As Carrie White taught us long ago, the burden of being a teenage girl takes on far more weight when telekinetic powers are added into the mix. Here to tell that tale by way of adapting another Charles Forsman comic is Jonathan Entwistle, who also worked on the former’s The End of the Fucking World for Netflix as well. And since he did such a standup job of interpreting the unique brand of angst-riddenness of the anti-heroine in that narrative, Alyssa (Jessica Barden), his approach to seventeen-year-old Sydney Novak (Sophia Lillis), likely felt completely natural. As though inhabiting the mindset of a Billie Eilish-aged, enraged female has become like a second skin to him.
Then again, we all have a bit of that weltschmerz inside of us, regardless of gender or age; it’s just part and parcel of existing on this planet. But yeah, teen girls are a special cocktail of hormonal fury (and they aren’t given the luxury of “being a douchebag jock” the way many boys are in order to quote unquote mask that fury). Fortunately, Sydney is sentient enough (unlike most people, least of all people her age) to be able to take her guidance counselor up on the suggestion of keeping a diary–a retro notion indeed, but then, there’s not much else to do in this town (a common attribute of the Forsman universe being the wasteland qualities of smalltown America). Even she knows it’s her best recourse for channeling the rage that keeps manifesting in the form of breaking shit. So she takes to her diary, Veronica Sawyer in Heathers style. The first episode is even called “Dear Diary…”, which, more than making one think of the Britney Spears song, harkens back to Veronica’s similarly matter-of-fact voiceovers as she says things like, “Dear Diary, my teen angst bullshit has a body count.” And indeed, there’s no way Sydney’s won’t as well. In any case, the journal is complete with a vexingly cutesy cat cover, to boot. As though her guidance counselor is trying to bait her.
Regardless, the release seems somewhat useful, at first. Having a place to vent as her best friend and once fellow outsider, Dina (Sofia Bryant), starts to gravitate toward the popular crowd when resident Asshole Football Player, Brad Lewis (Richard Ellis), asks her out and she eagerly accepts. It takes Sydney by surprise as she suddenly realizes she’s somehow behind in taking an interest in boys. Of course, it should be fairly obvious to the viewer that she’s a lesbian still in denial. And yes, from the men writing her character’s perspective, this naturally means she has a short haircut and dresses like a guy.
Not wanting to feel any further left out (a left outedness that’s heightened by her father recently killing himself) of the “teen experience,” Sydney opens her already shriveling heart to her down the road neighbor, Stan (Wyatt Oleff), clearly crushing on her and unafraid to make a move. In fact, everything about Stan seems to indicate he’s taken all of his tips on how to approach women from some type of handbook released in the mid-70s (it’s all vaguely Jonathan Aris as Clive Koch, but of course much less creepy). But Sydney doesn’t know any better, nor does she care. Stan is the best (and only) offer she’s got. Plus, he has a car, which makes picking up groceries at the convenience store when her mother, Maggie (Kathleen Rose Perkins), inevitably “asks” (read: demands) her to isn’t terrible either.
Ah, and about her relationship with her mother, it’s just as contentious as one would expect between a woman struggling to make ends meet as a widowed parent and a girl slowly coming to understand that the wrath of her powers is fueled by anger. And my, how angry she is, particularly at Maggie, who never wants to address the elephant in the room. Or rather, the basement… where her father hung himself. As for her younger brother, Liam (Aidan Wojtak-Hissong), well, he’s just trying to fly under the radar of the standard-issue elementary school bully, Richard Rynard (Jackson Frazer), something Sydney ruins when she tries to use her powers to intimidate him, but it only ends up backfiring when they won’t work/she puts Liam even more on his radar.
She can’t help putting herself on everyone’s radar as well when an emotional frustration during the proverbial The Breakfast Club-inspired detention episode, “Another Day in Paradise,” leads to her knocking over every bookshelf in the library. Which would be bad in and of itself if it weren’t also on camera. At which time she must open up once more to the only person she can trust (mainly because he’s already seen her powers in action): Stan. The problem is, they need to get Dina involved as well, which exposes her to the potential of finding out the truth, which Sydney does not want. Obviously, it comes from a place of feeling like she should protect her best friend from harm’s way, yet this attempt fails anyway when she’s put in the position of having to be the one to tell her that her Asshole Football Player boyfriend cheated on her at a party.
Her so-called “betrayal” of Brad sends him on the warpath, imbuing him with an insatiable vendetta that will come to a head (you’ll see how that’s a pun) in the final episode of the season. With Sydney’s emotions constantly emulating that of a rickety and unpredictable rollercoaster, her powers are prone to the same kind of haywireness. And with each new unforeseen “blow-up” (often literally), Sydney can’t help but comprehend what she’s always suspected: emotions are a fucking liability.
