WARNING: The following contains minor spoilers for I Am Not Okay With This Season 1, streaming now on Netflix.
Music, unsurprisingly, plays a central role in I Am Not Okay With This, the Netflix coming-of-age series in which thoroughly modern, smartphone-equipped teenagers cheer when Rick Springfield's "Jessie's Girl" plays at a house party, and dance at homecoming, unironically, to Aztec Camera's "Somewhere in My Heart." But while young viewers will have no difficulty finding those artists on YouTube or iTunes, another, more crucial, act may pose a problem: Bloodwitch.
Although the band's name evokes Norwegian black metal, and its sound would have been right at home in a late-1980s college radio rotation, Bloodwitch doesn't actually exist. So don't blame Google when a casual search comes up empty: Bloodwitch was created specifically for this series.
Based on the comic by Charles Forsman (The End of the F***ing World), I Am Not Okay With This follows Sydney (Sophia Lillis of It), a teen coming to terms with her father's suicide a year earlier, fighting with her mother and discovering her sexuality. If all of that, and disgusting pimples on her thigh, weren't enough, she's also manifesting incredible powers that she can neither understand nor control.
One of the few bright spots in her life is her neighbor, Stanley Barber (Wyatt Oleff of It), who, as "the master of zero fucks" and adopter of risky fashions, appears largely untouched by the concerns that plague Sydney. When viewers meet Stan in the series premiere, "Dear Diary," he bounds out onto the street, barefoot, as Sydney passes his house, desperate to talk to her. "Shoes, who needs 'em?" he says, as Sydney acknowledges his feet.
Desperate to strike up a conversation, Stan turns to the topic generations teens have relied upon to make a connection: music. "Uh, so ... Bloodwitch," he fumbles. "Am I right?" But instead of common ground, Stan finds immediate disagreement. "That's a terrible name for a band," Sydney rightly observes. "Nah," he replies. "Perfect."
Although Sydney is certain they "sound like shit," Stan presses on, touting his limited-edition vinyl, "gatefold and stuff," and invites her to his house to listen. She can only muster a 'maybe," but Stan is undeterred: That night, he texts Sydney, and they listen to Bloodwitch together, he in his bedroom, and she in hers. It's a breakthrough moment in their relationship -- Sydney dances on her bed, despite herself -- and the first time the audience hears the music that provides the soundtrack to Stan's life (well, that and Prefab Sprout's "The King of Rock 'n' Roll").
We get another taste, in Episode 2, "The Master of One F**k," first when "Hey, Little Girl" spills out of Stan's crappy car as he stops to offer Sydney a ride (really smooth, Stan), and then twice more. Listen closely in episodes 3 and 6 -- in scenes with Stan, naturally -- and you can just make out Bloodwitch again.
Falling somewhere between Mazzy Star and The Sundays, only with more edge, Bloodwitch is a collaboration between Graham Coxon, the Blur co-founder who also wrote the music for The End of the F***ing World, and singer/actor Tatyana Richaud (her IMDb entry even lists her as "Bloodwitch Singer").
While Netflix was slow on the draw with The Witcher soundtrack, the streaming service did release the original score for The End of the F***ing World. So it seems likely fans of I Am Not Okay With This, and Bloodwitch, will get to hear those songs in full. However, you probably shouldn't count on the limited-edition vinyl with gatefold -- that is, unless you drop by Stanley Barber's house. We hear he has weed.
Streaming now on Netflix, I Am Not Okay With This stars Sophia Lillis, Wyatt Oleff, Sofia Bryant, Kathleen Rose Perkins, Aidan Wojtak-Hissong and Richard Ellis.