I Am Not Okay With This is now available to stream on Netflix, but users will find that it’s a short season, with very short episodes – and there’s a reason behind that specific format. Based on the comic book of the same name by Charles Forsman, I Am Not Okay With This is a coming-of-age comedy-drama TV series that also mixes sci-fi and horror, and brings together some of the best minds from Netflix’s lab: Jonathan Entwistle, creator of The End of The F***ing World, and Shawn Levy, executive producer (and director) of Stranger Things.
I Am Not Okay With This follows Sydney Novak (Sophia Lillis), a 17-year-old girl who is struggling with the ups and downs of adolescence and the aftermath of her father’s suicide, as well as with her sexuality and mysterious superpowers awakening within her. The series has been very well received so far, with most critics and viewers praising Lillis’ performance and the show’s combination of horror, fantasy, comedy, and drama. As it happens with all Netflix original series, the full season of I Am Not Okay With This is now available, so you won’t have to wait for new episodes to drop. However, you might be surprised to see that it’s a very short season.
One of the series’ peculiarities is its episode count and how long each episode is, both significantly shorter than other similar series on the platform, such as Stranger Things. So, why is I Am Not Okay With This so short?
I Am Not Okay With This: Why Season 1 Is Only Seven Episodes Long
Season 1 of I Am Not Okay With This has seven episodes, each one being less than 30 minutes long. Must Netflix series tend to have hour-long episodes and/or a bigger episode count, which is why I Am Not Okay With This stood out for how short it is – though this format shouldn’t come as a surprise to those familiar with The End Of The F***ing World, which also has short episodes (less than 30 minutes long) and each season has only eight episodes.
In an interview with EW, Entwistle explained that Netflix gives the space to create feature-length television, and he looks at each season as a feature length, which allows him to tell the whole story across multiple seasons, “almost as if they're like miniature movies”. He also explained that the series is “essentially a slow-burn to a degree” but when compared to hourlong television, they are “only into two-and-a-half episodes of an hourlong series”. Levy added that what Entwistle did with The End Of The F***ing World made the series “supremely bingeable”, so they wanted the same format for I Am Not Okay With This, as it also makes it “digestible” and “hooky”.
A shorter episode count, with each one being less than half an hour long, works well for a first season as it allows viewers to get acquainted with the characters, their context and stories, and leaves them wanting more, which was definitely the case with I Am Not Okay With This. Even better, the writers and producers behind the series managed to make short episodes that didn’t feel rushed and told a good chunk of the story without revealing everything, making way for (at least) one more season.