Adolescence writer Jack Thorne has issued a stark warning about the manosphere.
The hit Netflix series centres on 13-year-old Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper), who is arrested after being accused of killing a teenage girl named Katie. The opening episode begins with police raiding the Miller family home, where Stephen Graham appears as Jamie’s father, Eddie.
Viewers and critics have praised the drama for confronting, head-on, the pressures facing young people—especially boys—growing up online, and for reflecting how digital spaces can shape attitudes and behaviour.
In a recent interview, Thorne argued that more needs to be done at a policy level to respond to what he described as the “manosphere problem”.
Speaking at the Broadcasting Press Guild Awards on Wednesday (March 18), he also highlighted Louis Theroux’s Netflix documentary Inside the Manosphere, calling it “brilliant” and saying it pushes forward an essential discussion about a difficult subject.
“It’s a complicated issue to combat, but it doesn’t feel like the government is necessarily leaning into some of the complicated ways they might solve the problem,” Thorne told The Independent.
Adolescence explores themes including toxic masculinity, incel culture, and misogyny. Meanwhile, Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere examines the unsettling views amplified by certain male online personalities, with Theroux interviewing figures connected to the so-called “manosphere.” Through conversations with creators such as HSTikkyTokky, Myron Gaines, and Justin Waller, the documentary lays bare sexist, racist, and homophobic narratives circulating in these communities—material one user on X described as “terrifying.”
After the documentary’s release, Gaines and HSTikkyTokky publicly criticised it, while the film also intensified broader interest and arguments around manosphere terminology and the beliefs associated with it.
The “manosphere” is generally used to describe a broad, loosely connected collection of online spaces where influencers and audiences discuss men’s issues, masculinity, dating, and gender expectations. These ideas are often shared across forums, podcasts, and streaming platforms, frequently framed around self-improvement and relationships—topics that can strongly influence younger, more impressionable viewers.
Although some participants insist these communities exist to help men cope with modern life, the manosphere has also been widely condemned for promoting misogynistic, anti-feminist, homophobic, transphobic, racist, and more extreme viewpoints. Critics warn that parts of the ecosystem spread harmful narratives about women and encourage rigid or hostile ideas about gender roles. Certain strands are commonly linked to “red pill” ideology, and some audiences aligned with this messaging are sometimes labelled “incels”.