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I Am Not Okay With This centres around 17-year-old Sydney (Sophia Lillis – IT Chapter Two), who says in the narration that she’s white, and boring, “…and I’m okay with that”.
She lives in a place she can’t stand (Pennsylvania – I’ve never been, but she doesn’t like it at all) with her mother and younger brother, having moved there since her father passed away; and is still trying to find herself as well as making sense of a great deal of things in the world.
Sydney has mostly the usual trials and tribulations of a teenager, such as being worried about the acne on her thighs. Like a lot of kids her age (as I was), she looks mostly miserable, but in her case, to the point where one kid in her class dubs her “fire crotch”. Her only female friend is Dina – who moved into the area around the same time, but all too often, Dina would rather be with new boyfriend and quarterback jock, Bradley. Sydney resents his existence and really wishes he would stop smiling…
However, as this is a coming-of-age tale from the people behind Stranger Things, it has a supernatural bent. Add to this, Sydney keeps losing her temper because dad died, and as the trailer shows, her anger with the world manifests in her being able to really shake things up. In the trailer, you see her causing a stop sign to go flying, and I’ll add in just one that’s not in the trailer (with many more to discover in the series) where she causes one person to bleed from the nose.
In addition, she hangs out with a young lad her age called Stan, and over the course of the first four episodes I’ve seen so far, this is a rather engaging tale so I’m keen to see where it’s going, and in addition to all the episodes being available on day one, they’re also, roughly, a brisk 20-30 minutes each! That’s pleasing because so many series can drag on and on and on, but if they’re short and can get the point across without dragging, then I’m all for that.
Also, if you add up the running time of this series, it actually comes to less than the length of the aforementioned Pennywise sequel!
Finally, like Netflix’s recent Locke And Key, this new series is also based on a comic book.
UPDATE: I’ve now seen the whole series and I thoroughly enjoyed it – including a great finale, although while I do wish that some of the weird stuff was happening more often, I can say without spoilers that it does lay the groundwork for a potential second series, and I am really looking forward to that.
I Am Not Okay With This is not available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but is on Netflix from Wednesday February 26th, and you can buy the comic book.
Series Score: 7.5/10
Director: Jonathan Entwistle
Producers: Buddy Enright, Rand Geiger
Writers: Tripper Clancy, Christy Hall, Liz Elverenli, Jonathan Entwistle
Creators: Christy Hall, Jonathan Entwistle
Comic book: Charles S Forsman
Cast:
Sydney: Sophia Lillis
Stanley Barber: Wyatt Oleff
Dina: Sofia Bryant
Maggie: Kathleen Rose Perkins
Liam: Aidan Wojtak-Hissong
Bradley: Richard Ellis
Ricky Berry: Zachary S Williams
Dina’s friend: Jessica Jones
Bloodwitch Singer: Tatyana Richaud
Mr. Whitaker: Gregg Daniel
Dina’s New Best Friend: Brielle Brown
Stan’s Dad: Mark Colson
Mercedes Callahan: Marisa Davila
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.