Stephen Graham — a star and co-creator of the hit Netflix series “Adolescence” — looked and sounded awe-struck while delivering his acceptance speech at the Emmys on Sunday, when he won for best lead actor in a limited series.
His show, shot in real-time and which tells the story of the impact on a family of their teenage son being charged with murder, was a big winner over the weekend, delivering Graham’s first three Emmys of his career (Graham and the show’s co-creator, Jack Thorne, also won for writing and for outstanding limited series). “To be here today in front of my peers, and to be acknowledged by you, is the utmost humbling thing I could imagine in my life, and it shows you that any dream is possible,” Graham said during his acceptance remarks.
The renewed buzz around “Adolescence” as a result of its Emmy haul, meanwhile, has (unsurprisingly) also served to re-boost the show’s already intense popularity on the streaming giant, where the show remains the #2 Netflix series of all time by viewership.
‘Adolescence’ returns to the U.S. Top 10 on Netflix
The series, which is also still sitting on a near-perfect 98% Rotten Tomatoes critics’ score, has re-entered the daily U.S. Top 10 ranking (found inside the Netflix app itself), where it’s #8 as of this writing.
Interest in the show, which first hit Netflix back in March, is clearly surging once again — with its Emmy wins including Owen Cooper for supporting limited series actor; Erin Doherty for supporting limited series actress; and Philip Barantini for limited series director. In all, the show scooped up six Emmys over the weekend, plus two more at the Creative Arts Emmys — including an award for limited series cinematography, and “Adolescence: The Making of Adolescence” winning for short form nonfiction series.
What it’s about: “‘Adolescence’ tells the story of how a family’s world is turned upside down when 13-year-old Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper) is arrested for the murder of a teenage girl who goes to his school,” Netflix explains in its promotional material. Adds Graham in the series’ press notes: “We could have made a drama about gangs and knife crime, or about a kid whose mother is an alcoholic or whose father is a violent abuser. Instead, we wanted you to look at this family and think, ‘My God. This could be happening to us!’ And what’s happening here is an ordinary family’s worst nightmare.”
Cooper’s Emmy win, by the way, is particularly noteworthy, in that the 15-year-old is now the youngest male to ever win an acting Emmy — in any of the ceremony’s categories.
