Earlier this month, Netflix released a 13-episode mini-series based on Jay Asher’s book, 13 Reasons Why. While Asher’s book was written in 2007, when most of us were in middle school, as a college student it was interesting to watch the book be adapted to the small screen. Why is this interesting you may ask? Well that would be because a good portion of the show is narrated by Hannah Baker, a character who committed suicide prior to the shows start. Through 13 tapes that Hannah left for the people that played a role in her decision to commit suicide, we are given a glimpse of Hannah’s life and are shown how the consequences of the things we do (and don’t do) can affect people. Throughout the series we are given the chance to witness not only the effect of how Hannah’s treatment at her high school affected her, but also how Hannah’s suicide, and the tapes she left behind, affected others. Through her parents struggle to come to terms with their daughter’s death to the guilt that is seen in some of the recipients of the tapes, we are shown how suicide effects not only the person who committed the act, but everyone who surrounds them.
While there have been critiques that this mini-series pushes the blame of someone committing suicide on everyone around them; that Hannah’s tapes are essentially playing the blame game. This may seem the case at the surface level of the show, but the tapes are just a way of showing how Hannah felt at the time. In episode 7 (Zach’s tape) of the series, we find out that not everything Hannah thought happened was actually the case; it was just how she thought it happened. The idea of the series isn’t to push blame or even responsibility onto others, but to get people to pay attention. It wasn’t any one of the situations that Hannah recorded that led her to commit suicide, but all of them added together and combined with how ostracized she felt both at home and at school. As Hannah iterated, if one person would have taken the initiative and reached out to her and help her to feel less alone, then maybe she would have felt as though her life was worth living. While this may seem highly debatable to some, because depression is a deep rooted mental illness that is impossibly hard on the bearer, it is important to remember that it wasn’t just peers that Hannah had been counting on, she did seek help from faculty member at her school and was not given it. The signs that Hannah was suicidal were there, and no one noticed them until it was already too late. 13 Reasons Why is not attempting to play the blame game, but to get people to pay attention to those around them, and how we treat them; this way we might be able to avoid blaming ourselves, and even though we may not be able to save them, we may be able to help someone save themselves.
Overall, I think that Netflix did an adequate job of showing how Hannah stuggled with her depression, but they truly knocked it out of the park with the portrayals of how the people left behind (particularly the recipients of the tapes) were affected; which in my opinion is rarely addressed.While there is alwasy room for improvement. and judging by the sheer amount of critics that have been written over the paswt month, people definitely have ideas on that; it is my opinion that Netflix addressed the sensitive topics that make the framework for the show in a way that made people uncomfortable and go the conversations starting. Fact of the matter is, the show is about a teenage girl who committed suicide; it should make everyone uncomfortable. One of the issues brought up in the show is that the school begins to inform about signs that someone may be suicidal and suicide prevention AFTER Hannah killed herself, they weren’t talking about it before. These are issues we shoudl be aware of, and that we should be talking about; Netflix managed to do that over the course of 13 episodes. So no matter your critics on the show, I think they deserve more than a little credit for that.
For information about suicide prevention DU’s Health and Counseling Center has information on it HERE.