Reviews

13 Reasons Why is told from the point of view of Clay, a student at Liberty High, who has just received cassette tapes from a classmate who just died. With these cassette tape his late friend Hannah Baker recounts the events leading up to what turns out to be a suicide, and implicates a number of her classmates in causing her death. I thought this series was really well-acted and I really enjoyed how diverse the cast and characters were.

But! TRIGGER WARNING: Mentions of rape, sexual assault and suicide

There are so many things about 13 Reasons Why that bother me.

Hannah Baker and all her tapes is something that I have been having an extremely hard time getting on board with primarily because her problems aside, I thought the crux of the series was her classmate Jessica, and the fact that she had been raped. First of all, Hannah makes what is, in essence, her choice (to end her life) to be about everyone but herself (and even though she takes responsibility at a later point, her tapes say otherwise). She makes 12 hours of tapes describing what each of her classmates had done to her. If she actually thought of what happened to Jessica as being relevant in any way, she would have talked about it in the first place rather than having 90% of her monologue being about how these people ruined her life, with a mention of Jessica's ordeal only at episode 9 (also the entire description references her and classmate Justin and their shared experience of essentially being bystanders rather than Jessica and the rape itself). If Hannah had any regard for Jessica and what happened to her, a tape describing the night's events sent to the authorities would have sufficed.

Another aspect of the tapes that I cannot get on board with is everyone's silence, including mysterious classmate Tony's. Tony's complacency, except when it comes to getting the tapes to the next person on Hannah's list, completely blows my mind. I do not understand why, if he or even Clay, had any sense of wanting justice for Jessica, Hannah or even classmate Jeff, they would remain silent with Tony just facilitating Hannah's vindictive schemes (vindictive rightfully so when taken without the rape context).

Also, having had some experience vis-á-vis suicide, I think a person tends to be more preoccupied with self-blame, self-hatred and wanting to be less of a burden to others, rather than wanting others to feel shame and guilt. When you see a problem as being external, you would distance yourself from the source (change schools, for instance). But when you see a problem as being internal, that's when you would distance yourself from the source in a more final way (suicide). I don't mean to presume others' reasons for suicidal ideation, but the likelihood of wanting to relive harrowing experiences by recording 12-hour-long tapes is rather low.

For a show that's supposed to be anti-suicide, they didn't seem to mind showing a bunch of trigger-heavy scenes of Hannah lying in a pool of her own blood, or standing in the middle of the basket ball court with slashed wrists. Those scenes were completely unnecessary, especially since they weren't even shown in a factual context but rather as part of Clay's trauma from having to listen to all of Hannah's tapes. (Also, they apparently show her actually killing herself, and it is graphic so watch with care.)

Since the is a story with writers who had other options, the fact that all of the aspects of the show I've mentioned were actually included make me think that the point is less about dealing with suicide or rape and more about drama and scheming.

The fact that this show is getting a second season leads me to believe that the focus was never about sending out suicide prevention messages, or anti-rape messages, but about exploiting these terrible realities for drama and entertainment, and that is honestly disgusting and inexcusable. They have not resolved anything (as far as I watched), there's no mention of justice where Hannah's and Jessica's abusers are concerned since not a single adult knows about what happened, and the guilt is eating everyone up inside to the point that they are considering suicide (which is what the show is purportedly trying to be against). So why? Why have a second season other than to exploit these themes?

I really don't think I'm going to finish it. All this show did, honestly, was dredge up a lot of stuff that I have worked hard to make my peace with.

I can't believe I wasted ten hours of my life on a show that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Usually when producers and writers want to pass bullshit off as plausible, they try to dress it up and not let the gaping plot holes look so gaping. But this was just ridiculous. Also, this show does not fall under the sci-fi category. It falls under the teen angst category.

It's about a kid named Holden who goes into a coma at the age of 13 and then wakes up 12 years later with powers (something novel? Nope, just telekinesis). Defying human psychology, this should-be man- child is not a man-child but a man in the sense that he is apparently capable to functioning like a 25 year old and not Tom Hanks in Big. BUT, he does not have any experience with girls. BUT BUT, he regains his memories and it turns out that he does have experience with girls because he's spent the last 12 years in another dimension so cleverly called The Realm. Do they provide exposition about this Realm? Noooo, they basically only focus on his sexytimes with this Willa girl. Then *gasp* there's another girl that comes into the picture and then there's the critical question of omg who will he chose?

Where's the sci-fi, you ask? I've been asking myself the same question for the last ten hours.

I also felt like this whole thing was very Twilight in that Holden and his brother are away from home, being involved in weird nonsense, but their parents don't care..? To check up on them..? ...Ever?

Anyway, if you're thinking about watching this, please don't...? Save yourself some misery, and just watch Family Feud or something. Anything. That isn't this. (I can't believe it's been renewed for a second season.)