Teen angst meets telekinesis in Netflix’s ‘I Am Not Okay with This’

From the same team who brought us the smash hit series Stranger Things comes Netflix’s latest teen series, I Am Not Okay with This – and it’s every bit as gritty and gory as the comic book.

Opening with Sydney “Syd” Novak (played by Sophia Lillis of It and It: Chapter Two) running down the middle of a street at night drenched in blood, it is a scene that could easily be mistaken for Stephen King’s best-selling book-to-screen horror, Carrie.

Based on Charles Forsman’s comic book of the same name, the coming-of-age series skilfully combines teen angst, raging hormones and leg zits with nose-bleeding and head-popping telekinesis.

Sophia Lillis and Wyatt Oleff in ‘I Am Not Okay with This’. Picture: Netflix

Released on Netflix on 26 February, the series’ first season has already been met with positive reviews, and boasts a Rotten Tomatoes critics and audience rating of 86%, respectively.

So, what is about I Am Not Okay with This that makes the seven-episode series such an instant hit? For starters, the creators make clever use of the off-beat wit and humour from Napoleon Dynamite, the low-key dread and horror of Carrie and the quirky flavour of Juno.

Now, add to that the brilliantly skilled young cast that includes Wyatt Oleff (as Syd’s neighbour and friend Stanley Barber), Sofia Bryant (as Dina, Syd’s best friend crush) and Aidan Wojtak-Hissong (as Syd’s younger brother) and the smash hit worthiness of the series becomes apparent.

‘I Am Not Okay with This’. Picture: Netflix

On Rotten Tomatoes and his website, film and series critic Roger Ebert agrees that it helps greatly that Netflix and the series creators have such a talented young cast to elevate the material. “We have seen so many stories of teenagers dealing with adolescence and family drama, but Lillis not only sells that angle, but the developing superpower story as well,” said Ebert.

“She’s great, digging into the smart dialogue and clever writing of Entwistle and his team. And the whole season ends with a wonderfully dark beat that sets it up beautifully for season two.”

He goes on to note that the reason I Am Not Okay with This works so well is because of how deftly the creators and cast balance all the character beats with a breakneck plot that unfolds in only about 140 minutes.

Sophia Lillis and Wyatt Oleff in ‘I Am Not Okay with This’. Picture: Netflix

With people’s increasingly binge-streaming demands, it stands to reason why series like the hugely popular Russian Doll, and now this one, make sense to viewers – nobody has time to watch drawn out character development and storylines of 10 to 15 episodes that seem to go nowhere.

The series’ seven episodes each average around 20 to 23 minutes and this means the entire season can be watched like a long movie. However, where some long movies lead to viewers dozing off or becoming restless, I am Not Okay with This is guaranteed to keep you glued to your screen.

Ebert sums up its allure up accurately when he says that given their popularity and while there is no escaping the fact that people will be watching coming-of-age stories for the rest of time – not many of them will be as fun to watch as I Am Not Okay with This.

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