When I first watched this Netflix series, I have to admit I found the premise extremely intriguing and watched the entire series from start to finish in two days. Aside from feeling somewhat depressed following the final episode, I initially was impressed with the efforts the production team had gone to in making this series a highly compelling viewing experience for the viewer. Some of the acting was excellent and the soundtrack was a perfect blend between the 80's and contemporary music and it is for this reason and this reason alone that I am awarding it two stars.
On further reflection however, I am left feeling disgusted with the message 13 Reasons appears to deliver, ostensibly, if life throws you lemons; kill yourself; leave tapes apportioning blame to everyone but yourself; fail to leave any message for your parents (i.e. the two people who love you most) and then as a result of your suicide cause the attempted suicide of another one of your classmates and encourage bullying and finger pointing to young teenagers, some of whom, from what I could gauge, whose only crime was to put you on a list in which you were complimented.
And here lies my overwhelming issue with the series, namely, Hannah's character. Hannah is an extremely unlikable narcissistic little madam who ostensibly has everything going for her. I fail to see any evidence of depression and her whole attitude demands for the world to revolve around her. Not just content with taking her own life, she was determined to ruin the lives of others as well. The most egregious action however was her witnessing her friend's rape and saying nothing yet having the audacity to blame Justin for allowing such an act to happen. Moreover, Justin, it could be argued had more reason to stand by and do nothing than Hannah did since he felt beholden to Bryce owing to his extremely rough home life and Bryce's willingness to help him. Conversely there can be no justification whatsoever for Hannah not only standing by and doing nothing but a mere week later visiting Bryce's home, thus placing herself in a compromising and dangerous position and then being raped as a result. Further why did she fail to approach Jessica and advise her as to what she had witnessed thus giving Jessica the opportunity to deal with it and take such action she saw fit but no Hannah's approach was to kill herself, record tapes which is essentially one long woe is me monologue and then after having blamed Jess for not being her friend anymore, then decides to mention what she witnessed. Further, Hannah doesn't mention the incident with a view to eliciting sympathy for Jess but solely for the purpose of demonstrating how it was one of many things which led to her suicide.
In short Hannah disgusted me and therefore when the episode in which she finally commits suicide arrived, I was left feeling cheated. The character of Clay is wholly implausible frankly and his undulated admiration and subsequent avenging of Hannah's death just didn't ring true for me. The fact remains that Hannah also included Clay into her cruel mind games and instead of making it clear from the outset that he had no business being on those tapes, he is lead to believe that his actions was more egregious than everyone else's put together. Clearly the inclusion of Clay's storyline was a plot device to keep you the viewer engaged to the end, in order to see what this harmless adorable little geek could have done which would outweigh the act of rape for example, but in actual fact he did nothing, was kind to Hannah and left the room when she requested him to, yet somehow Tony and all of Clay's predecessors on the tape would have you believe that he was Satan incarnate.
Finally Tony aside from Hannah is quite possibly the worst character I have ever seen on screen. He purports to act like Hannah's avenger when throughout 13 hours of sitting through this rubbish; we witness maybe two exchanges between them in her lifetime. Tony isn't even mentioned on the tapes. Further his presence only serves to irritate, he acts like some kind of all knowing Buddha when in actual fact he is guilty of leading Clay up the garden path to believe he had done something which accounts for Hannah's death knowing all the while that he didn't belong on the tapes in the first place. Why did Tony in his infinite wisdom not think to mention this at the outset. Worse still, he tells Clay that he killed Hannah in a moment which nearly resulted in Clay throwing himself off a mountain edge. For a series which purportedly is seeking to improve how we treat others, it has an awful lot to say about mistreating them in the process.
Lastly, Hannah's decision to take her life was hers alone. In life we will meet people and experience things which may lead us to the end of our tether but ultimately how we choose to react is our choice alone and no one but us can ever be held truly accountable. The central message of 13 reasons why appears to be that everyone but Hannah was to blame for her death and this is not only irresponsible but dangerous. Hannah was no saint but by ending her life in the way that she did, she was sanctified, made important and listened to and such a message to impressionable young adults who may be suffering from depression could lead us down a very slippery slope indeed.
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