My Thoughts On '13 Reasons Why'
Hello!
Unless you've been living under a rock, you've probably heard many discussions surrounding the Netflix series '13 Reasons Why'. If you're not aware, the series centres around the suicide of Hannah Baker and aims to untangle the 13 reasons (recorded by Hannah on 13 cassette tapes) why she took her own life. At the same time, the story follows the struggles of her classmates involving bullying, sexual violence, and confusion surrounding their sexuality. The writers of the show have stated that their aim was to shed light on tough real-life issues surrounding mental health, bullying, and sexual assault. So, as I suffer from a mental illness myself and run a blog on mental health, I have decided to take it upon myself to write a review.
Like everything, I thought '13 Reasons Why' had both good and bad points. However, I will say now that the bad outweigh the good and that if you are struggling in any way, do not watch this.
Things '13 Reasons Why' Did Well:
I'll talk later about the way the show seemed to favour the idea that someone is to blame for suicide and honestly, for the majority of the show, that was their stance. Towards the end of season 2 however, there appeared to be a glimmer of hope. The characters began to speak about the reasons 'Why Not' as there are often countless reasons to stay alive. I must give them credit for that as it is an important message. It is true that suicide does not end pain, but passes it on.
There were also some lovely moments of friendship throughout. I felt that the relationships between Hannah and Clay, Hannah and Zach, and Alex and Jessica were particularly touching and added a nice lift to the general doom and gloom going on around them. I also appreciated the adoption of Justin Foley towards the end of season 2. I just hope they don't ruin it for the sake of it in season 3 (quite likely.) To be honest, if they had used the camaraderie between the teenagers more they may have done a better job at highlighting their issues of interest. Unfortunately, the lows of the series were far too extreme for this to work effectively.
For me, the main storyline that had the potential to work well happened early on in series 2 following the character of Skye. In series 1, Skye had been portrayed by her peers as "fucked up"; a girl who cut her arms for attention because she was messed up in the brain. Series 2 began with Clay and Skye attempting to have a romantic relationship where Clay would try to help her with her self harming situation by practicing mindfulness and meditation. As someone who has had problems with self harm in the past, I thought the portrayal of Skye struggling to stop self harming alongside Clay struggling to understand why he couldn't fix her was an incredibly accurate and moving representation of life with a mental illness. By episode 3/4, Skye has seriously injured herself and is diagnosed with bipolar disorder. She is then moved to a psychiatric hospital with a focus on getting herself well again. This was a promising start as it looked like Skye could be used as a parallel character to Hannah Baker to show how life can be once you get help. Unfortunately, Skye disappeared off the scene before the series was even halfway through and her recovery story sort of fizzled out.
Things '13 Reasons Why' Did Badly:
Firstly, lets talk about the main focus: The Hannah Baker suicide. For me, it felt like there was a real blame-game going on surrounding her death. I understand that the cassette tapes were made by Hannah to explain to the people who had upset her what they had done. This was a nasty move from her but by this point, we are surely to assume that Hannah was not in a stable or rational frame of mind by the time she recorded them. Perhaps she just wanted someone else to feel the level of pain she was feeling. Unfortunately, this kind of analysis did not come in play as the tapes spiralled into a vicious battle between parents and students alike about whose fault it was that Hannah had died. In my mind, this is a damaging view. Suicide is generally a response to mental or physical pain that has been bottled up for too long. Yes, there was a culture of sexual harassment and bullying at that high school, that was made very clear but every student in that school was surrounded by that environment. Hannah clearly had severe self esteem issues alongside all of that. She endured a brutal rape which from my understanding further confirmed her low opinions of herself whilst adding terrible trauma. I think it was a very dangerous route to take to act as though suicide is the fault of one individual more than others and with young viewers watching, a highly irresponsible one.
On the same subject, I also want to talk about Hannah Baker's actual suicide scene. This scene was a terrible error of judgement. The script writers explained that they wanted the viewer to be shocked by what they saw and to understand the true nature of teen suicide. I'm sorry but this was not just a shocking scene designed to make the viewer think but a step by step, visual tutorial on how to successfully end one's own life going against all recommendations. I thought it was highly irresponsible as it could have easily provoked someone suffering from suicidal thoughts to follow what they had seen. If they really wanted to be hard hitting, a better way of portraying Hannah's death would have been to show her holding the razorblade over her arm then cut to her mum finding her. That would have shown the true horror of suicide without risking the wellbeing of vulnerable viewers.
Series two was too extreme to be effective in my opinion. It almost felt like the scriptwriters had done a parade of the most horrendous things they could think of to happen to a single group of teenagers, one after the other. I must admit that I may have a different view as a British viewer. It may be that American high schools are perhaps more physically violent than British high schools but it got to the point where it felt like these kids were entering a war zone everyday and this just didn't feel all that plausible. But, I accept that I may be wrong about that.
Series 2 also felt like the scriptwriters had sort of lost the plot on their actual aims. They said it was about teen suicide and bullying but for me, it really felt like it was more about rape. In series one, we see Bryce Walker raping both Jessica Davies and Hannah Baker but in series two, we learn that Bryce has raped any number of girls, including his girlfriend Chloe. Series two looks at a legal trial between Hannah Baker's parents and the school however, that seems to be lost in the storyline of the teenagers trying to get Walker sent down for rape. So, I've got to ask. Is this about Hannah? Or is it about Bryce Walker? Is it about suicide? Or rape? To be honest, they were trying so hard to fit all of these issues in that the storyline was a mess. And more to the point, I didn't see it getting anywhere with raising awareness of mental illness.
Another thing I want to mention is the parents. I mean, come on, that has got to be the blindest group of parents I have ever seen portrayed on screen. There are countless beatings in this show and certain kids are coming home absolutely black and blue and their parents just roll with it? I don't buy it. From my experience, parents know everything. They just might not let on that they do. For a load of parents to just not question anything is frankly ridiculous.
Now, '13 Reasons Why' has received an enormous amount of backlash for the graphic rape of the character of Tyler in the season 2 finale. The above image shows the approximate time of that scene should you wish to avoid it completely. It's two minutes long at around the 40 minute mark. I'm going to add to the backlash now.
This scene angered me for many reasons, not just because raping Tyler was such a horrific thing to do but because it just was not necessary to the overall plot. Plus, there were certain things that just weren't done properly.
Before being sexually assaulted, Tyler suffered at least 5 hard blows to the head on both glass and ceramic. That kind of trauma should really have left him either unconscious, or with extremely severe concussion. When Tyler is shown later that day, he seems strangely steady and is able to pretend that everything is normal to his mother. The attack was sickeningly violent and there is absolutely no way that he would have displayed no signs of physical trauma, especially as he was still bleeding heavily from the affected area hours after the attack took place, having potentially suffered some kind of internal rupture that would need urgent medical attention.
Also, once the attackers have left, Tyler is left slumped on the floor with his underwear pulled down in a severe amount of pain. Given the amount of physical trauma he has just endured, there is no plausible possibility that he would have been able to get up quickly therefore, with Liberty High being such a busy school, it seems odd that no-one would have found him or noted an absence in a class. However, I do understand that there is a certain amount of dramatic license being used here.
Moving onto his attacker. Tyler is assaulted by Monty, a boy on the baseball team that has earlier been found guilty of vandalising the property of his fellow students, and threatening them should they speak in court. Monty has also been shown to be at the forefront of many of the beatings happening around the school and seems, in my mind, to have some hefty psychological issues. Anyway, throughout the series, when Monty isn't threatening people, his preferred method of delivering "justice" so far has been disturbingly violent beatings. Sexual assault, especially on a male victim seems to be out of character, even for someone as violent as himself. Also, are we really meant to believe that Monty would just leave a bloodied broom handle lying around in a student bathroom and that no-one would question it?
It seemed to me that this brutal attack on Tyler was used as an open door for series 3. It wasn't designed to raise awareness, it seemed to be the most shocking end to the series that the writers could think of.
Personally, I found it extremely difficult to watch and thought, much like Hannah's suicide, that it was irresponsibly graphic and likely to be highly triggering to vulnerable audiences. Had the assault not been there, the show could have ended on a high with the story nicely rounded off. I really don't think they need to drag it out any further.
Final Thoughts:
To conclude, I think that '13 Reasons Why' certainly had the potential to shed light onto issues such as mental health, suicide, and bullying but I felt that the final execution was sloppy, sensationalist, and overly violent. Mental health is far more subtle than they let on and I don't think it was helpful. In the end, people got more caught up in the sexual violence side of things rather than the actual issue of mental health. So all in all, I appreciate the show for trying, but it just didn't work this time.
Alternative things to watch instead:
Atypical - surrounding life with autism
To The Bone - Surrounding eating disorders
Edie - Achieving goals after being freed from an abusive relationship
Me Before You - Surrounding Euthanasia
Handsome Devil - Realising Sexuality
Gold - Pressure surrounding elite sport
What We Did On Our Holiday - Looking at death in a lighthearted way
The Lady In The Van - Caring
I hope some of you found this helpful. As always, feel free to like, share, or get in touch.
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx
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