TV Review: I’m Not Okay With This Is Actually Really Good
Being a teenager feels like of legend when you become an adult or are a child. “Teenhood” is this time of high emotions and actions: as if the world lived and breathed according to yourself. It is an absolutely magnetic, self-absorbed experience that also brings in beauty, virtue, and weird definitions of cool. Welp, imagine the adrenaline of being a feeling teen if you also had the power to make bullies’ heads explode in the middle of your prom. Yup, that is some heavy stuff, but it falls along the lines and experiences of our young heroine Sydney Novak (Sophia Lillis) in Netflix’s I’n Not Okay With This
Even the title, I’m Not Okay With This, feel like the titular quote for year 17 of my life, which is the exact age of Sydney. Based On Charles Forsman’s graphic novel I Am Not Okay With This, admittedly, I wanted EVEN MORE action sequences of observance of Sydney developing her power and tearing down the house. Yet, Netflix’s adaptation is paced focusing more on the emotional turmoils of Sydney, which is both surprising and refreshing. I am a comic book gal, which means I am always ready for a super-charged, superpower scene, and there are some, in this series, that is memorably satisfying. Still, this show focuses on its teen drama more than its superhero, comic origins, which is why the fact that Sydney has powers can feel sided and even distracting to the more important focuses like, the fact that she might be in love with her best friends, Stan (Wyatt Olef) and Dina (Sofia Bryant).
I Am Not Okay With This | Official Trailer | Netflix | February 26
Ugh! Finding your sexuality and a sense of a “love life” when you are 17 is like being Cinderella looking for her glass slipper. You hope your prince finds it, otherwise, you just lost an extremely costly shoe. In this scenario, Sydney’s heart is the shoe, and it has a whole bunch of other issues like bettering her relationship with her mom, defending her bullied brother, and figuring out if her dad was murdered or really did commit suicide. These are hefty loads for a teen girl, and Sophia Lillis delivers by Sydney feel like the strongest girl to feel broken. She is lost, confused, angry, scared, and extremely resilient. No wonder she can scream and tear down a forest! Moreover, it explain why Olef makes Stan so lovelorn for Syd; he is the cool eccentric who sees her as a fellow weirdo worth living in his mind and heart.
Olef as Stan is a definite comic relief and stands as a contrast to strong, loyal, and sweet Dina, of which Bryant assures to mark her presence in every scene. With Richard Ellis as the annoying, domineering Brad (Sydney’s bully and Dina’s boyfriend), it is no wonder Syd is in an emotional loop; nothing is going right and she can’t seem to control her random, powerful outbursts. Thus, I’m Not Okay With This is gives a rich nuance to the coming-of-age tale, but it doesn’t do it through its powers; it does it through its characters. I’m Not Okay With This Premieres On Netflix On February 26
