Western Pennsylvania-filmed 'I Am Not Okay With This' debuts on Netflix

From the opening shot of the new Netflix series “I Am Not Okay With This,” the viewer will know that this is not an ordinary dark dramedy about high school kids dealing with teen angst.

A young girl is seen walking down the street. She is soaked in blood as she is heard proclaiming, “Dear Diary, go f— yourself.”

Filmed last summer in the Fayette County town of Brownsville and in Pittsburgh, “I Am Not Okay With This” debuts on Wednesday. The exterior of the Westinghouse Arts Academy Charter School in Wilmerding is used for the high school.

It’s the latest from Jonathan Entwistle, best known for his 2018 Netflix series “The End of the F—ing World,” which won a Peabody award.

“Jonathan has a very unique style,” said actor Richard Ellis, who plays a character named Brad, during an interview last Thursday at the Fairmont Pittsburgh hotel. “Anybody who’s a fan of ‘The End of the F—ing World,’ it’s very much in that vein. Stylistically it has this nostalgic, modern, dark humor. I would say he’s tapped into his own unique genre.”

“I Am Not Okay With This” stars Sophia Lillis as the show’s ingénue Sydney, a self-described “boring, 17-year-old white girl” who moved to Pennsylvania two years ago.

“Not a cute part of Pennsylvania either,” the character says. “My town’s won the grand prize for most polluted air in America for a bunch of years in a row now.” The writers were obviously taking their cues from local news events.

Sydney has a bad temper, which she attributes to the recent death of her father, and writes in a diary supplied by her guidance counselor to help her deal with anger issues.

As with the David Banner character in “The Incredible Hulk,” you wouldn’t like Sydney when she is angry. And Sydney apparently has a lot to be angry about.

Living in a tense household with her widowed working mother and little brother, she is dealing with the awkward teenage blues, fueled in part by her paucity of friends. Sydney depends a little too much on the beautiful and popular Dina (Sofia Bryant), a best friend to a girl who’s “never had a best friend before.”

Sydney is upset that Dina spends so much time with her new boyfriend Brad, the handsome, conceited star quarterback for Westinghouse High (another nod to the filming location).

Brad comes off as annoying the moment he invites himself to sit down in the restaurant booth occupied by Sydney and Dina and starts stuffing his face with their french fries.

“Brad is pretty much the epitome of every guy that’s ever peaked in high school,” said Ellis. “He’s narcissistic, he’s very entitled and thinks he can treat people however he wants.”

A steamed Sydney says to herself that she wishes Brad “would wipe the smug smile off his face.” Suddenly Brad is seen having a torrential nose bleed, the first indication that Sydney can do stuff with her mind.

“Her superpowers happen during heightened periods of emotion,” said Bryant. “Everything happens suddenly just as everything happens when you’re growing up, you’re suddenly dealing with tons of new things going on with your body and they’re a metaphor for that.”

In addition to trying to rein in her budding superpowers, Sydney is trying to get a handle on her blossoming sexuality and her feelings for Stanley Barber (Wyatt Oleff), the eccentric boy loner who takes a shine to her.

Ellis said there is a lot more going in this show than a viewer might appreciate at first glance.

“Growing up is hard enough to begin with, and then to factor in an unknown superpower that you can’t control, just watching the juxtaposition of those two things at the same time makes for a pretty compelling story,” Ellis said.

Ellis and Bryant said they enjoyed their time in Pittsburgh, especially the food. Bryant said she made trips every weekend by bicycle to Klavon’s Ice Cream Parlor in the Strip District.

Ellis said the scenes shot here, particularly those in Brownsville, lend authenticity to “I Am Not Okay With This.”

“A lot of (young adult) stuff is set in big cities or these really grand places and the high schools are all perfect. To be able to show something in a realistic small town is really cool,” said Ellis.

Bryant said that despite the show’s title, if there’s anything she wants people to take away from the show, it’s that we’re all OK.

“Regardless of what you identify as, or what you’re dealing with, you’re not crazy and you’re not abnormal. Everyone is dealing with something and everyone copes in different ways. And high school does not last forever.”