Review 13 Reasons Why (2017)

Janine The Barefoot

Wacky Norwegian Woman
13 Reasons is one of the very few "must sees" I'd put on a list if I had one.

Like Clay, I didn't go through the entire series in one sitting although that is now on my list of things to do as, having finished it, it deserves the "binge".

I spent a lot of my teenage years "being" Hannah to one degree or another and much of my years teaching in the classroom watching the fallout of behavior that has only seemed to escalate with time. I have empathy for virtually every character in the show (with some obvious exceptions) and am horrified by the loss of one character in particular that I was hoping would be around for what will clearly be a season 2 for this outstanding depiction of how real, terrifying and horrific the whole experience of HS can be.... and often is.

I am frustrated and angered by the comments that the show has "glorified" suicide (it does not) and by those who seem to think that what is "real" should never be shown, much less talked about with teenagers as it just adds fuel to the fire... To which I reply BS! It's the adult need to deny and avoid what seems unpleasant to them in the misguided hope that if we don't talk about it it's not going to happen....

Teenage pregnancy anyone?!

13 Reasons is a show I want to talk about and one I will continue to talk about until there is nothing left to say on the subject.... Which hopefully, will be never. I will be back to do more talking about it to prove my point. Unfortunately, I'm a primary caregiver to someone I love dearly and right now, that's a job I have to get back to.

Thanks for posting the thread guys and TSIM..... thanks for steering me in that direction. It's one of the most meaningful shows I've seen on TV in a very long time. The truth is out there and it's good to know that once in a while, it ends up on the screen for everyone to see.

:emoji_bow: :emoji_fingers_crossed: :emoji_head_bandage: :emoji_kiss: ~ me
 

TheSowIsMine

What an excellent day for an exorcism
VIP
I must say, this show hit me hard. I suffer from a panic/anxiety disorder with depression, so I know what it is to feel really lost sometimes. And the fact that you know that the story end with a suicide, sometimes made it uncomfortable to watch, Because with every new episode, you just know something bad is going to happen to Hannah again. I think its a good thing they showed it full on, no glossing over it. Thats why I don't get the glorified suicide comments.
I also liked that they made the other characters real people. Its so easy to make them 2D characters that are easy to hate. They all had their stories and histories.
 

Janine The Barefoot

Wacky Norwegian Woman
I've fought depression most of my life (although I've been trained since childhood to hide it behind Oscar- worthy performances) but I confess I only started battling full-on anxiety attacks since last Fall and after a lifetime with a dysfunctional family and therapy in both group and individual formats to round-out the toolbox labelled "Janine's Home-Repair" I am finally coming to a place of some kind of peace and functionality... but oddly enough, it was because I knew how it would end up and because I knew that shitty things were going to keep on happening to Hannah that I was able to keep watching.

I know it sounds back-assward but for me, forewarned was forearmed. Plus, as I mentioned, I have a lot of experience with being labelled by untruths and then having to decide to live up or down to them... or finally, in my case, to live pretty much alone and friendless with them instead (but I was lucky, my Mom took a year off of work to stay at home and be "my friend" so I wouldn't notice that the phone never rang on the week-ends and she always had something planned for us to do to keep me distracted from the fact I had no friends). So none of this was "new" to me. I also found that "re-living" it was much easier than actually living through it the first time round; so time itself helped me to pack some of the more difficult emotions in cotton which in turn served to dampen some of the immediacy of the pain....

Although, oddly enough... I never managed to find what I saw then as the "courage" to end it all and I certainly would never have had the fortitude to make the tapes because I was always too busy trying to figure out why everyone hated me, or blaming myself for it, to have been able to generate any kind of timeline that made sense as to the hows and whys of it all much less follow that by taping myself having actual conversations with those people, one by one, knowing that it would end in my death... Hannah's level of self-awareness and her emotional courage in being able to face what she discovered will never cease to amaze me (if I leave out the way she ultimately ended it) but does serve to prove the truth of what I have always said about HS kids these days... They are smarter than we were. They are more aware than we were; even when that awareness appears to be wrapped in self-absorption and petty behavior... they are still more knowledgable than we were in many ways. That degree of cruelty in hand with some of that degree of awareness is more than a little astonishing in and of itself. It is also one of the reasons I am so fervent an advocate of telling them the truth about everything ! Because, as I opened with, forewarned is forearmed and these kids live with vicious and voracious bullying almost every single day, done to a degree that teachers and administrators simply cannot hope to help them with unless we teach them how to use us as resources... which means admitting there's a real and deadly problem in the first place.

Having faced the very real idea of suicide myself and then much later having one of my best friends actually kill himself for ever and for real has given me a rather unique perspective on the subject and one that I'm not sure I'm prepared to go into right at this moment....

Plus, I have other things to do and be responsible for at this point so my time is no longer my own..... more later
 

duzit

Member: Rank 6
I haven't watched this yet but it's on my to watch list. It is getting some really bad feedback from a number of schools around my area. Even the local news people interviewed some students and people on the street. The reviews were mixed, one student said she didn't watch much of it because it scared her and yet another thought it was good and that this issue needs to be brought into the light and to be discussed with teens. I agree that this subject does need to be discussed. Parents, teachers, mentors all need to get some kind of training to be able to identify those that are having problems dealing with their day to day living.
 

Janine The Barefoot

Wacky Norwegian Woman
I agree that this subject does need to be discussed.
Take the time to watch it duz. It's a show worth seeing for a wide variety of reasons not the least of which is how well it's put together, how well it was cast and how real it feels.

Then we can exchange thoughts on it.... and I agree with yours by the way. I think kids might be scared of it, in part, because of how real it is and how close to home it hits in so many ways.

:emoji_kiss: :emoji_face_palm:
 

TheSowIsMine

What an excellent day for an exorcism
VIP
A totally different thing, but I thought it was awesome Gregg Araki directed two episodes. If one guy knows how to portray teen angst it's him. Only he usually does it in an unconventional way. And because of that I think he was a perfect choice for the episode where dreams and reality collide.
 

duzit

Member: Rank 6
Well, I binged on it a few days ago and have been holding off commenting because I had to take a break and let my emotions calm down. During the entire series my nerves were raw, I found the whole story intense and both thought provoking. I felt as if my entire nervous system had been laid bare.
I have many different thoughts so I may ramble.

First of all I thought the entire cast gave great performances. The two that really come to the front of the class are: Dylan Minnette/Clay Jensen, he was in almost every screen and was convincing as the confused, socially inept teenager & Kate Walsh/Olivia Baker, as Hannah's mother, you could feel all the hurt, anger and a million more emotions one must feel in such circumstances. Through Kates' performance you could FEEL all of her pain.
I have no parenting experience to draw on and therefore cannot applaud or criticize the parenting portrayed in the series. Although, quite a few did appear to either be totally missing or overbearing in their children's lives.

As far as being bullied, either physically or cyberlly, I know such things occur. A few years back, there was a very similar thing happen at a local high school. A girl committed suicide, stating being bullied. The parents sued, but the whole outcome was kept quiet.

As I am now a senior citizen I can say that when I was in school, this issue was not as prevalent. Although, there were still the "in" crowds. There were girlfriend "cliques". If you did not fall into one of these you were diffinately "out". You were the part of the your class that went from classroom to classroom by yourself, walking along the edge of the hall as to not be in anyone's way. When your school day was over, you were glad to go home.
Today's kids have the social media layer added to deal with, peer pressure, trying to qualify for college and the issue of drugs. All this added stress to their young lives can have a negative affect on them. This is what I think part of the show was about.

I could go on, but I'm going to wrap it up, I had no idea how long this is, I apologize for that.

This is a really interesting blurb I found online, @Janine The Barefoot, this you will appreciate:
https://goodmenproject.com/health/13-reasons-why-missed-opp-mkdn/

and there are a lot of other opinions on the series at:
https://moviechat.org/movies/tt1837492
 

Janine The Barefoot

Wacky Norwegian Woman
This is a really interesting blurb I found online
You're right, it is. But before I comment on it I want some time to let it digest and then collect my thoughts on the article so I can address it in the manner it deserves. Off the top of my head however, I can say that I have seen exactly the behavior that teacher so vehemently denies taking place in classrooms all over the place. There are teachers and councilors all over the place living day to day on established lesson plans with their eyes wide shut. There is no profession on Earth in which everyone cares and everyone gets it right and to imply otherwise is to say that teachers are beyond fault and beyond blame and I can say that because I've been one and I know.

Bullying in every form exists because teachers are either overworked and can't keep up or have their eyes closed and don't want to deal. Along with a myriad of other reasons as complex as the kids themselves who are involved on either end. So as I see it, "passing the buck" of responsibility is just another example of why the problem is escalating and why the kids feel so abandoned. Anyone who won't admit that we all share in the responsibility is selling themselves and us and bill of goods with no product to exchange.

But thanks for the link Duz. I'll do more thinking on it and get back on this again soon.

:emoji_kiss::emoji_dancer:
 

duzit

Member: Rank 6
OMG, it's on Dr. Phil today. The show is about the suicide of an 11 year old boy that hanged himself due to a cyber threat. This issue has really come to the forefront because of the series.
 

chainsaw_metal1

Member: Rank 8
I had no intention of watching this, but after reading an article on Yahoo, I just may binge it. The author tells of her two teenage kids (about the same age as mine) who disobeyed her and watched it. She then watched it through, and gave the stock answers about how it glorified suicide (hmmm...sounds like a song title...may have to make a note of that) and how it only gave one side of the story. She hoped that the now greenlit sequel would show an alternative to suicide, and give different portrayals of people, like how she made a point of talking about how the show portrays the guidance counselor as worthless (I have yet to meet one who wasn't). From what I have heard about the book and show is that glorifying the act is far from true, but the journey her friend goes through to find out why this happened.

As someone who dealt/deals with depression (not diagnosed, only because, like @Janine The Barefoot I got good at hiding it) and contemplated suicide on several occasions, I feel for the girl in the story who thought that this was her only way out. It's not glorification or exploitation, but showing something that, unfortunately, happens in real life.
 

Janine The Barefoot

Wacky Norwegian Woman
The author tells of her two teenage kids (about the same age as mine) who disobeyed her and watched it. She then watched it through, and gave the stock answers about how it glorified suicide and how it only gave one side of the story.
Because how/why???? The parents of the kids weren't even there for it? They didn't have feelings too? Or were they not involved "enough".... like the cop who thought he knew his son was "a good kid" or Clay's Mom who made room for "family breakfast" because family dinner just wasn't getting them together enough? Or Kate Walsh's heartrending performance of a Mother who loved her daughter to pieces and simply couldn't wrap her head around how this could have happened without her knowing it.... Oh, of course, it had to be school bullying because her daughter would never have kept anything like that to herself otherwise.....

I am sick to death of watching parents with their heads in the sand..... again... teenage pregnancy anyone???? As if by not teaching about these things and not talking about them they are never going to happen. Get over yourselves! You can't make it not be true by wishing or by hiding the truth. You're just going to alienate the kids even more while you try to get the bloody sand out of your eyes and they go on to having sex, getting pregnant, bloody killing themselves, or being the actual and cyber bullies who contribute to the reasons these kids see no other way out.

And although that was the wrong guidance councilor in the wrong school (did anybody catch that he came from a school where the kids pulled guns and knives on each other and it didn't just stop at a punch or two), he was completely out of his element and had no skill-set whatsoever for dealing with what was in front of him. Does that make it right? Of course not?! It just means you can't lay the burden all on his shoulders! Which is what everyone who is ranting and raving about how bad this show is is proving! Everybody has to get their hands in and be willing to get them dirty! We are all responsible for allowing it to grow to these proportions and we are all responsible for getting it back under control. And until the people who keep looking for someone else to blame realize that we are those people, and start accepting some responsibility for it, it's just going to continue until we're all singing "Where have all the children gone?..... long time passing......" And that is a thought too bloody depressing to contemplate.

:emoji_kiss:
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
Netflix Renews “13 Reasons Why” Series


Despite the minor controversies raging over its subject matter of teen suicide and how the series deal with the topic, Netflix has given a second season order to “13 Reasons Why” based on the young adult novel.

The story centers on the aftermath of Liberty High School student Hannah’s (Katherine Langford) suicide, in which several of her friends and classmates receive tapes explaining their part in her decision to take her life.

The series, which has been a hit, is also replacing original showrunner Diana Son with Tony and Pulitzer winner Brian Yorkey (” Next to Normal”). Yorkey served as a creator, producer, and writer on every episode in the first season.

No release date is yet set for the new season.
 

Janine The Barefoot

Wacky Norwegian Woman
No release date is yet set for the new season.
Thank you so much Doc! This thread evolved out of a little "moment" of chatter between TSIM and I and the fact that you would even notice it's here and then do your customary "thing" with it feels like: a personal gift, an electronic bouquet of flowers, a box of exotic chocolates, a first edition Agatha Christie, a competition winning bottle of champagne, the perfect bowl of lobster bisque on a chilly day and a New York steak to go with it. You good Sir, are simply The Bomb!

:emoji_kiss::emoji_dancer: And your very own line-up of dancing bunnies :emoji_dancers::emoji_dancers::emoji_dancers::emoji_dancers::emoji_dancers::emoji_dancers::emoji_dancers::emoji_dancers::emoji_dancers::emoji_dancers::emoji_dancers::emoji_dancers::emoji_dancers::emoji_dancers::emoji_dancers::emoji_dancers::emoji_dancers::emoji_dancers:
 

TheSowIsMine

What an excellent day for an exorcism
VIP
I wished it would have stayed 1 season.
But thats the way it is, when something is successful, they are going to milk it out.
Im still going to watch it of course :emoji_relaxed:
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
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13 Reasons Why
(stylized onscreen as Th1rteen R3asons Why) is an American mystery teen drama web television series based on the 2007 novel Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher and adapted by Brian Yorkey for Netflix. The series revolves around a high school student, Clay Jensen, and his friend Hannah Baker, a girl who committed suicide after suffering a series of demoralizing circumstances brought on by select individuals at her school. A box of cassette tapes recorded by Hannah before her suicide details thirteen reasons why she ended her life.

Yorkey and Diana Son serve as showrunners on the series. The first season consists of thirteen episodes.[2] The series is produced by July Moon Productions, Kicked to the Curb Productions, Anonymous Content and Paramount Television. Originally conceived as a film set to be released by Universal Pictures with Selena Gomez in the role of Hannah Baker, the adaptation was picked up as a television series by Netflix in late 2015. Gomez serves as an executive producer. The first season, and the special 13 Reasons Why: Beyond the Reasons, were released worldwide on Netflix on March 31, 2017.

The series has received largely positive reviews from critics and audiences, who have praised its subject matter and casting, particularly the two leads, Dylan Minnette and Katherine Langford. It has attracted controversy from some, including mental health professionals, over the series' graphic depiction of issues such as suicide and rape, along with other mature content. In May 2017, it was announced that the series had been renewed for a second season, scheduled to premiere in 2018


Premise

Teenager Clay Jensen returns home from school one day to find a mysterious box lying on his porch. Inside, he discovers seven double-sided cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker, his classmate and unrequited love, who tragically committed suicide two weeks earlier. On tape, Hannah unfolds an emotional audio diary, detailing the thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Her instructions are clear: each person who receives the package is one of the reasons why she killed herself. After each person finishes listening to the tapes, they must pass the package on to the next person. If anyone breaks the chain, a separate set of tapes will be released to the public. Each tape is addressed to a select person in her school, and details their involvement in her eventual suicide.

Cast and characters

Main
Recurring[edit]
 
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