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From giving evil jocks nosebleeds to blasting holes in walls, Netflix’s new teen tale from the Stranger Things team sees a young girl tackle way more than just zits and hormones
Growing up as I did in a kind of miniature outpost of North Korea established by my mother in early 80s Catford, I wasn’t really allowed an adolescence. It was, like Top of the Pops or having butter instead of margarine, very much considered a despicable modern invention designed to encourage self-indulgence and weaken the state. But according to everything I have heard, seen and read about the phenomenon since, it seems to be quite the developmental stage. I congratulate all who made it through this volatile leg of life’s journey safely.
The latest representative of this angst-ridden, hormone-soaked time is come to Netflix. Sydney Novak (Sophia Lillis, last seen on the small screen as the young Camille Preaker in Sharp Objects and as Nancy Drew unravelling the mystery of a hidden staircase in a cinema near you last year) is the teenager in perennial emotional flux at the heart of I Am Not Okay With This. It is the second television adaptation helmed by Jonathan Entwistle of a Charles Forsman graphic novel – the first was The End of the F***ing World – and their collaboration has once more borne fine fruit. Continue reading...