By: Samyukta Narayanan
While watching Netflix new teen supernatural series ‘I Am Not Okay With This,’ it’s easy to be reminded of all the TV shows and movies it borrows from there’s a hefty dose of ‘Stranger things,’ ‘Carrie,’ a ‘Breakfast Club’ homage, a bit of the Spider-Man origin story and the teen drama of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer.’ With a short first season and a great star, it has the potential to stand out from Netflix’s weekly dump of new series.
‘Okay’ is chock-full of tropes you’ve seen before. Superpowers as a metaphor for puberty, sexuality and emotion. Quirky kids stuck in small towns. Dead parental figures. But it succeeds precisely because it feels so novel in spite of these familiar building blocks. It outstrips the higher-profile would-be ‘Stranger successor’ ‘Locke & Key,’ which made a solid effort but sometimes had trouble nailing down a cohesive identity.
The writers know exactly what show they are making, and there isn’t a wobbly moment in the seven-episode, first season. It is a singularly focused series riding high on a fabulous young actress who makes her journey from Point A to Point B immensely successful.
Across the season, we watch Sydney live her awkward teenage life. She’s burdened by the loss of her father, a best friend who recently hooked up with an awful jock, a love-sick weirdo pal who she can’t bring herself to romantically reject, and, perhaps most pressing of all, a budding psychic power that manifests in her horrible ways when she’s angry.
The series makes the smart move of focusing on Sydney’s relationships with the rest of the cast, especially the ebb and flow of her feelings towards her best friends Dina (Sofia Bryant) and Stanley (Wyatt Oleff, who starred alongside Lillis in the recent It adaptation).
Lillis has been making waves in Hollywood for a few years now. She stole scenes as Young Beverly in ‘It,’ popped up as a younger version of Amy Adams in ‘Sharp Objects,’ led a Nancy Drew movie and recently anchored another strong horror showing in ‘Gretel and Hansel.’
This series moves her fully from ‘up-and-coming’ talent to ‘arrived.’ The series simply would not have power (super or otherwise) without her as a sympathetic protagonist. It is a slight shame that the three teens around her are not nearly as fully drawn characters, although Stanley comes close.
These characters, for all their flaws, are likable and compelling, and the awkward realness of their teenage personalities is what makes the series work. The show has the good sense to realize that most viewers will be charmed by Stanley’s weirdo ways, and Sydney feels fully formed. Her ability to float things with her mind, and the fact that things sometimes break or go flying when she’s angry, feels like a manifestation of the other issues in her life rather than the thing that defines her. She’s a lot like Stranger Things’ Eleven, but a bit older, a little less in control.
I Am Not Okay With This is a sweet-natured show with a dark side; one moment it’s all charming conversations between likeable characters, and then the next something heavy and distressing will happen. The show walks the line between these tones well, and by the end of the short first season I was invested in the characters, what they were going through, and the hints of lore peppered throughout.
I recommend y’all to watch it, the first season was a comforting slice of television that you can finish in an afternoon but it ends with a tempting cliffhanger, I was sad that there wasn’t more to watch.I’m eagerly waiting for the next season to be released as quickly as possible.
Gyann Loaded 