Drama and strong messages spread across 13 Reasons
Liberty High School is shaken by Hannah Baker's suicide. Clay Jensen is already having a hard time coming to terms with it when he receives 13 neatly stacked cassette tapes in a shoe box, on his doorstep. As he begins to listen to the first one, it becomes evident that the tapes are from Hannah - a suicide note of sorts, explaining in details the 13 main reasons she took her own life.
It's difficult for Clay to just listen and the series writers make sure it's almost just as difficult for viewers to watch. Without picking out spoilers, the journey of someone being pushed to feel worthless, alone and helpless isn't meant to be a comfortable one. It's supposed to be difficult, terrible and unfair and all of that is portrayed in a very honest light in this Netflix series.
It's interesting to hear "Hannah's truth" from the tapes, and also get a glimpse of how other characters claim things had happened. This gives rise to one of many realisations—what we may be doing as a joke can have entirely different and unintended effects on others, and there is always more than one side to each story.
Unlike the book, the show doesn't mainly focus on the tapes only, but also on the present – in the lives of the students who could "lose everything," with the school authority now that their role in helping Hannah is brought under scrutiny, and in the parents' lives – whether it's the Bakers, broken and blaming themselves, or Clay's parents, trying to figure out what is going on with their son.
You'll be tempted to closely watch every second of the 50-60 minute long episodes because there is so much going on. It's fast-paced and I assure you there are no filler episodes. The soundtrack is powerful, especially the opening music with its eerie mysterious tone.
Some have criticised the series for blowing things out of proportion, but when a person is struggling, the little things do matter. Each episode may not make sense on its own, but as you progress through the show, things get darker and it makes more sense as a whole. People (other characters and actual viewers) have accused Hannah of being overly dramatic. Yes, she was a dramatic person, but everyone has flaws. The series does a decent job of putting forth well formed characters – they're not perfect, and most of them know this, and we watch them change throughout the course of 13 episodes.
13 Reasons Why doesn't just tell Hannah's story, it gives us multiple raw looks into the lives of others – people hurting because they did things or didn't do things. It touches on friendship, trust, relationship with parents, sexual assault, accountability and more. It does all this and still manages to give a potent and central message – that people around us may be hurting, trying to reach out, but we miss the signs and push them away further. With a little effort in the right direction, we could help save a life. I just wish the show had done a bit more to include awareness about mental health issues and active suicide prevention.
Selamat Datang fears she is becoming a crazy cat lady and uses writing as a means to grasp on to sanity. Send her your views/hate/love at fb.com/salma.ali209
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