"I Am Not Okay With This" is a television series created by Jonathan Entwistle. Based on a comic book written by Charles Forsman, the show follows the story of Sydney Novak, a teenage queer girl dealing with her emerging superpowers while navigating high school and personal struggles.
Sydney Novak is a complex and multidimensional character who grapples with her own identity, emotions, and the pressures of conforming to societal expectations. Sydney's character provides a nuanced portrayal of a young woman coming to terms with her own power and agency. Sydney is not portrayed as the stereotypical "girly" character who is passive or delicate. Instead, she is a character who often through her voice over informs the audience of her anger and frustration at things that bother her. While Sydney is shown as a strong character who has superpowers, is not afraid to express her emotions and does not hide behind her insecurities (showing her neighbour Stanley Barber her thigh pimples) her character at the end of the day is still reduced to needing a guy to help her. In an episode, Stanley also appoints himself as Sydney's mentor. It is understandable that the writer might have been trying to portray the challenges that teenagers face alone as they grow up, and the difficulties of navigating life especially with an absent parent through Sydney's inability to control her superpowers. However, the show also focuses on how a guy Stanley Barber helps Sydney hide the mess of her superpowers which gives the perception that a strong girl with superpowers still needs a guy to help her balance her life and save her from trouble because she is unable to control her powers. While Sydney is strong enough to *spoiler alert* blow up a character's head in the show, there is still reliance on Stanley Barber, the more chill character, someone who smokes and dances and somehow is mostly free to help.
This is not your average show. The show's main lead is a female queer character, who does not fit into the traditional "perfect model" title. Her repressed sexuality, desires and emotions come out and are labelled as superpowers instead of being called "tantrums." Sydney is attracted to her best friend Dina, whose boyfriend Brad Lewis becomes a reason for Sydney's inability to control her emotions and superpowers. Understandably, Sydney is still coming to terms with the fact that she is queer and does not want to compromise her friendship with Dina, but Dina being her best friend, still isn't the one to know about Sydney's superpowers.
While the show is more complex than this and Sydney is battling with a lot of emotional trauma and coming to terms with her sexuality, Stanley Barber, the stoner guy is still the only person who seems to know what triggers Sydney's superpowers and is someone who is present to help her. The show also ends with the introduction of a mysterious male entity who says "let's begin," implying that he can teach Sydney more about her superpowers.