ended up enjoying that benefit from the thing I was less impressed with (the laborious planning and intense choreography of shooting in one-take). Yes, ultimately I agreed that it was impressive — no more clearly than when actors had to enter the frame with precision and hit their dramatic stride at the same time.

But that closeness, as the camera circles two people in a room, or three in a car, then hugs tightly to a mundane walking-and-talking phone call? It certainly upped the unique factor by making the blandness of everyday elements have dramatic heft.

Since “Adolescence” is, at this point, a well talked-about series, beyond saying it was impressive and riveting and something everyone should try to get to before awards season, I’ll just say that there are exceptional acting scenes throughout, and while it’s no surprise that Graham is the high point there, teenage newcomer Owen Cooper’s debut performance as protagonist Jamie is quite the knockout; for smaller, scene-stealing moments, was there anyone better than Erin Doherty, as the psychologist who unravels Jamie?

(By the way, contrast Doherty’s performance here with her starring role — opposite Graham again — in “A Thousand Blows” on Hulu, which I wrote about recently.)

It’s mostly pointless to play great series off of each other, but people making choices on what is “must-watch” and in what order to do that watching will want to know, so I’ll just say that “Adolescence” is excellent and will certainly already has won the hype award of 2025, but I do think “Families Like Ours,” also on Netflix, is a superior watch.

“Your Friends & Neighbors,” AppleTV+.

I’ve already written extensively about this series and the allure of at least some of it — the writing when it riffs, Jon Hamm at all times but especially when he’s channeling Don Draper — and the many weaknesses which make it hard to push through with excitement (it’s yet another show that will likely engage people but isn’t ultimately that compelling).

Anyway, a lot of other excellent options crept up since the slow unrolling of “Your Friends & Neighbors,” so I took a number of pauses — particularly when I was seriously considering giving up and not watching it until the end — but eventually dedicated a few hours to the last three episodes and it’s there where a moment of fleeting hope arrived.

No true spoilers here, but in the finale, “Your Friends & Neighbors” for one brief, shining moment of opportunity, looked like it was going to end perfectly — as a limited series. If you’ve seen the end, then you know what I mean and if you haven’t, well, I think you’ll likely agree when you do.

In that moment, a flawed series of improbable twists and why-should-I-care-about-these-rich-assholes, finds its escape route, as unexpected as Houdini. I mean, I stopped and paused the scene. It. Was. Right. There.

End it.

Go out with some surprise glory.

But AppleTV+ doesn’t intentionally make many limited series, certainly not the ones with this kind of star power. It wants a multi-season series for the vault, because that drives subscriptions. So, right when “Your Friends & Neighbors” could have shocked my critic brain — the final twist is that all of this nonsense can be explained away and you definitely did not see that escape coming — instead it leans into the untenable schtick that floats the entire season.

Whimper.

It avoids the perfect out and reverts to expectations — which is that AppleTV+ wants a hit to fuel the bottom line and expand the library. In the process, the series ends with dumb. It confirms the worst fears about its own sustainability by keeping at it, which is, unfortunately, the absolute wrong idea.

But I’m going pretend that the last two or three minutes do not exist. I’m going to pretend that it pulled the miracle Houdini and went out with unexpected glory. And I will never watch another episode.

“The Witch: Part 1. The Subversion.” 2018. (Amazon, Hulu, Kanopy).

“The Witch: Part 2. The Other One. 2022. (Amazon, Hulu, Kanopy).

If you know me, you’re not at all surprised I watched those two films.

• Korean creativity.

• Korean craziness and violence and riveting entertainment.

• Bad ass women with guns, knives and, in these movies, extra powers you don’t want to mess with.

Director-writer Park Hoon-jung has set up a franchise here. The second movie ends very satisfyingly on its own but then — pretty important detail here — decides to show an extended scene, five or six minutes deep into the credits, which is actually super important and hints at a third movie. Will that happen? I don’t know — I’m not actually invested enough to look that stuff up or care about it; I was perfectly fine watching two finished movies that satisfied my need for action and chaos and entertainment, period.

Despite being called “The Witch,” there are no horror elements at all in these movies, thankfully. The only horrific thing is Park’s inclination to speed up car-crash scenes, which looks like something I would do if I was just learning how to edit and hit the wrong buttons.

Other than that weird aside, these movies are strangely satisfying and follow a kind of unexpected arc in both of them: the first two-thirds of both movies are, if you can believe this from the trailers, just normal dramas — barely any action at all, just storytelling. The last third is adrenaline-fueled ass-kicking, as depicted in the trailers.

I don’t know, I kind of found all of this pleasantly surprising. I honestly thought the first one was going to be about a witch and wanted nothing to do with it. Once I watched and realized it has no horror elements or spooky things at all and was, in fact, a Wheelhouse Movie that has everything I want when I want to just chill and drink wine and kind-of-pay-attention, then I was all in.

That both follow this kind of contrarian lack of action for two thirds of their length is funny to me, since it topples my expectations. And yes, those are two different actresses in both films but — acceptable spoiler incoming — if there’s a third film, I expect them both to make an appearance, at the very least.

So, yeah, after the wrenching emotional toll of “Adolescence” and the deeply provocative and smart “Families Like Us,” I would whole-heartedly endorse a double feature of bloody ass kicking as a reprieve.

You’re welcome.