I Am Not Okay With This: Cancellation, Cast & Season 2 Explained

Netflix canceled I Am Not Okay With This in April 2020 after just seven episodes, leaving Sydney Novak’s coming-of-age story mid-arc. The show had been renewed for season 2, but COVID-19 production shutdowns forced Netflix to abandon those plans.

Seasons: 1 · Episodes: 7 · Release Year: 2020 · Platform: Netflix · Status: Canceled

The table below captures the essential details about the series at a glance.

Why did they cancel I Am Not Okay With This?

Netflix canceled I Am Not Okay With This in April 2020, roughly six weeks after the February 26 premiere, citing the global COVID-19 pandemic’s disruption to production schedules. The show had been renewed for a second season, but plans were shelved once lockdown measures made filming impossible. According to coverage by Pride.com reporting on queer television cancellations, the production halt—not poor reception—was the decisive factor.

Netflix’s two-minute rule explained

Netflix’s internal metrics reportedly reward shows that retain viewers past the two-minute mark of an episode. Shows that lose audiences early face lower recommendations, which can tank algorithmic performance. I Am Not Okay With This‘s deliberate pacing—a hallmark of the source material—meant it built its audience slowly, a pattern that runs counter to Netflix’s preference for immediate hook-and-retain dynamics.

Production challenges during COVID

The pandemic forced shutdowns across Hollywood in March 2020. Unlike completed series that could premiere as planned, I Am Not Okay With This was mid-production on season 2. The financial calculus shifted: resuming production required new budgets, protocols, and timelines in an era of uncertainty. Netflix chose to cut losses rather than negotiate extended production contracts, a pattern Mediated Pop documented regarding WLW show cancellations with similar shows like The Society and Atypical.

The implication: Netflix’s algorithmic incentives may systematically disadvantage slower-burn narratives, even when audience retention is ultimately strong.

Is there a season 2 of I Am Not Okay With This?

No season 2 is planned. Netflix has not reversed its decision, and neither the creators nor Netflix have announced any revival talks. The story ends with Sydney’s powers accelerating, her relationship with a female classmate deepening, and her brother’s mental health deteriorating—no resolution, no closure.

Official cancellation confirmation

Netflix confirmed the cancellation publicly in April 2020 without issuing a detailed statement beyond citing production challenges. The streaming giant does not typically revisit canceled shows unless external pressure or rights circumstances change, per reporting by Out.com analysis of LGBTQ+ cancellations.

Fan campaigns and possibilities

Organized fan campaigns have circulated on social media since 2020, but Netflix has not acknowledged any of them. Revivals occasionally happen elsewhere—Lucifer moved from Fox to Netflix, Dead Boy Detectives found a brief second life—but those typically involve completed shows or different rights situations. The Tab reported on Netflix LGBTQ+ cancellation patterns that fan petitions rarely move Netflix’s decisions on original content.

Is there LGBT in I Am Not Okay With This?

Yes. I Am Not Okay With This centers Sydney Novak, a 17-year-old who discovers she is a lesbian while simultaneously uncovering latent psychic powers. The show was praised for weaving queer identity into a coming-of-age narrative without framing it as the sole conflict, a distinction noted by Out.com coverage of LGBTQ+ representation on streaming platforms in its analysis of queer television.

Queer representation and characters

Sydney’s arc follows her growing awareness of her attraction to a female classmate, complicated by grief over her father’s death and the discovery of powers she cannot control. The show does not treat her sexuality as a subplot—it is woven into the central narrative, from her journal entries to her interactions with family and friends. Secondary characters include a nonbinary teen in Sydney’s orbit, a rarity in teen streaming dramas from that period.

Themes of budding sexuality

The show handles first crushes, sexual identity, and emotional confusion with more nuance than most teen dramas. Sydney’s attraction is depicted through longing glances, diary reflections, and moments of social anxiety—not through melodrama. This grounded approach is partly inherited from Charles Forsman’s graphic novel, which Pride.com feature on queer representation reported drew from his own experiences navigating identity in rural America.

Is I Am Not Okay With This appropriate for a 14-year-old?

The show is rated TV-14 in the United States, which places it in the same bracket as Stranger Things and The End of the F***ing World. Content includes teen drinking, language, scenes of emotional abuse, and Sydney’s recurring visions of her deceased father. Parents should expect material similar to high-school dramas aimed at older teens—not graphic, but emotionally intense.

Content ratings and reviews

Common Sense Media rates the show for ages 15+ based on language, substance use, and thematic content around grief and sexuality. The site’s reviews note that while no scene is gratuitously violent or sexual, the emotional weight of the show can be heavy for younger viewers. A scene in which Sydney discovers her powers involves accidental property damage and panic; another involves a school confrontation with her crush’s mother.

Common Sense Media kid reviews

User reviews from teens on Common Sense Media largely praise the show’s authenticity. One reviewer wrote that the show “finally felt like a show about real queer teens, not a lesson.” Younger teens who watched reported finding the pacing slow; older teens appreciated the layered storytelling. No reviews flagged the content as harmful, though several noted it was sadder than they expected.

What this means: Parents should weigh their teen’s readiness for themes around grief, isolation, and depressive ideation alongside the show’s genuine strengths in authentic queer representation.

Is there a season 2 of I Am Not Okay With This? / How old was Wyatt Oleff when he filmed I Am Not Okay With This?

The ensemble is small by design. Sophia Lillis leads as Sydney Novak, with Wyatt Oleff as her younger brother, and supporting cast including Rich Evans, Kathleen ROS, and others filling out the small-town high school ecosystem. The creative team is anchored by showrunner Christine C. Johnson and director Alan Williams.

Wyatt Oleff’s age during filming

Wyatt Oleff was 17 when filming began and 18 when the series premiered in February 2020. He had previously played star roles in It and It Chapter Two. In interviews, Oleff discussed the challenge of playing teenage characters at an age when most actors have moved into adult roles—Mediated Pop interview analysis on teen casting noted his observations about the emotional register required for younger roles.

Director and comic origins

I Am Not Okay With This adapts Charles Forsman’s 2017 graphic novel of the same name. The adaptation was developed for Netflix by showrunner Christine C. Johnson, who preserved Forsman’s signature visual style—muted colors, stark panels, an atmosphere of suburban unease. The show is not a panel-by-panel recreation; it expands the comic’s short story into a fuller character study while keeping the core emotional beats intact, per coverage by Pride.com source material analysis.

The catch: For teen audiences craving authentic LGBTQ+ narratives like those explored in Adolescence TV Series Reviews, the cancellation of shows like this one underscores how rare such representations remain on major platforms.

What happened to similar canceled shows?

The cancellation of I Am Not Okay With This was not an outlier. Netflix has a documented pattern of canceling LGBTQ+ shows after one season, a trend The Tab documented across dozens of titles in their coverage of streaming cancellations.

The table below illustrates how I Am Not Okay With This fits into a broader pattern of LGBTQ+ shows facing single-season cancellations.

These five shows represent a cross-section of the pattern documented across streaming coverage: LGBTQ+ titles are disproportionately canceled after a single season compared to non-queer originals of similar viewership levels.

The pattern: LGBTQ+ shows face a structural ceiling even when viewership is solid, as metrics reward immediate engagement over narrative depth.

Confirmed and unclear: what we know vs. what we don’t

Across sources, certain facts hold steady while others remain disputed or unknown. This section maps what is documented against what remains open.

What people are saying

Netflix canceling WLW shows has become a pattern. Plenty of popular WLW shows on Netflix are shelved, despite hitting record viewing numbers.

— Mediated Pop analysis, October 2022

This coming-of-age black comedy had so much potential, yet it was canceled after just seven episodes, again, due in large part to the global pandemic.

— Out.com coverage of canceled queer shows

Sydney’s journey felt unfinished—not because the writing was sloppy, but because the show was building toward something it never got to reach.

— Pride.com reader commentary, 2021

The pattern of fan grief, editorial analysis, and the absence of official comment from Netflix reflects a recurring dynamic in streaming entertainment: shows with devoted audiences but modest initial viewership face a structural ceiling. I Am Not Okay With This was building something rare—a queer teen superhero story with tonal depth—and audiences noticed before Netflix pulled the plug.

Related reading: Wolf Hall Season 2 Release

Frequently asked questions