EDITOR’S NOTE: This article discusses subject matter such as suicide and sexual assault – reader discretion advised
Netflix has produced a lot of shows of varying quality, from award-winning films to subpar teen comedies. Needless to say, one of the network’s most controversial is 13 Reasons Why.
Based on the young adult novel by Jay Asher, 13 Reasons Why follows the story of Hannah Baker, a high schooler who committed suicide and left 13 recorded tapes. In each tape, she names the events/people Hannah believed drove her to end her life. The show’s other protagonist is Hannah’s best friend Clay Jensen is the 10th person depicted in the struggles to listen to all the tapes wondering how he could have been responsible.
It is a show that has been heavily criticized for its graphic depictions of suicide, rape, and the failure of institutions to prevent such cases from happening. Upon its first season’s release, there were even accusations of it causing copycat suicides among teen girls. Furthermore, the show was criticized for romanticizing suicide giving the idea that Hannah’s suicide inspired some good. Given my often-conflicted feelings about life, it’s no wonder I’ve stayed away from this series given the controversy.
Because of this controversy, I have avoided 13RW for a long time. Teen dramas were never my thing, but the real reason was that I was going through a period of anxiety and was told this show sponsored copycat suicides. Don’t get me wrong, I was fascinated with this show, but I tend to avoid media that feels the need to throw preachy social commentary in your face – speaking from someone who looks through social media like a hawk. As someone who came in with no expectations, this was admittedly one of the more challenging shows for me to watch.
Viewing Impressions
The reason I started watching 13RW was that I was researching for another article about “what makes a badly written character?” (release date: someday), centered on one of the show’s antagonists. I’ve seen plenty of in-depth video essays about this show, as such I was spoiled about everything that was happening in each season. However, I don’t feel right ranting about a show I haven’t formally seen. After watching season 1, being told all this time it was a bad show, I have to admit, I had mixed feelings about It.
Presentation
I want to give shows credit where credit is due. Firstly everyone is acting their heart out in this show – no one gave a bad performance. In terms of cinematography, it is very well shot. I like the color palette changes to show the difference between the present day where it’s the present time has these cold blue colors while the time around when Hannah was alive has more vibrant color, no doubt invoking warm nostalgic feelings.
That said they could have gone even further with it. Perhaps the warmer colors start to become more and more faded as Hannah’s trauma continues to get more and more heavy the color palette becomes more and more desaturated as well. But instead, we just keep getting bright past, gloomy present, and that’s it. Often, they keep going back and forth with their look-and-feel within the same scene – even in the same room and this visual medium can get real jarring real fast.
As good as the cinematography is there were still parts that where it tries too hard to be artsy. There’s a scene where Hannah’s friend Jessica gets in a car with Bryce (the guy who raped her unconsciously in the previous episode) and the camera cuts to a close-up of their foreheads in a weird handheld shot with Bryce saying “Well you want …. To come to …… my place?”. I understand that close-ups shots are meant to give a sense of dread, especially with what transpired in the previous episode, but it looks more like they accidentally pressed the zoom bottom and the director just ran with it.
“Hey ….. you wanna come….. to my place?”
I’m 14 and this is “Deep”
Despite my appraisal of the acting, my problem is not so much the characters themselves as the writing given. Despite this first season being 13 episodes long, there’s little substance in terms of actual character development. Only Clay has any real arc of trying to listen to all the tapes and in the end putting Hannah’s death behind him (something that may be undone in the later seasons).
As for the other characters that were shown on Hannah’s tapes there is very little in terms of actual depth. Instead, most of them are the classic high school tropes such as the jocks, the cheerleaders, and the nerds. Except in this series, all the jocks are now psychopaths turned up to 11, and even the nice ones like Zach just turn on Hannah, calling her a slut on a flip of a dime. For a show that is trying to be realistic and grounded, its characters are way too simplified.
Another mishandled character – Tyler – is the school photographer who is supposed to be the weirdo who takes pictures to the point where he’s literally stalking Hannah and the other students – but the show never gives a real explanation as to why he does this. Later in the show, despite showing no homicidal traits, they are foreshadowing Tyler as a future school shooter. There’s no reason to make Tyler a school shooter, it feels like because this already bloated show feels it needs another checklist item for the “American High School Experience” (something later seasons pride themselves on shamelessly).
The same can be true for the show’s antagonist Bryce Walker. The show describes him as the rich jock who gets away with sexually assaulting several girls including Hannah. Season 1 doesn’t give any insight or motivation to what causes his acts.
Sidenote – Bryce was the reason I’ve wanted to write about, But not for the reasons I mentioned, but the direction his character goes later on. It’s about stuff that happens later in season 3 in the series that got my attention, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself.
And that’s perhaps the biggest problem with this first season: despite being given a large number of episodes and characters, they are given very little depth. If this was a movie I can understand having characters being simple for the sake of pacing. For a series especially if it’s 13 episodes long and a cast this large there needs to be a lot more focus on character building, instead all we focus on is Clay Listening to the taps (that takes forever) and flashback Hannah being shit on. The only other thing that’s recurring is the several previous kids who listened to Hannah’s tapes meeting like cartoon villains plotting to stop Clay from leaking the tapes.
Hannah herself, despite all that has happened, doesn’t fit the profile of a suicidal girl in real life. She does not attempt at all to talk to anyone about her problems and projects her blame on the people who wronged her. This wouldn’t be a problem except the show frames her as a martyr rather than an attention seeker who took her own life for selfish reasons. Furthermore, her attention to detail elaborating the last 2 years of her life culminates in a revenge plot that doesn’t fit the profile of a suicidal teenager. Many people who have taken their own lives just leave a note and that’s it. Many suicide victims don’t project onto others instead, many do so because they feel like a burden, that they feel the world would be better without them.
“But what about the children parents?”
Honestly, the most real parts for me this season are whenever we get to see the parents. Particularly Hanna Baker’s mother, who tries to cope with her loss along with seeking answers to their daughter’s death. Watching them debate about what to do next with regards to holding the school responsible by suing the school really sucks me in in a way the other characters’ story did not. They were the most “real” parts of this season – to the point where I wished it was more about the parents and their reactions to Hannah’s revelations.
Conclusion
I chose not to watch this series for a long time for the sake of my own health at the time. After watching this my reasons were well-founded. This season didn’t teach me to value life which is what this show’s intention was supposed to be. In the end, I’m glad I didn’t see it when it aired, I probably would have felt more worthless about my life.
Despite the backlash, it was a big hit to the point where 3 seasons were made – so it’s clear that there was an audience for it (or Netflix is full of s***). My opinion is that this whole show could have been a self-contained miniseries. It would be much more real keeping the ending open-ended, as much like real life you are never going to get concrete answers as to why things happen.
Despite my criticisms, I will give credit for going all out when it comes to showing its subject matter – to the point where they would show Hannah’s suicide by slicing her wrists in the bathtub for an extended reaction. This was a big change from the novel, as in the book Hannah overdoses. This scene was removed recently, as the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s guidance for media was not to depict the suicide itself. I would understand why this scene was cut; however, I believe it should’ve been kept for the purpose of artistic expression as this suicide is not something to be dignified or treated as heroic. I’m not going to defend or attack the intent behind this scene, but I always have a touch of respect for a property that goes all out with its depiction rather than dance around darker subjects like other shows.
As actress Kathryne Langford said in those PSA intros that accompany each season: this show is good for “starting a conversation”, but only after your period of mental duress has ended. I would not recommend someone who’s in serious mental decline to watch it. All those points said there are still 3 more seasons and I’ve been told that they’ve got progressively worse and worse.
Well, it’s up to this overly self-involved blogger to find out just how bad they’re going to get. Let’s push through the rest of this binge.
