Keep an eye out for a nod to
Entwistle’s previous show, The
End Of The F***ing World – James
and Alyssa can be glimpsed in a
newspaper at one point.RE VIEWS TV
I Am Not Okay
With This
Puberty gets serious
Release O ut now
Showrunners J onathan Entwistle,
Christy Hall
Cast S ophia Lillis, Wyatt Oleff, Sofia Bryant
Distributor etflixN
Format
There’s nothing particularly
new about the ‘puberty as superpowers’
trope, but where most of those takes
lean into the supernatural elements,
it’s rare to see a show where a character is just
as concerned with her weird zits as she is with
her burgeoning psychic powers. But that’s where
I Am Not Okay With This’ interests lie – not in
central character Sydney’s special abilities –
but in all the other difficult teenage aspects of
her life.
I Am Not Okay With This focuses on Syd
(Sophia Lillis), an awkward 16-year-old
grieving for her father and beginning to develop
confusing feelings for her best friend Dina (Sofia
Bryant), while trying to side-step the affections
of neighbour Stan (Wyatt Oleff). Syd is not a
Locke & Key:
Season One
Head games
Release Out now
Showrunners arlton Cuse, C
Meredith Averill, Aron Eli Coleite
Cast Co nnor Jessup, Emilia Jones,
Jackson Robert Scott, Darby Stanchfield,
Laysla De Oliveira
Distributor Netflix
Certificate 15
FormatNow that we’ve come to terms
with the fact that someone finally got a
Locke & Key adaptation made, it’s still
a little hard to judge the show on its own
merits. Its existence is an achievement in itself,
but there’s still Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez’s
incredible source material to live up to.
The duo has given the Netflix series their seal of
approval and it’s easy to see why. For all the tonal
tweaks and structural changes, this is 100% Locke
& Key. The showrunners’ decision to downplay the
gory horror in favour of foregrounding the fantasy
element is a little jarring but what really shines
through over the course of the ten hours is that
bleeding, wounded heart. Yes, it’s a show aboutmagical keys and marauding monsters, but it’s first
and foremost about a grieving family struggling to
come to terms with the murder of their father and
carry on living in the house where he grew up.
The three Locke siblings are all perfectly cast.
Jessup hints at the guilt under Tyler’s taciturn
façade, Jones nails Kinsey’s fight-or-flight panic
early on before she quite literally buries her fear,
and Scott is a joy as the excitable young Bode.
The decision to spend so much time with them and
their budding relationships with new friends pays
off hugely. The adults never quite get the same rich
material, but Stanchfield is solid as Nina Locke and
genre vet Steven Williams deserves a big shout-out
for his performance as kindly principal Joe.It’s when the show needs to ramp up the threat
that things get wobbly. The Mirror Key delivers chills
and malevolent demon Dodge (De Oliveira) is great
in the early episodes, but once we’ve established the
rules her threat is seriously diminished. The show
is more interested in using the fantasy element to
explore trauma; clearly visible when the kids use the
Head Key to remember Rendell’s bedtime stories.
There is room for improvement, but it’s a very
strong introduction and all the pieces are in place
for a barnstorming second season.
Jonathan Hatfull
clean-cut heroine – she’s angry, rude, and often
dismissive of others’ feelings – but she’s also
just lonely and starved of love, and therefore
making the same mistakes that all teenagers
make. Plus, she experiences telekinetic
outbursts whenever she gets upset or stressed...
so I guess we can cut her some slack.
Lillis is brilliant as Syd, which will come
as no surprise to anyone who has seen It. She
brings to life all of Syd’s more unflattering
aspects with the emotional honesty you’d
expect from her. But more of a revelation
is Oleff, one of the more underused It kids,
who here demonstrates some serious comedy
and dramatic chops as a character who is
simultaneously charismatic and awkward,
confident and vulnerable. Bryant rounds the
central threesome out nicely as the sweet new
girl who’s beginning to feel the pull of the
glamourous cool kids.
The show has a nostalgic visual style, with
fashion nods to the Nineties and minimal
modern tech, which fits its tone perfectly –
somewhere between the exuberant John Hughes
movies of the Eighties and the grungy teen
angst shows of the Nineties. The superpowersare visually impressive too – this show
has Netflix money behind it, after all – but
director Entwistle and writer Hall never let the
superpowers hijack the story. This is a funny,
moving, and gripping story that’s over far too
soon, and is crying out for a Season Two.
Abigail Chandler
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